NIST spends less than $ 200 million annually on the MEP program, with most of the money passed on to states and Puerto Rico in batches of payments. The conference employees tell Wired that they expect all remaining centers to lose their financing the following year because their next checks are due.
Depending on the state, centers are operated by universities, government agencies or independent non -profit organizations. States also help to pay for the MEP program, but the conference employees believe that it would be difficult in many states – especially smaller – to make up for the loss of federal financing.
Carrie Hines, President and CEO of the American Small Manufacturers Coalition, who represents all help centers of the State, says that companies pay market rates for the personalized advice they offer. “This is not a hand -out,” she says. Traditional consultancy firms may not be able to help these small companies or even exist in some regions, she adds. “We fill that unique void of technical assistance, with boots on the factory floor,” says Hines.
The Wyoming Helpcentrum, known as production work, was one of the organizations that did not receive $ 700,000 in financing on Tuesday that it had expected from Nist. The other affected states are Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico and North Dakota. “Those 10 centers were blinded,” says Hines.
Jodie Mjoen, CEO and President of the MEP center of North Dakota, Impact Dakota, says that he has started finding new ways with partners to support her 21 current projects with 93 manufacturers. According to Mjoen, these companies try to fight with rates and other regulations, implement more AI and automation and introduce new skills to their employees. “This is what it's all about,” he says. “Implementation of innovative solutions for emerging technology” and “American production -supply chain flourish and expand.”
Sinsabaugh of New Mexico Mep says that the cutbacks “will have real and lasting negative effects on the production ecosystem, both in our state and in national.”
Civil servants for centers in the other states did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
The American representative Sarah McBride, a Democrat from Delaware who is also in the Science Committee, says Wired that “Trump takes the opportunity from the working families of Delaware, and I will fight with everything I have to turn this reckless and cruel decision.”
Case studies published by Nist and State Partners show that advisers related to the help centers have followed companies by taking cyber security measures and being able to build more resilient factory lines, or simply coordinate executive teams to business priorities. Popular brands are on the website of Nist who say they have benefited from the help centers that are DOTs, a maker of Pretzel -snacks owned by Hershey, and Purina, a dog food department from Nestlé.
The help centers also link companies to other resources. In the case of Pertech Industries, a Riverton, manufacturer-based manufacturer of specialized printers who had difficulty finding employees who were skilled in soldering, the local MEP office connected to a training company that later started offering a soldering program. The office helped the training company to pay for state financing. Pertech did not respond to a request for comment.
