Manufacturing extension now focusing on growth

In choosing a new name, the former Rhode Island Manufacturing Extension Service looked to the North Star to project a sense of guidance and strategic direction for the state’s manufacturers.
Now called Polaris MEP, the organization formerly known as RIMES is evolving into a resource for companies looking to expand, innovate and find new markets, in addition to streamlining operations or training workers.
“We are helping manufacturers grow, instead of the more-limited focus of helping them to be more efficient with their existing services and processes,” said James K. Petell, executive director of the University of Rhode Island Research Foundation, which oversees Polaris. “Now the focus is on developing new products and new markets.”
One of 58 local programs across the country funded by the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology to help small manufacturers, RIMES’ recent evolution is tied to its new connection to the University of Rhode Island.
Formerly an independent nonprofit, RIMES drew the attention of URI President David M. Dooley, who had worked with the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center while an administrator at Montana State University.
When federal officials running the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program began pushing the local centers toward more innovation-focused missions, Dooley thought a relationship with URI similar to Montana’s could make it happen, Petell said.
In January 2013, URI first applied for Extension Partnership grants and over the summer RIMES was officially brought under the control of the URI Research Foundation, the school’s nonprofit affiliate for commercializing university research and encouraging faculty entrepreneurship. As it was as RIMES, Polaris remains based at the R.I. Commerce Corporation’s offices in the Valley section of Providence.
And, unlike some states that provide substantial state funding, Polaris remains funded almost entirely through federal grants and fees it collects from companies for its services.
But Petell said the new organization’s affiliation with the university gives it a wider range of tools to help companies expand.
“One example would be if you had a company looking for new growth areas, they could work with university students and faculty in the engineering or business school on development on ideas,” Petell said.
Beneficial relationships could also be forged from the university side, he said.
For example, a professor working on a startup that would eventually need a small manufacturer to supply parts could use Polaris’ knowledge of the local ecosystem to recommend the right fit.
The new Polaris structure also provides opportunities to coordinate student internships with manufacturers and work with the URI-based Business Engagement Center.
Petell said he anticipates Polaris will receive about the same direct funding it had as RIMES, but intends to grow the now five-employee organization by winning additional grants and expanding its fee-generating business services.
Those services include expertise in things like lean manufacturing, standards and legal compliance and facility design, to which Polaris will now emphasize its enterprise-growth consulting.
Eventually, Polaris will try to help companies grow through innovation entrepreneurs, two or three people with the ability to see business opportunities across markets that existing companies may not think of. “Sometimes a company making a specific product is so focused on that market segment that they don’t understand how useful it could be in a different industry,” Petell said.
Workforce training remains a central part of the Extension Service mission and Polaris is taking a lead role managing grants from the Governor’s Workforce Board in manufacturing.
Robot-manufacturer Yushin America in Cranston is one of the companies that have worked with RIMES and Human Resources Manager Karen Paolucci said their workforce-training efforts are increasingly vital to developing the next generation of factory workers.
“The problem we have in Rhode Island is all of our elderly population knows how to work in a machine shop, but young people didn’t get those classes,” Paolucci said.
Paolucci credited Polaris for pushing to help create the state’s first manufacturing-apprenticeship program, for CNC machinists, with Community College of Rhode Island. The program was approved in March.
Last year, RIMES helped analyze Yushin’s service department and recommended software upgrades that allow the company to prioritize and track incoming customer calls for the most efficient dispatch.
Previously RIMES had helped eliminate an extra step in the process of recording the work of hourly employees, creating significant time savings in human resources.
In 2013, Yushin recorded its best sales year in 25 years, Paolucci said, and added at least six new employees.
Because Yushin utilizes robotics technology from a parent company in Japan, she doesn’t know how much Polaris’ new innovation engineers could help the company, but welcomes the organization’s growth.
“They assist in almost every way you can imagine,” Paolucci said. •

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