Standing Still Is Falling Behind
Whether you’re manufacturing candles, cup cakes, or car parts, there will always be someone nipping at your heels.
- Are you up to date on your certifications?
- Have you invested in R&D?
- Are you hiring enough?
- Can you afford to hire the best?
- Are you cyber secure?
The questions that keep you up at night are also motivating your competitors to push the envelope.
Polaris MEP can help you take an holistic look at your organization’s position in the market. You may be surprised at where you stand. With objective, outside perspective from our seasoned manufacturing experts, you can position your company for continued success.
The Polaris MEP Manufacturing Innovation Challenge was an exceptional opportunity to look at our business from industry experts. It led to an internal discussion to clarify who our customer is, and to create processes to help end users pull products through the distributor channel—this is creating a lift in business.
Michael Black
President, National Marker
Solutions To Your Challenges
Technology Acceleration
Facility Layout
Lean Manufacturing
How We Help
STRATEGIC ASSESSMENTS
Polaris MEP can match your company with subject matter experts with deep industry knowledge to conduct a strategic review of your business.
Working with your leadership, the process brings greater visibility to strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. Insights and related recommendations empower you to refocus resources strategically.
PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
A staggeringly large percentage of daily job activity does not deliver value to end customers. Polaris MEP will aid you in pursuit of a lean enterprise, increasing value to customers and reducing waste within your internal processes. The results?
- Increased quality,
- Lower costs,
- Imprved delivery times,
- Improved safety,
- Improved customer and worker satisfaction, and
- A more competitive organization.
R&D RESOURCES
No matter what size your company, R&D can make the difference between dominating your industry and getting left behind.
Polaris MEP assists the small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies in our state in creating strategic R&D plans that minimize risk.
We leverage the URI Research Foundation “family” as well as the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) National Network to connect Rhode Island manufacturers to government equipment, programs, incentives and expertise.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
You may have the better product, but in order to be successful, you’ll need to compete in the business development arena.
Polaris MEP has you covered!
Whether you need marketing or sales augmentation, Polaris MEP can help. We’ve got a host of resources to upgrade your business and turn it into a business development powerhouse.
Compete & Win
- Get an objective determination of your competitiveness through the Manufacturing Innovation Challenge
- Minimize waste, improve process efficiency, and deliver safer, higher quality products to your clients faster
- Tell your story better with new marketing and sales techniques that close more business
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