The Internet of Things (IoT) offers many attractions for small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) who may want to integrate IoT into their facilities and operations, or who seek to enter the IoT market with innovative p

Edge Cycling Technologies, located in Dayton, Ohio, is the manufacturer of a bicycle saddle that reduces the pressure points that are created by conventional seats. Owners Shane Page and John Massengale were both about to

Alliant Castings, based in Winona, Minnesota, is a foundry manufacturing abrasion and impact resistant castings for a variety of heavy-duty industries including mining, road construction, recycling, power generation and mo

Walsh Door & Security, founded in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1930, is the Midwest’s leading provider of premium commercial door, frame, hardware and electronic security products and services. Walsh is one of an estimated doz

GrovTec US, Inc. is a contract manufacturer of aerospace and defense parts that has a large footprint in retail firearms accessories. Based in Wood Village, Oregon, GrovTec continues to be an innovator with regards to shoo

With the number of reported data breaches steadily increasing every year, they are in the news so frequently that it’s hard to keep them all straight. In 2017, Equifax suffered a massive breach, and almost 150 million cust

This blog is the third in a monthly series brought to you by the new America Works initiative. As a part of the MEP National Network’s goal of supporting the growth of small and medium-sized manufacturing companies, this s

It might not be the most important subject on your mind when running your business, but online privacy is becoming increasingly important as we move closer to a fully internet-connected world. What is Privacy? Simply spe

The premise for the NIST MEP Digital Supply Chain Network project is familiar to MEP Centers — many small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) are often not ready for Industry 4.0 and do not know how to implement it. Manu

Unless you’ve been living on private island (send invite immediately!), it’s no secret that the pandemic has changed the way manufacturers operate and run their businesses in order to survive these challenging times. At l

Two subjects that came up that I wasn’t expecting (but probably should have been) in a conversation with manufacturing executives were daycare and entrepreneurship.   While their other observations hit upon topics you wou

Sometimes you just have to go fishing. Seriously. That’s one of the messages manufacturing executives from West Coast and Mountain states passed along during a conversation about their experiences handling the near-term jo

Manufacturing robotics is to some extent following a similar path of advances to those in machining and fixed automation systems. Though the ROI is most easily measured in efficiency and cost savings, manufacturers are loo

In the Sept. 18, 2020, session of the “National Conversation with Manufacturers,” our three West Coast manufacturing leaders on the panel kept coming back to their critical need for skilled workers. The conversation was o

The six manufacturing executives participating in a Sept. 25, 2020, virtual conversation spent much of the time discussing what comes after the pandemic has subsided. This session of the “National Conversation with Manufa

The COVID-19 pandemic has asked much of manufacturing executives. They’ve had to make decisions about staffing and operations in the face of tremendous health and economic uncertainty — and then adjust or even change decis

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented big challenges for small manufacturers. That was the message of three leaders from manufacturing companies located in two Southwestern states. Fortunately, the MEP National NetworkTM is

The promise of advanced manufacturing technologies — also known as smart factories or Industry 4.0 — is that by networking our machines, computers, sensors and systems, we will (among other things) enable automation, impro

This blog is the first in a monthly series brought to you by the new America Works initiative. As a part of the MEP National Network’s goal of supporting the growth of small and medium-sized manufacturing companies, this s

I grew up in the outer suburbs of New York City. My dad commuted to the city for work, as did most of our neighbors, but as kids we rarely went into the city. An occasional field trip to a museum, seeing the tree in Rockef