Next Generation Manufacturing Open to North Dakota Companies Posted on 3/2/2009
The Next Generation Manufacturing (NGM) initiative is "open for business" nationally. NGM represents a major opportunity for your company to participate with 5,000 progressive manufacturers throughout the country in reviewing your company's performance in six key areas reflecting high performance manufacturing strategies now and into the future.
As part of NGM you will be asked to complete a confidential online survey at no cost to your company that will take about 20 to 30 minutes. The survey is open through March 15th. This survey will review your company's progress in these six strategies;
(1) customer focused innovation, (2) engaged people / human capital acquisition, development and retention, (3) superior processes / improvement focus, (4) supply chain management and collaboration, (5) green / sustainability and (6) global engagement.
About mid-April, participating companies will receive a Next Generation Manufacturing Performance Report that will include their responses and compare those responses to other manufacturers in the state and region.
The opportunity is being provided by the Dakota MEP in partnership with the nation's manufacturers and eighteen leading MEP centers across the country. These eighteen centers represent over 140,000 manufacturers employing 5 million with total annual sales of $592 billion.
NGM is one of the ways that MEP centers are seeking to help American manufacturers weather today's recession and maintain leadership in manufacturing in the next decade. The effort has already been piloted successfully in Wisconsin and reported on by Forbes, CNBC, MSN Money and Industry Week.
The Next Generation Manufacturing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) which further describes why your company should participate and how your company can best benefit. A sample questionnaire that you can use as a worksheet in order to be better prepared to fill out the online survey is available at www.dakotamep.com/NGM.
If you have questions feel free to call Randy Schwartz directly at 701-328-5471, toll free at 1-866-297-8250 or send an e-mail to randys@dakotamep.com.
The key to making Next Generation Manufacturing a success rests in your participation and the value that your company will receive from reviewing how you're doing against these six key strategies. We encourage you to take advantage of this rare opportunity.
