MATADOR Law Enforcement Technologies Scales Up Operations with Arizona MEP
MATADOR Law Enforcement Technologies, headquartered in Prescott, Arizona, provides manual and remotely deployed non-lethal pursuit prevention and termination systems for law enforcement and the military.
The company is celebrating a recent five-year, $7.45 million firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to provide its NightHawk® Remote Spike System (RS). Developed by Engineering Science Analysis Corporation (ESACORP) under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, NightHawk RS is the first remotely deployed road spike strip, allowing operators to remain safely away from the roadway while immobilizing vehicles and stopping pursuits before they escalate.
Martin Martinez, president of ESACORP, oversaw development through Phase III and brought the product to full commercialization. MATADOR was established to manufacture the product, and after initially licensing sales and distribution to a third party, MATADOR recently assumed full responsibility for all NightHawk operations.
As part of this transition, MATADOR partnered with the Arizona Manufacturing Extension Partnership (Arizona MEP) to strengthen manufacturing, accounting, and marketing capabilities.
Refining Manufacturing Flow to Reduce Costs and Improve Quality
Arizona MEP led a process mapping initiative to analyze MATADOR’s existing manufacturing workflow, identify value-added activities, and design a more efficient future-state process capable of scaling with demand.
This work enabled MATADOR to break the build process into simplified, quality-controlled subassemblies and create build cells requiring minimal training while integrating into a complex final system. The improvements reduced cost, part count, and build time, standardized hardware, and helped stabilize the supply chain.
Building Accounting Processes to Control Inventory
While ESACORP used QuickBooks to manage accounting for engineering services and government contracts, MATADOR required new processes to support product manufacturing and sales, including inventory tracking, raw material costing, and customer billing.
Arizona MEP accounting experts trained staff on QuickBooks and helped establish appropriate accounting workflows. MATADOR also evaluated multiple inventory management systems and ultimately selected a dedicated platform to track components and finished goods.
Developing Marketing Messaging and Product Launch Strategy
Arizona MEP supported MATADOR in developing company and product messaging that clearly communicates the value of its innovative pursuit prevention technology.
Messaging emphasized performance, quality, and innovation, and included value propositions and benefit statements for additional products in MATADOR’s pipeline. Arizona MEP also created a marketing product launch plan to help MATADOR prioritize outreach to prospective government agencies.
“Arizona MEP played an indispensable role in this pivotal step, assisting MATADOR in establishing lean manufacturing practices, enhancing accounting processes, and refining marketing strategies to optimize our operational efficiency,” said Martinez.
“Arizona MEP continues to be a great partner to MATADOR,” Martinez added. “We rely on our client advisor to connect us with resources and advise us on next steps as we grow our ability to supply law enforcement, military, and other tactical units with technology that is safer, easier to deploy, and more reliable.”