MDMEP Keeps Focus on Manufacturing Competitiveness

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The Maryland MEP makes connections with businesses through economic development events, export forums, industry gatherings, by word of mouth, and even cold-calling. Supporting this outreach are 60 MEP account managers, including Dwighd Delgado, speaking at the first St. Mary’s County Export Forum, sponsored by the St. Mary’s County Chamber of Commerce, The Patuxent Partnership, and the St. Mary’s County Department of Economic Development.

“Guys like Dwighd and I get in our cars and go and visit with companies directly,” says MDMEP Executive Director Brian Sweeney. “It’s important for us to learn what’s going on in the marketplace and what companies are doing. We find out what resources we can bring to them to make them grow.” Many of those contacts result from referrals made by companies that have benefited from MDMEP’s coaching.

Maryland is growing all kinds of businesses, Mr. Sweeney says. Two fairly young industries that show great promise for Maryland are unmanned vehicles (“St. Mary’s County is well positioned for this,” he says) and the food and beverage industry.

Beside the micro level of assistance to individual businesses MDMEP provides, there is a macro effect as well: workforce development. “We’re looking at our education system and discounting the value and benefit that manufacturing can provide people in terms of employment,” Mr. Sweeney says. “The average entry-level manufacturing wage is $12-$18 per hour. If you look at what retail is providing, it’s minimum wage. The ability to progress in retail is relatively slow, but if you become a skilled tradesman, be it welding, machining, or electronics, you can make $100,000 a year, and those are family wages.”

Mr. Sweeney had asked the Maryland Economic Development and Business Climate Commission, chaired by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine, “to urge middle and high schools to look at preparation for manufacturing as an alternative to going to college.” The reason: as the Augustine Commission found in its report released in February 2015, the skills gap is real, with 132,000 unfilled jobs in Maryland at that time— yet employers still reported being unable to find skilled workers to fill many of those jobs.

MDMEP’s work strengthening Maryland companies “is about reinvigorating the middle class in America,” Mr. Delgado says. “This is the foundation that makes a lot of people be successful if they have the skill sets, training, knowledge – and opportunity.”

Working with a business, says Mr. Delgado, “I try to meet with the leadership to understand their strategy, whether they’re using best practices, do they have the right people in the right places. I look for gaps in how they deploy and execute their business plan. We look at top-line growth to bottom-line performance, supply chain to customer service. We examine the manufacturing ecosystem to find out what affects their opportunity to be more competitive.”

As a part of the process, people get a close look. “Through a lot of discussion we can discuss where skill gaps are or where coaching and training might be needed, including for the leadership team,” Mr. Delgado says.

In addition to internal analysis of a company, MDMEP also arranges for companies to get to know one another for mutual support and information-swapping. “It could be a B2B marketing system we share with them, or exposing the leadership to others during peer-to-peer networking opportunities,” Mr. Sweeney says. “These give people an understanding of who’s doing what and gives new and middle managers an opportunity to network – and maybe ask a question they’d be uncomfortable asking their boss.”

Joint training programs that bring together staff from multiple companies also foster new relationships. “We just did a training in Anne Arundel County with five companies that are growing rapidly and promoting their people from the plant floor into positions of leadership,” Mr. Sweeney says. “We brought in a trainer for 20 people from all the companies– got them all in the same room for training in HR, soft skills, time management, and people management. They got the skills, learned about each other and now all interact with each other.”

MDMEP offers training in Lean, a manufacturing flow model based on Toyota’s production system, and programs that support compliance with ISO 9001, the internationally recognized standard for Quality Management Systems. MDMEP is anticipating they will have a Lean 101 simulation event in Charles County this spring

MDMEP also works with companies on contingency planning, so in the event of a catastrophe, a plan for business continuity is in place. They also assist with resiliency planning (think hurricanes, Snowmageddon, or a large power failure) that disrupt business temporarily but can also have significant impact on operations.