It’s no coincidence that the names on Department of Defense contracts tend to be the same, over and over: Few companies have what it takes to successfully bid on military jobs, given the complexity of the specifications and the technology often required to read them.
But many military supplies are, in fact, basically the same as what civilians need – a screw is a screw, for example, even if the specs call it a “fastener.” And even if an item is specifically for defense use, it may still be made with conventional machines.
That’s the idea behind the New England Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative – to figure out just what small and mid-sized companies in the region could make for the military, directly or as subcontractors, and then help them seize those opportunities.
Started in November 2003, the program is run by a network of manufacturing extension partnerships, including, locally, R.I. Manufacturing Extension Services, and it has already enrolled about 4,800 companies in New England and 21 other states, with about 35 percent actively bidding, according to regional coordinator Larry Meadows.
The program keeps building new relationships to extend its reach, Meadows said, with partners now including the South Carolina Research Authority, for example.
“Our goal is to take this national,” Meadows said, “and without good collaboration, we’re not going to be able to.”
Signing up for the program is free and can be done online. Companies sign up with the Rhode Island Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), which works with government agencies and their top contractors to identify potential opportunities for local firms.
In addition, companies register in a New England-wide database called Supply Point, which inventories the technical capabilities and available capacity of small and medium enterprises, including details about operations, capacity and technical capabilities, and then matches suppliers with bidding opportunities offered by the government.
When a company comes up on Supply Point, Meadows said, a field operator typically will go out to visit the plant and look at its facilities, process controls, material safety data sheets, etc. to ensure that it would be a viable bidder.
“If they don’t have a good quality company… the chances of their being successful are very slim,” Meadows said. Profit margins for defense work are “a lot smaller” than in the commercial world, he said, so there’s no room for inefficiencies. If a company isn’t ready for prime time, it may be steered toward RIMES’s Lean Manufacturing or Six Sigma programs. “We try really hard not to lead them into false hopes,” he said.
The program favors companies that are particularly good fits for defense bids, Meadows said, and it focuses especially on firms in certain socio-economic groups that Congress has mandated must get a percentage of contracts: companies owned by service-disabled veterans, by women or Native Americans, as well as companies in historically underutilized zones.
For such prospects, the program has dramatically increased the bidding success rates, from 5 percent to 7 percent, to as high as the 50s, Meadows said. “And there’s no rocket science behind it,” he said. “It’s identifying what the companies’ capacities are and talking to the Department of Defense and making sure they both speak in the same language.”
The language issue can be quite literal – knowing a screw is a “fastener” or that the Army and the Navy have different names for items – or technological: translating defense spec drawings made with specialized software into downloadable PDF files.
For the last year, Meadows said, the program has also been helping small machine shops connect with “original equipment manufacturers” – the major military suppliers – who can also be tough to bid for without the right technology and know-how.
Some of the matches the program has made may seem unusual: a furniture company is now making targeting silhouettes, for example, and a pen maker is making shims (round washers) for the military with the same machine it uses to make one small pen part, Meadows said.
“It seems kind of silly, but prior to us, they were using this machine two hours a week,” he said. “Now they’re using it 30 to 35 hours a week and diversifying their revenue streams.”
The companies listed as “success stories” on the RIMES Web site run the gamut: VR Industries, a Warwick electronics maker whose clients also include the oceanographic and medical sectors; CAS America, an East Greenwich furniture maker; and Pilgrim Screw, a Providence firm serving the military and aerospace industries.
For companies whose products are unlikely to be needed by the military, the program also provides assistance with the Government Services Agreement signup process, which opens up a wide range of federal procurement opportunities.
Next on the agenda, Meadows said, is work force training.
Metal fabricators have a hard time finding people trained to control computer-controlled machines, he said, so a new machine operator skills training program is being tested, with a full launch planned for some time in the next two or three months.
For more information about the New England Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative, go to www.rimes.org.
