Manufacturing Extension Partnership

[HVACctrl]

Asked this in Mechanical, but wanted a more widespread readership:

Anyone in the US hear of or deal with the Manufacturing Extension Partnership in their state (or any other state)? I am looking into the organization. They are funded by NIST, universities and other state or federal programs. Each state has its own MEP- most with several offices to cover different regions within the state. Their mission is to help local manufacturers to operate more efficiently, utilize LEAN practices, etc... The goal is to increase manufacturing in the state and help stimulate the economy, etc....

Just looking for some opionions or experience with MEP organizations throughout the country.

You can look them up online if needed. I'll be glad to get any feedback even if not experienced with them.

http://www.engineerboards.com

 

[HVACctrl]

Anyone hear of them?

Ed

http://www.engineerboards.com

 

[rhodie]

I'm familiar with the local version in my area. Web address:

http://www.okalliance.com/

My opinion is fairly positive of this organization in particular, but I imagine the satisfaction of the "end user" comes entirely as a result of how good the extention agent is.

As a matter of discussion, our MEP group was able to coordinate a special project with a local engineering school and even fronted some of the initial logistical costs to get the project off the ground.

We got a solution to a special problem, the students got real-world exposure to the engineering discipline, and the MEP got a pat on the back and a success story to share with the group at large.

 

[HVACctrl]

Cool. Thanks for the feedback! Good to hear good things!

Ed

http://www.engineerboards.com

 

[Beggar]

I worked with something that sounds similar out of Old Dominion University. It basically provided free expert engineering but you needed to be in the state of Virginia.

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[zuccus]

HVAC,

We are just about to start this at our company through the university of Houston. They will be implementing the Lean process. All I know so far are the following items.

Because they are goverment subdisized(sp?) they are about half the price of other simliar type consultants.

They use college students to collect the data which also helps make them cheaper.

From what I understand so far about it.
I was not in favor of doing this at my current employer because they only anaylize processes. We already have a lot of good process in place so I did not see much value in it.

I was more in favor of bringing in a manufacturing consultant who say things like if you add two more people to this step in manufacturing you could triple the output of this workstation. Unfortunately our head of manufacturing was the one pushing for the lean implementation. Unfortunately I got out voted.

One thing I do know is that this is going to create a lot more paperwork and probably a couple of new jobs at your company. Maybe this is how they stimulate the economy.

I think we are actually starting in two weeks so I will try to keep you updated as we go.

Zuccus

 

[HVACctrl]

Thanks for the feedback. I am considering working for the MEP in my state. I am trying to see what feedback I can get as part of my "reference checking" on them.

I would love to hear any experiences you get. Thanks again.

http://www.engineerboards.com

 

[HVACctrl]

Zuccus,
Any new so far?

Ed

http://www.engineerboards.com

 

[zuccus]

Sorry HVAC, been on vacation.

Well we had our first meeting and we started by anaylizing our shop process. We took all of our key personnel in the processes and a couple of others around the office who have plenty of experience in the shop. We also had our "Lean consultants" in there with us. The meeting went great between our office people. Our consultants didn't help us one bit.

It basically went like this.

Guy on Shop floor: "You know if the purchasing guy provided me with this info, I could start my work two days earlier"

Purchasing Guy: "I already have that information, I will make sure you get forwarded on the emails."

Floor Supervisor: "You know if you changed this design just a little bit like this, we could cut a week out of our total shop assembly time"

Design Manager (Me): "Why didn't you guys let me know this earlier, we can do that without blinking an eye."

etc, etc, etc,

We came out with somewhere around 30 constructive points that will greatly improve our efficiency going into 2007.

HVACctrl if you are seriously considering moving into this field, I would recommened that you stick with consulting for companies that are in your field of expertise.

Our consultants were so far away from what we do they weren't much help at all.

Zuccus.

 

[rhodie]

But would you have had those conversations of it weren't for the consultants standing there?

A favorite method of psychologists is just to let the patient blather on and eventually incriminate, define, or confront thier own issues while the doctor sits quietly scribbling notes, acting the mute fool, and charging $300/hr.

 

[zuccus]

Rhodie,

The sad part is probably not in a group format such as that where everybody can get their two cents in.

Zuccus