NIST MEP Helps Manufacturers Respond to the Pandemic and Thrive Despite It

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The Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a program of the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has announced the results of its fiscal year 2021 manufacturing client survey, as well as the impacts of Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) funding through January 2022.

“The survey shows that, even while navigating industry-wide disruptions caused by the pandemic, the MEP National Network helped manufacturing clients achieve some of the highest impacts to date,” said Jennifer Sinsabaugh, board chair of the Foundation for Manufacturing Excellence, which supports the network’s educational efforts, and chief executive officer of the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership. “Each of these impacts is critically important to the health of America’s manufacturers and to the U.S. manufacturing ecosystem overall.”

The MEP program supports the competitiveness of U.S.-based manufacturing by making manufacturing technologies, processes and services more accessible to small- and medium-sized manufacturers through MEP Centers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

According to the survey, for every dollar of federal investment in FY 2021, the MEP National Network generated $26.20 in new sales growth and $34.50 in new client investment. This translates into $14.4 billion in new and retained sales for U.S. manufacturers. The network also created or retained one manufacturing job for every $1,193 of federal investment.

In FY 2021, the MEP National Network interacted with 34,307 U.S. manufacturers from nearly all manufacturing industries, delivering vital assistance and helping them recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost 9,000 MEP Center manufacturing clients completed the FY 2021 survey, which shows that these services helped U.S. manufacturers to create or retain 125,746 jobs and to realize:

• $14.4 billion in new and retained sales
• $5.2 billion in new client investments
• $1.5 billion in cost savings

This year’s survey asked MEP Center manufacturing clients to identify from a list the top three challenges their companies will face over the next three years. The top challenges they identified are:

• Employee recruitment and retention (63%)
• Cost reduction (60%)
• Identifying growth opportunities (46%)
• Innovation/product development (38%)

These survey results help the network better understand manufacturers’ challenges, identify areas of need, and focus on providing services that help manufacturers overcome the challenges they find most pressing.