What’s Trending in Manufacturing

Partner with MassMEP and Watch Your Business Grow

By John Killam, Center Director, MassMEP

MassMEP is an economic driver committed to manufacturing growth. We add sustainable jobs and grow top line revenues for Massachusetts manufacturers.

When you partner with MassMEP, you are teaming up with experts who can help unleash your company’s growth potential. We work with your team to analyze your company’s needs, and then help develop and implement a sustainable roadmap to improve your company’s top and bottom lines.

MassMEP creates economic impact by transforming manufacturing enterprises and the manufacturing ecosystem. We specialize in helping businesses achieve operational excellence, develop workforce strategies aligned with your markets, and create innovative growth solutions that are strengthened by leveraging strategic public/private relationships that share a common goal: to secure America’s future through manufacturing innovation, education, and collaboration.

MassMEP provides Massachusetts manufacturers with the resources they need to prepare for success in today’s advanced manufacturing environment. With real-world experience and expertise, MassMEP project managers have the unique ability to help manufacturers identify, analyze, and overcome strategic, operational, and workforce challenges that may be blocking their path to growth and success.

Why MassMEP?
We are an innovative, collaborative organization that helps small and medium manufacturers and businesses. We are the expert connector – we can connect you to business development opportunities, funding sources, and manufacturing knowledge. Best of all, we offer three things no other agencies can:

1. Knowledge of and connections to all Manufacturing USA institutes
2. An approach tailored specifically for your business
3. Support from the National MEP Network

MassMEP is the official representative of the MEP National Network in Massachusetts. The Network is a unique public-private partnership that delivers comprehensive, proven solutions for manufacturers.

Strengthened by the collaboration of 51 MEP Centers and 14 Manufacturing USA Institutes, MassMEP has successfully launched projects to expand the manufacturing capabilities of SME’s, initiated statewide workforce development training, and raised awareness that has led to sustainability and collaboration.

Manufacturing USA
Fourteen different public-private manufacturing innovation institutes comprise Manufacturing USA. The Manufacturing USA institutes focus on moving promising, early-stage research into proven capabilities ready for adoption by U.S. manufacturers. Collaboration at the Institutes and across the network creates an innovation community ushering in the next generation manufacturing supply chains located in America and employing Americans.

What does Manufacturing USA mean for Massachusetts?
Massachusetts has made a substantial commitment to develop the Manufacturing USA infrastructure within Massachusetts’ academic, research, and manufacturing industries through its M2I2 program – Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative. M2I2 advances innovations and job growth within the state through cross-collaboration among companies, universities, national labs, government, incubators, accelerators, and other academic and training institutions. Some of the exciting partnerships currently active include:

Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA)
Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, and providing connections to MIT, UMass (Lowell, Amherst, and Dartmouth), AFFOA is accelerating widespread commercialization of highly functional fabrics. Recent breakthroughs in fiber materials and manufacturing processes are on the verge of creating and producing interactive fabrics that see, hear, sense, communicate, store, and convert energy, regulate temperature, monitor health, and change color.

National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL)
By working with Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), UMass, MIT, and Quincy Community College, NIIMBL (headquartered at the University of Delaware) is advancing the country’s leadership in the biopharmaceutical industry while fostering economic development, improving medical treatments, and building a qualified workforce. Traditional pharmaceutical production relies on chemistry to create medical treatments. Biopharmaceutical production relies on biology—living cells produce the treatments or their components—which requires a complex manufacturing process. Biomanufacturing is used to produce many widely used treatments for a growing number of health conditions such as cancer, autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases—and generates billions of dollars in revenue worldwide. However, innovation is needed to allow more rapid and flexible production to meet healthcare demands and ensure U.S. leadership in the industry.

Advanced Tissue Biofabrication Manufacturing USA Institute (ATB)
Led by the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI) and based in Manchester, NH, the ATB partners with WPI, MIT, Boston University, and Harvard. This institute will develop next-generation manufacturing techniques for repairing and replacing cells and tissues, which may one day lead to the ability to manufacture new skin for soldiers scarred from combat or develop organ-preserving technologies to benefit Americans waiting for an organ transplant.

Want more information on how to participate in the Manufacturing USA Institutes? Contact us via email or call 508-831-7020.

Be sure to check out the MassMEP 2018 Annual Impact Report to see our results over the past year.

SAVE THE DATE: Manufacturing Our Future Summit, October 4, 2023
We have an exciting program in the works for October 4, 2018. MassMEP presents the Manufacturing Our Future Symposium featuring the Manufacturing USA Institutes and manufacturing growth opportunities.