New R&D arm specs out “one-stop infrastructure” for 30-day design & production cycle
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 5/1/2007 12:00:00 AM
The North American Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education Initiative's (NAAMREI) name is long, but its vision is longer.
NAAMREI wants to transform the economy of the South Texas/Rio Grande Valley region into “a third coast” by building an infrastructure to support “Rapid Response Manufacturing.”
The concept compelled the Department of Labor (DOL) to award a $5-million grant as part of its Employment and Training Administration's Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development—or WIRED—program.
The Texas Workforce Commission added $3 million to the initiative to be consolidated around a consortium of educational institutions and a large industrial R&D park to foster manufacturing partnerships. The purpose is enabling manufacturers to rapidly scale production from idea to finished goods by providing the design, engineering, and production expertise—as well as workforce recruitment and training, in a one-stop package.
The South Texas/Rio Grande Valley centers around the city of McAllen, Texas, which is close to both the U.S.-Mexico border and the Gulf of Mexico.
US DOL Assistant Secretary Emily Stover de Rocco calls this program the “innovation of moving from mind to market.”
“Our goal is to seed funding to bring private and public resources together for action on the ground,” she says, adding that WIRED supports talent development “because it's the single most important pillar of prosperity of any regional economy.”
The South Texas/Rio Grande Valley, historically reliant on agriculture and textile production, was forced to transform when poor harvests impacted agriculture, and globalization devastated local textile manufacturing.
“The region had to diversify,” says Diane Roth, head of the Texas Workforce Commission. “It had a large manufacturing presence, but it was based on very unskilled labor. Our challenge was to ensure workers had the skills to perform highly technical work to compete globally in manufacturing.”
The recipient of the WIRED grant is South Texas College, which partners with the Rio Grande Valley College Alliance, the University of Texas, Texas A&M, and McAllen Economic Development Corp.—among nearly 70 other public and private parties in all.
“A key part of the strategy is to position ourselves as a 'third coast' and major distribution hub worldwide by expanding our base through rapid response manufacturing,” says Wanda Garza, executive officer for workforce development, South Texas College Technology Center. “WIRED fits in with what we were already doing regionally. If you're developing new products that quickly, there's no way you can do it without people being trained on the technology required to do that.”
The goal is to establish the infrastructure to take a product from initial concept to finished good in 30 days. “You have to push the envelope in design and training to be able to do that,” says Garza.
“We started recognizing the need for this about five years ago when China was coming online and people were trying to figure out how to compete by offering custom products in a shorter time frame,” says Keith Patridge, president of McAllen Economic Development.
Patridge says the initiative is attracting manufacturers from around the world that are looking to shorten supply chains by locating production in the U.S. Local representatives are working with agents from more than 450 Chinese companies alone that have heard of the project.
“At least 20 companies from around the world come here to talk with us every month,” claims Patridge.
