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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 7, 2004
Contact: Ryan Watson, (202) 347-3190
June 7, 2004 - Washington, DC - The Manufacturing Extension
Partnership Program (MEP) remains a valuable resource to help
the nation's small manufacturers, but extraordinary economic
and technological change requires MEP to rethink how it does
its work, according to a Panel of the National Academy of
Public Administration. The Panel's report, The Manufacturing
Extension Partnership Program: Alternative Business Models,
finds that MEP's current model is not geared to address the
evolving barriers that face small manufacturers in remaining
competitive. It recommends that MEP adopt a new business model
with expanded services to small manufacturers that focus on
new product development, technology diffusion and supply chain
integration.
The Panel identified
several key steps that would be critical to the success of
the new model:
- MEP should expand its basic services
to emphasize technology diffusion, product development and
supply chain integration, as well as technical and business
assistance to small manufacturers.
- MEP should build an integrated national
network of assistance. Fifty-nine MEP centers provide the
skeleton for a network, but these need to be pieced together
to facilitate knowledge sharing, coordination and partnerships.
- MEP should improve its coordination and
partnering with other organizations that assist small manufacturers.
- The Department of Commerce-which houses
MEP-should consider aligning and integrating the different
organizations within the Department that have manufacturing
assistance responsibilities.
- Improve the system-wide sharing of knowledge
and information and the systems for measuring performance.
"The Manufacturing
Extension Partnership is the only federal program designed
specifically to assist small manufacturers, so it is uniquely
positioned to support these firms in a time of enormous economic
transition," said Academy Fellow Franklin S. Reeder,
who chaired the Panel. "Its vital mission to improve
the competitiveness of small manufacturers should remain the
same, but the time is right to change the mechanisms it uses
to accomplish that mission."
The National Academy
of Public Administration is a non-profit organization
chartered by Congress to provide advice to leaders on issues
of management and governance. In addition to Reeder, Panel
Members included Jay Brandinger, former Member, Science and
Technology Council of the States; Matthew B. Coffey, President,
National Tooling and Machining Association; Scott McIntyre,
Managing Director, BearingPoint; Sylvester Murray, Professor
of Public Administration, Cleveland State University; Jane
Smith Patterson, former Senior Advisor to the Governor for
Science and Technology, State of North Carolina; Larry Rhoades,
President, Extrude Hone Corporation; and Raymond Scheppach,
Executive Director, National Governors Association.
To download the report, go to
www.napawash.org/mep.
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