With a June 15 deadline, Polaris MEP, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership for Rhode Island, is in search of technological consultants and other professionals to support the state’s manufacturing economy. These experts will then be matched with companies in the state that best suit their expertise.
Christian Cowan, center director of Polaris MEP, spoke with Providence Business News about the effort.
PBN: The recruitment period for bringing professional consultants onboard to support Rhode Island manufacturers ends June 15. How has it been going so far?
COWAN: We have gotten far more interest than expected, and that is encouraging for the growing manufacturing community in Rhode Island. Our goal is to expose and provide more support services for small and medium manufacturers in Rhode Island. This mirrors our national mission and how other MEP centers operate across the country.
PBN: What kind of technology experts are needed, specifically?
COWAN: Our manufacturing community is diverse and has many different needs. Some of the recent requests have been around sales and marketing, enterprise resource planning system implementation, cybersecurity and physical security systems. We are looking to help every company solve their specific problems or connect them with services.
PBN: How did the need for these technology consultants come to the attention of your organization?
COWAN: Polaris MEP project managers are deployed at manufacturing companies every day of the week. They lead continuous improvement projects at those companies but also learn about other barriers [the companies] are facing.
Those interactions and learnings have been critical to providing Polaris MEP with the knowledge of industry needs and how to build a support structure to address them. Polaris MEP won’t address all the needs alone, and is the reason to build this strong partner network that is implemented in other states around the country.
PBN: Polaris MEP Program Manager Mary Johnson is quoted on your website as saying that growth acceleration is a big part of what’s needed in Rhode Island manufacturing. How so?
COWAN: Top-line growth is an important part of any business. That translates to product, technology and sales for a manufacturing company. We work with many companies that are looking to sell more product, break into new markets or use technology to improve their product. Projects that target these types of changes are often transformational for small manufacturing companies; we are looking to support that growth in any way possible.
PBN: What are the benefits to tech experts who sign on?
COWAN: We have a process for evaluating and approving the potential partners. Those partners will then be part of a process to be connected with companies that need their services and are a good fit for successful improvement projects.
Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributing writer.
