Michigan lands new manufacturing center

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation has just announced that Michigan will be home to the first national innovation center that will accelerate manufacturing in Michigan and across the country by assisting small and mid-size industrial firms with a transition to high-tech manufacturing processes.

The innovation center, a collaboration between the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, GE and the MEDC, will provide “high performance modeling, simulation, and analysis (MS&A), data mining tools, and the digitization of processes to optimize speed, reliability, and efficiency.”

I have no idea what all that means but it sounds impressive.

“When you talk about creating jobs and growing the economy in Michigan, these are the kind of long-range opportunities that will really make a difference,” said Rick Jarman, president & CEO of NCMS. “With the help of this center, small- and mid-size manufacturers will be able to deliver solutions faster, and expand their supplier reach to large companies. It is incredible to imagine the hundreds of small companies in Michigan that will have the potential to grow as a result of this premier facility.”  

Again, sounds good.

MEDC awarded a grant for the creation of the center, which is matched with industry support from NCMS members. The center will be housed in GE’s Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center, located in Van Buren Township. It is expected to open to the public in early 2013. 

Steve Reagan of L&L Products, a Michigan-based chemical compounding firm, said his company invested in in-house digital manufacturing capabilities at its own expense a decade ago and would have benefited from the services of the innovation center. 

“Ten years ago, L&L bought our own simulation software, and our own high performance computing cluster. It was a huge gamble, with an enormous cost,” Reagan said. “But today you can trace half of our company’s profit back to those tools. We have nearly doubled in size and revenue because of them. Still, that kind of investment is impossible for most small companies.”