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February 2014  

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Upcoming Events

Two-Day Supply Chain Training Seminar

This event has been postponed. Rescheduled 
date TBD.

Toyota Kata
March 6
8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Yampa Room
Doubletree Hotel Denver-Thornton

Overcoming Export Challenges in Medical Device and Bioscience Industry
March 6
8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Reception: 5 - 7pm
Anschutz Medical Campus at DU
$250 Members
$350 Non-members

Colorado Environmental Partnership presents
Environmental Management System (EMS) Orientation Training
March 18
9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Colorado Dept of Public Health and Environment
4300 Cherry Creek Dr S

7 Basic Quality Tools Webinar
March 21
11:00 am - noon
Online
No Fee

Western Colorado Manufacturing Summit
April 10
9:00 am - 6:00 pm
Two Rivers 
Convention Center Grand Junction
$50 before March 14
$75 after March 14
The CAMT Portal 
to find business opportunities, identify suppliers, and post jobs and supplier requirements.  
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In This Issue
MEP Celebrates 25th Anniversary
Lean Journey Through Allegion
Manufacturing Partnership in the Works
Kids Connection in the Classroom and Beyond
Innovative Manufacturer: Metalcraft Industries
IndustryWeek Article of Interest
Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Celebrates 25th Anniversary

 

"MEP has worked with nearly 76,000 manufacturers leading to $79 billion in sales

and $12.8 billion in savings. MEP's work has helped create more than 636,000 jobs, which have also generated more than $20 billion in total investment in U.S. manufacturing."
 

In 1988, Manufacturing Extension Partnership consisted of only a small handful of centers and an ambitious vision of the future. Today, that vision has become a reality as MEP celebrates 25 years of nationwide service to America's manufacturers. MEP currently has over 1,300 technical experts across the country who are tasked with helping local manufacturers identify opportunities for growth, strategies for innovation, and methods for operating more efficiently. 

 

Recently released impact numbers for the 2012-13 fiscal year attest to the success of this program:

  • Clients served: 30,131  
  • New Sales: $2.2B  
  • Retained Sales: $6.2B  
  • Cost Savings: $1.2B  
  • New Client Investments: $2.6B  
  • Jobs created: 18,789  
  • Jobs retained: 43,914  
  • For every one dollar of federal investment, the MEP generates nearly $19 in new sales growth and $21 in new client investment. This translates into $2.2 billion in new sales annually. For every $1,978 of federal investment, MEP creates or retains one manufacturing job.
Here's to 25 more years of continued success!
 

Read more about the 25th anniversary of MEP here

Upcoming Tour: Join Us For a Lean Journey Through Allegion 

 

On April 2nd and 3rd, CAMT will host a Front Range Manufacturing event, as we tour the Allegion facility in Security, Colorado. Allegion, formerly Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies, will host this Lean journey tour in the areas of:
  • Prototype Fabrication
  • Customer Service and Order Entry
  • Manufacturing
  • Material Control and Turns
  • Management of Rapid Improvement Events

Allegion produces and distributes mechanical locks and cylinders, biometric hand scanners, magnetic locks and accessories, and smart access cards. Employing approximately 550 people, they process 10,000 orders per month in a high mix, high volume environment.

 

Date: Wednesday, April 2 & Thursday, April 3

Morning Tours: 8:00 am - 11:30 am

Afternoon Tours: 12:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Location: Security, CO

 

Registrations:

Register for the April 3 afternoon tour here

Colorado's myriad trade groups compete to promote. A MFG partnership promises collaboration.

Excerpt from a Company Week article by Bart Taylor

 

"The end game is to build a more highly connected community. A

single community."
               - Bart Taylor

 

 

 

It can be refreshing when entities find ways to partner to advance everyone's interest. For manufacturers, one idea percolating in southern Colorado has the long-term goal of doing just that.  

 

SCBP - the Southern Colorado Business Partnership - is partnering with CAMT - the Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology, to reprise an idea that's been visited and revisited with varying degrees of, well, futility.

The idea is simple enough: encourage manufacturers, their partners and providers, to participate in building a database of key information that's searchable, easy to use, and highly targeted to others within the maker and manufacturer ecosystem. The end game is to build a more highly connected community. A single community.

 

The challenge in the past has been to convince companies that a tool like this might lead to business, and as a result, convince them to invest the time to enter data and use the platform.

 

CAMT CEO Tom Bugnitz believes this time may be different. "Companies are starting to realize there is a lot they don't know about their potential partners", he says, "who they are, what they do, how they can help their business. Competition is much stronger now, and with the information tools available, companies are looking for anything that helps them compete.  Manufacturers have evolved so that they are now ready and willing to use data to improve their competitiveness, and they see this tool as one piece of the information puzzle for doing that."

 
CAMT's Kids Connection Program in the Classroom and Beyond

CAMT recently spoke to Adams 12 STEM school coordinator Michelle Priola about her school's experiences with the Kids Connection program

 

Designed to form a bridge between technology and children, CAMT's Kids Connection program brings industry leaders into the classroom for hands-on learning and instruction in order to inform and inspire the Thomas Edisons of tomorrow. For the Adams 12 STEM Launch school in Westminster, the hands-on learning has taken the form of guest speakers in the 3rd grade classroom and recently stretched out of the classroom and into the field when their 8th graders were treated to a personalized tour of the ABC Die Cutting facilities.
 
According to Michelle Priola, the importance of these experiences to the STEM school students is immeasurable. "Students are understanding engineering and manufacturing. They are developing more curiosity about how things are made and why." Priola went on to explain that Kids Connection has helped her school establish a foundation for learning and that, furthermore, "the experiences have helped students see the world in a different way."
 
To learn more about the types of hands-on real-world opportunities Kids Connection can provide, please contact the CAMT Chief of Programs and Operations Sumer Sorensen-Bain at 303.981.2144 or via email.
 
CAMT would also like to thank ABC Die Cutting for their assistance and participation in the Kids Connection program!

Innovative Manufacturer: Metalcraft Industries

Full service manufacturer offering single source solutions to companies in medical device/equipment, renewable energy, industrial and defense related businesses to name a few.

 

Metalcraft Industries

Darrin Caschette, President

 

Describe your company's products and services

Metal Stamping, Complex Assembly, Contract Manufacturing, Robotic and Manual Welding, Prototype Development, Precision Sheet Metal Fabrication, Short Run Stamping, High Volume Production, Manual Machining, Large Capacity Vertical Milling Up To 50" x 26", Exotic Materials: Honeycomb, Microwave Absorbitants

   

How does your company innovate?

As a company committed to continuous improvement, our team constantly reviews customer parts to figure out a better way to manufacture and improve quality and cost.

   

What is a recent highlight of your company's success?

We achieved our ISO 9001:2008 Certification in 2003. However, our focus to provide our customers with prompt, quality components and assemblies by continually reinvesting in new technologies and capital equipment has been engrained in our culture since its founding in 1948.

 

Find out more about Metalcraft here

IndustryWeek Article of Interest
 
IndustryWeek Logo
Ford Continues Investment in US
The Kentucky truck plant will receive $80 million for overall plant improvement.