Technology makes money, finally

Vermont Business Magazine, Jan 01, 1996 by Sopper, Frank, Andrews, Richard

And establishing communications links for such data transfers must be done again and again in the modern world, and ever more quickly.

"Manufacturing is on a comeback in the US, but there is a different way of doing business," Chiappone said. "Being able to shift your position and deliver smaller quantities of different products in a shorter period is the key to manufacturing today."

Because it is populated almost exclusively by small businesses, Vermont could be ideally suited to compete in conditions that reward nimble and flexible business entities. But small manufacturers also face the disadvantage that they cannot afford to conduct their own research to stay abreast of new developments on all fronts.

NEW EXTENSION SERVICE WILL SERVE MANUFACTURERS

Help is on the way in the form of the Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center, a new organization intended to do for small businesses what the Agricultural Extension Service did for small farmers in the 1930s. The Center, headquartered at Vermont Technical College in Randolph, will have three agents serving the state's small manufacturers by March. One agent will work from Burlington, one from Rutland, and one from Randolph. The center hopes to have five agents in its second year.

Muriel Durgin, the center's director, said the agents will get to know manufacturers, size up their needs, and put them in touch with consultants or other resources to meet them. In cases where agents happen to be well qualified. the' may function as consultants themselves. The agents are expected to have contact with about half of Vermont's approximately 1,000 manufacturers in the first year. Each agent is expected to form close working relationships, involving work on projects, with about 20 manufacturers in the year.

"The basic function is to help small manufacturers improve their skills, their processes, and their access to technology," Durgin said. "We have partnerships with many government agencies, such as NASA and the Edison Welding Institute, and with all the other manufacturing extensions in the country. We will also contract with private consultants, and we will cost-share with the companies to work with these consultants. On a project with a typical small company, we would probably pay 25 percent of a consultant's salary, and with a really small company, 50 percent."

The largest funding source for the center is a $450,000 grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), formerly the National Bureau of Standards. The center also is receiving state money and in-kind services or facilities from Vermont Technical College, state agencies and private industry; and it expects to charge fees for some services. The total budget of cash and in-kind contributions is $900,000. NIST expects the center to become self-financing in six years.

"The program is designed for small- to medium-sized manufacturers -- anyone under 500 employees by NIST's definition," Durgin said. "There are about a thousand manufacturers in Vermont, and only five or six are over 500 -- for instance, IBM, GE, BF Goodrich, Ben & Jerry's."