Manufacturing in North Dakota

Keeping Manufacturing in U.S. Is America's Top Economic Priority
The best way for the United States to create more jobs is by saving the manufacturing sector, according to the American public. An "open-ended" poll of Americans taken by Gallup on November 20-22, 2009, asked: "In your opinion, what would be the best way to create more jobs in the United States?" Here is how people voluntarily answered the question:

Keep manufacturing jobs here/stop sending them overseas, 18 percent
Lower taxes, 14 percent
Do more to help small businesses, 12 percent
Create more green jobs, 12 percent
Create more infrastructure work, 10 percent
Reduce government regulation, 7 percent
More stimulus money, 4 percent
Higher taxes on imports/Buy American, 4 percent

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Webinar Series
The People Side of Lean Transformation webinar series continues to build!
HR expert, Mike Hoseus guided the companies in the development of their philosophy, values, vision and mission to support a Lean Enterprise. He reviewed how a horizontal organizational structure functions across the Enterprise and is effective in fully utilizing the Lean tools. In the March webinar he will cover the hiring and promotion of the right people with the right skills to develop a solid foundation for your Lean Enterprise.

We invite your company to participate in the March webinar, or any of the remaining webinars in the series. Each webinar is an individual program, so it is no problem if you missed any. Each webinar includes detailed information on getting started, taking the next steps, removing barriers to change and sustaining the change.

Following each webinar, you will be assigned homework to assess your organization's current state and begin the process of change. Then HR expert, Mike Hoseus, or Training Within Industry (TWI) expert, Terry Cox, will participate in a personal company video meeting with your organization to discuss the issues, barriers or concerns your company has identified.

This series is designed to help your organization begin transformation and support your efforts to make the changes necessary. For the single registration fee your company may have as many people as you want participate in the program.

For more information or to register, click here.

Webinar 2 — "Hiring and Promotion Systems for the Lean Enterprise"
Monday, March 29 • 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. (central Time)

Webinar 3 — "Orientation and Training Systems for the Lean Enterprise"
Wednesday, April 28 • 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. (central time)

Webinar 4 — "Training Within Industry: Job Instruction"
Wednesday, May 19 • 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. (central time)

Webinar 5 — "Training Within Industry: Job Methods"
Wednesday, June 16 • 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. (central time)

Webinar 6 — "Team Member Engagement Process"
Wednesday, July 14 • 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. (central time)

Webinar 7 — "Strategy Deployment & Floor Management Development System"
Wednesday, August 25 • 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. (central time)

Webinar 8 — "Training Within Industry: Job Relations"
Wednesday, September 22 • 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. (central time)

Webinar 9 — "Training Within Industry: Job Safety"
Wednesday, October 20 • 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. (central time)


DEADLINE 9/22/10 —
Dakota MEP-USDA Rural Business Enterprise Grant Program
Dakota MEP was awarded a $190,000 USDA Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG) to help small manufacturers in the rural communities improve their performance.

This program was developed as a result of feedback from manufacturers in the Dakotas. They identified areas of concern and issues which needed to be addressed, including communication and accessibility to expertise. This partnership with Dakota MEP and USDA provides an opportunity to better serve manufacturers in North and South Dakota.

The funds can be used to help you with:

Growing Sales
Family Business Planning
Employee Development
Productivity Improvements
ISO Requirements
Supply Chain Development
other areas
Please contact Dan Halverson at 701-328-5472 or 1-866-297-8250 or
by e-mail at danh@dakotamep.com if you have any questions. or to schedule your FREE ASSESSMENT.



Terry Cox to present at TWI training events
Dakota MEP Senior Business Advisor, Terry Cox, will be presenting at the Innovation Insights LEARNING session, in St. Brieux, SK, Canada, in April and at the TWI Summit in Las Vegas, NV in May. He will also be presenting four webinars as part of The People Side of Lean Transformation webinar series. Please see article above for more information.

Industries and businesses that adopt the Training Within Industry (TWI) way of training consistently increase productivity, reduce training time and improve morale and safety.

At the Innovation Insights LEARNING session, Terry will be providing an Introduction to TWI; a dynamic program which uses a learn-by-doing approach, teaching essential skills for supervisors and team leaders from all types of industries and businesses.

TWI is delivered in four distinct modules:


Job Relations Training (JR): Building a positive work environment, increasing cooperation and motivation, and effectively resolving conflict
Job Instruction Training (JI): Effectively and efficiently training employees to do a job correctly, safely and conscientiously
Job Methods Training (JM): Continuously improving the way jobs are performed
Job Safety Training (JS): Proactively creating and ensuring a safe workplace.
During the TWI Summit, Terry will be presenting a 10-hour program on Job Instruction. Demands of developing a flexible workforce and training employees require standardized best practices.

The Job Instruction method teaches preparing the operator to learn, giving a proper demonstration from a breakdown, observing the operator perform the task, and tapering off coaching with proper follow-up.

Benefits experienced when practicing Job Instruction are reduced training time, less scrap and rework, fewer accidents, and increased job satisfaction.

Terry has also been working with many smaller manufacturing companies in the rural Dakotas with assistance from a USDA grant (please see story above), to apply the TWI Job Instruction process to establish standard work within these companies. Part of the project also includes developing a "timetable for training", providing a complete business assessment, developing an implementation plan, calculation of the benefits and impacts of the project, and providing at the minimum one full day of follow-up with the client at a later date to keep them on track.

If you are interested in learning more about TWI opportunities for your company, please contact Terry at 701-412-3320, or terryc@dakotamep.com.




ExporTech Program Begins in April
Space is filling up fast - limited to 8 companies

The ExporTech program is designed to help your company enter or expand into global markets, by assisting in the development of a customized international growth plan. Utilizing a team of exporting resources and experts, we help your company move quickly beyond just planning, into actual export sales.

The program is intended for executives of small and mid-size product companies, and is aimed at both new-to-export companies and those that have done some exporting, but have not fully exploited global opportunities.

Benefits of ExporTech: • Resources to help you rapidly move from planning to actual sales and payment • International strategies and success factors based on real-world company research • A robust export plan in just three months • Connection with reputable resources and expert consultants • Accelerated speed to market, actual leads and sales

The first sessions will be held April 20, in Jamestown, N.D. and April 21, in Grand Forks, N.D.

For more information or to register, contact Clint at 701-412-6695, clintr@dakotamep.com or you may visit www.dakotamep.com and click on Events.



The Truth About Sales and Quality
By: Miriam Boudreaux, reprinted from "Quality Digest Daily", an electrinic publication from Quality Digest magazine (www.qualitydigest.com)

ISO 9001 and other quality initiatives can improve your processes, but can they also improve your slaes?

When a quality management system (QMS) is implemented, results are evident immediately: reduction in warranty cost, reduction in rework, reduction in scrap, higher profit margins, etc. Would you agree that ISO 9001 and other quality initiatives such as lean, Six Sigma, and 5S can significantly improve any company's processes—if requirements are correctly implemented? Why, if you know that a good quality management system impoves your processes, are you reluctant to include all company processes in this system? Why would most companies barely include sales on any quality initiatitves? If and only if you apply the same ISO quality standards and quality concepts to the entire sales process, inside and outside sales, you stand to see significant improvements.


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How to Survive Your Survival
The keys to successfully shifting into growth mode.

Here's the good news: So far, you've been able to survive one of the worst economic downturns in American history. Before you congratulate yourself, you need to face the bad news. The very things that have enabled you to survive will cause your downfall if you don't shift into growth mode now. Regardless of how far along you believe it to be, there is broad consensus that a recovery has begun. What remains unclear is just how fast and how far this recovery will go. Strategic change is the operative phrase, and as a leader, creating strategic change is your number one job.
read more »









Calendar of Events
Click here to view the Dakota MEP Calendar.

Contact Us
Email: info@dakotamep.com
Phone: 701.328.5476
Toll Free: 1.866.297.8250

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Dakota MEP
Board of Directors

Dan Antrim
Bobcat/Doosan Infracore

Bryan Bossert
Phoenix International

Bart Brost
Showplace Wood Products

Cuck Crary
J5 Oil & Transport Co.

Brian Dahl
Amity Technology, LLC

Don Hedger
Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing

Dan Hoefs
Padgett Business Services

Marianne Von Seggern
Bell Incorporated

Kari Warberg Block
Earth-Kind, Inc.

Tammy Wierenga
Raven Industries, Inc.

Dakota MEP
Staff

Randy Schwartz
CEO

DeAnn Berg
Administrative Services Director

Terry Cox
Senior Business Advisor

Brian Feist
Technical Assistant

Dan Halverson
Client Development

Kristen Halden
Business Advisor

Wes Kelly
Senior Business Advisor

Linda Liebert-Hall
Partnership Development

Roger Oliver
Operations Director

Clint Rossland
Business Advisor

Terry Sampson
Client Development

Laurie Schaffer
Marketing Specialist

Darcy Vaughan
Administrative Services Assistant

Mark Volesky
Senior Business Advisor

Dakota MEP
Job Opportunity
Growth Services Specialist
The Growth Services Specialist is responsible for leading the provision of business development, growth related and technology services to help client companies improve existing business opportunities (i.e. customers, markets, products and services) and/or to develop new ones.

For more information, please contact Randy Schwartz at 701-328-5471 or by e-mail randys@dakotamep.com.

Dakota MEP is a leadership organization that provides value to those companies dedicated to creating new opportunities for their people and organization. We strive to maximize enterprise performance - including growth, innovation, productivity and productivity. Working with partners who share this mission, we specialize in helping companies develop best practices and supporting strategies which enable them to better compete today and tomorrow.




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