World Trade Month 2020 Continues!   

 

Catalyst Accelerator's Tech Collision Event - Applications due 5/25/20

After 24 years of service to the Colorado manufacturing community, our Chief Operating Officer, Sumer Sorensen-Bain, will be leaving Manufacturer's Edge at the end of May in order to launch a new, exciting chapter in her already accomplished career.

 

Sumer was first introduced to the Manufacturing Extension Partnership as a college intern at Colorado Mesa University (then Mesa State College) in 1996. For several years, she worked under her mentor Monty Rutherford and got to know the manufacturing leaders on the Western Slope. It was there that she was responsible for the implementation of IT-based systems and Y2K programming along with many of the concepts and products that are integral to a successful manufacturing operation. But, more importantly, she learned how to connect with business owners and found a passion and a talent for embracing their visions and helping to nurture them into existence.

 

Through the years, her dedication to the companies, service providers, economic developers, and key partners across the state has put her in a unique position to shift the landscape of manufacturing in Colorado by making connections, supporting initiatives, and improving the lives of every single person she touches. While never one to take credit or ask for recognition, our clients have relied on Sumer to be a teacher, a resource, a trusted advisor, and a friend.

 

In more recent years, Sumer has led the charge to diversify the services offered by the team at Manufacturer's Edge. While Lean has always been the backbone of our organization, Sumer recognized that there are a myriad of other needs and philosophies, which led to the development and launch of our holistic approach called Business Excellence. Another need that was near and dear to Sumer's heart was helping small manufacturers. Knowing that more than 80% of our manufacturing companies have less than 20 employees, Sumer approached our partners at OEDIT, the SBDCs, and the World Trade Center of Denver and launched the Small Manufacturer's AdvantEDGE program that has served nearly 300 companies and helped them realize more than $5M in increased sales.

 

Sumer has earned a stellar reputation across the state as well as throughout the MEP National Network. She is loyal civil servant and passionate about her work and about helping people. We are all sad to see her go, but excited to see where she winds up on her new adventure. After more than two decades of service and commitment, she may be off to spread her wings, but we're certain this is not the last you'll see of Sumer Sorensen-Bain.

 

We will miss Sumer dearly, but rest assured that the Manufacturer's Edge team will not miss a beat in serving Colorado. In this unprecedented time of challenge and dislocation, we're completely focused on helping our state and our manufacturers survive this crisis. We are here for you!

We have compiled a series of tools and resources your company can start using today to ramp back up production during these tumultuous times. Each one can be used as a stand-alone resource or as a series of deeper and more detailed guides. As always, feel free to use these tools on your own or reach out to our staff for more guidance. We are here to help.

The series consists of four parts:

  

1) A Quick Start Guide to Staying Open - a brief 5-page PDF designed to give you a snapshot overview of strategies to maintain employee safety, employee health, and facility safety with links to materials and information from OSHA, CDPHE, NIOSH, and WHO (available to download here)   

 

2) Preventative Manufacturing Measures: Part 1 - checklist with suggestions on everything from facility-wide communication to changing time clock procedures to minimize contact (available to download here)

 

3) Preventative Manufacturing Measures: Part 2 - a deeper dive into the specific guidelines issued by the State of Colorado and the tools and strategies you should consider to be compliant with monitoring and screening practices, recommended PPE, contact tracing, and much more (available to download here)

  

4) Event Response and Business Recovery - a four-part webinar series and a comprehensive checklist to prepare you for whatever unexpected events your company may face in the future (find out more) 

 

Visit our COVID Resources page for more information  

The Catalyst Accelerator's Tech Collision event is sponsored by the Air Force Research Lab Space Vehicles Directorate, the Small Business Administration SBIR/STTR program, and Tech Warriors. Selected companies will pitch their space or space-related technology to a room of Government tech scouts and another room of Industry tech scouts. Day 3 will be a posterboarding and tech demonstration day open to the public.

 

Why apply?

 

Click here for more information

 

Applications close on May 25

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated what we already knew - manufacturing is essential.

As the national pandemic works its way through its tenth week, manufacturers are preparing for the next challenge: rebuilding a broken supply chain.

The current pandemic has demonstrated our country's over-dependence on foreign countries providing low-cost production. Protective personal equipment (PPE) shortages are immediate consequences of the offshoring decisions of the past 20 years.

As national policymakers begin exploring policy fixes to re-shore manufacturing to the U.S., they must understand that the small to medium-sized manufacturers will be the ones to rebuild America's broken supply chain. While politicians are talking, the Colorado Advanced Manufacturing Association (CAMA) and its national partner, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), are acting.

As Chairman of CAMA and owner of my own contract machine shop, JPM Prototype & Mfg., Inc, I understand the simplest way to strengthen the U.S. supply chain is to help U.S. manufacturers connect with one another. The vehicle to make this connection is the national Manufacturers Marketplace.

The Manufacturers Marketplace is a searchable database designed to connect U.S. manufacturers. It was created by and for manufacturers to be the epicenter of the current re-shoring initiative. (...)

Read the full article on our website