Katahdin Cedar Log Home CEO David Gordon shows off a sample of the  company's manufacturing technique to, from left, Bob Dorsey, president of Aroostook Partnership for Progress, Dana Delano, project manager Maine MEP and Dave Spooner, PTAC coordinator for NMDC.

   OAKFIELD - The Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) received some good PR this week when David Gordon, CEO of Katahdin Cedar Log Homes, addressed the crowd at the Maine Marine Trades Association (MMTA) meeting held at the Owls Head Transportation Museum near Rockland.

   A week earlier Gordon gave a tour of his sawmill complex in Oakfield to representatives of the Aroostook Partnership for Progress (APP) and Northern Maine Development Commission officials. Before the tour, he spoke about potential growth at Katahdin Cedar Log Homes and the assistance he received from MEP back in 2005, which was also a component of his keynote speech to the MMTA.

   "The Maine MEP assistance was worth its weight in gold to me," Gordon said.

   Katahdin Cedar Log Homes hired Maine MEP to perform a strategic business and technology assessment of its company. The assessment determined that Katahdin held a strong competitive capable of manufacturing its high quality homes in a way that dramatically shortens the time from order to ownership thus reducing costs.

   Gordon said two of the recommendations made after the assessment really hit home. The first was to get a better handle on his true costs and hire a person to deal with the finances, which he did, and engage in other business leaders to have a forum in which to exchange ideas.

   "I was a one man band. I did not have a board of directors or something like that and MEP said you need someone to bounce ideas off and you need feedback," Gordon said.

   He signed up for an executive CEO group in Portland, which is a group of business owners, who sit around a table for four hours every month with two facilitators.

   "The final analysis is most businesses have the same challenges and everybody handles them a little bit differently," he added. "The beauty of this type of board is nobody there has a vested interested in your decision they are just there to help you, period."

   Gordon said his involvement with this type of board will be a big focus of his speech to the MMTA.

   The assistance from MEP came at a key point for Katahdin Cedar Log Homes, when the company was trying to take advantage of growth potential that resulted from its participation in the television program, "Extreme Home Makeover." And in hindsight the MEP assessment also helped the company weather the economic downturn in the housing industry.

   "Maine MEP's project with Katahdin exemplifies the kind of assistance we provide to manufacturers across the state," said Maine MEP Project Manager Dana Delano. "By performing a Business and Technology Strategic Assessment for the company, we were able to identify Katahdin Cedar Log Homes competitive strengths as well as areas for improvement."

   Maine MEP offers a broad range of services including: Lean Manufacturing, ISO/Quality Management Systems, Root Cause Analysis and Strategic Planning.

   "Most recently, we've added a key new service to that portfolio - Innovation Engineering," said Delano. "Innovation Engineering brings a unique combination of tools. It integrates very creative techniques for idea generation with rigorous quantitative analysis to identify which ideas have the best likelihood of market success. By generating large numbers of new product ideas and then analyzing them against a database of known product lifecycles, we can guide clients to the concepts with the greatest potential sales, thereby reducing the risk of a new venture."

   As for the immediate future for Katahdin Cedar Log Homes, Gordon said pre-orders are up 30 to 40 percent for next year and more importantly, so are deposits. At peak operation the mill employees more than 80 people in Southern Aroostook.

   For more information at Maine MEP services in Aroostook and Washington counties contact Delano at (207) 521-5840 or email danad@mainemep.org.

   The idea of an east-west highway in Maine has been kicking around for decades, but has been picking up momentum as a Maine Department of Transportation feasibility study is conducted and the Cianbro Corporation makes plans for a privately built toll road.

   Darryl Brown, a project manager for Cianbro, was in Aroostook County Monday, Oct. 29 to brief business people municipal leaders, economic development officials and politicians on the project. Meeting at the Houlton Town Office and Northern Maine Development Commission office in Caribou, Brown outlined where the project is conceptually as it moves into the planning stage.

   "This will provide connectivity to all of Maine to those markets in the Midwest and upper Midwest that are so critical," said Brown.

   Some of the potential benefits of an east-west corridor according to Brown are:

• Attracts additional investments to Maine's rural communities.
• Reduces travel time and carbon footprint.
• Revitalizes Maine's ports and rail systems.
• Creates long term jobs and expands tax base.
• Improves access to Maine tourism.

   The impact on Aroostook County remains unknown, but economic development officials are keeping an open mind.

   "It definitely bears looking into and from a macro economic perspective whatever is good for one part of Maine helps the entire state," said APP President Bob Dorsey.

   Presque Isle City Manager Jim Bennett agreed with the macro assessment, but asked that Cianbro provide a microeconomic view as it relates to Aroostook County as the planning component is developed.

   Cianbro is looking at the east-west highway with construction at least four years away from starting.

   More information is available on the web at www.eastwestme.com.