MEP Management Services

Grants Development and Management

One of Time Wise Management Systems’ (TWMS) strength is its ability to access and manage multiple state and federal grants and contracts to support technology transfer, Lean manufacturing, supply chain improvement, and workforce development activities at the state and national levels.

Over the past three years, TWMS has secured well over $100 Million in grants, and matching funds from state Departments of Labor and Economic Development, and from federal agencies such as the Department of Defense, Department of Labor, Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

These sources of funds afford TWMS and its partners, including TWMS-managed MEP Centers, the opportunity to develop new capacity, capabilities, products and services to better serve manufacturing clients; to expand client base; to become valuable partners in local, regional and national workforce and economic development strategies; and, for our MEP partners, to realize financial stability by diversifying sources of support.

The following are samples of grants and contracts written and coordinated by TWMS:

$16.5 Million for Technology Innovation
TWMS designed and wrote successful Department of Labor H-1B grants for our partners in Arizona, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Our partners in these states deployed TWMS’ unique innovation training/mentoring model to upgrade the innovation skills set of the scientific and engineering workforce of manufacturing firms. This model was based on TWMS’ experience in a Department of Commerce-funded innovation training pilot program in New England. This program led to national recognition by the Office of Technology Policy establishing TWMS as one of the nation’s premier providers of innovation training (Partners On A Mission: Federal Laboratory Practices Contributing to Economic Development. Office of Technology Policy, U.S. Department of Commerce, November 2003). Due to the innovative training approach, the Arizona and Florida programs received national achievement recognition from the Department for Labor.

$2.95 Million for the Machine Operator Skills Training (MOST) Program
Funded by the Department of Labor, this grant provides for a non-traditional approach to minimizing the skills shortage in Computer-Numerically Controlled (CNC) operators in advanced machine shops in the six New England states. TWMS’ training modules leverage the simplification of CNC operation, developed as part of SupplyPoint® and the Center for Supply Chain Integration that effectively reduces the intensity and time required to train CNC operator through the normal education system. Now less experienced workers can obtain customized on-the-job CNC training emphasizing industrial best practices in quality and lean manufacturing and produce high quality machined parts for the defense and homeland security industrial base. TWMS leverages the resources of the MEP centers and One-Stop Centers in the New England states to identify and screen candidates for the non-traditional CNC skills training, and provide Lean manufacturing training to participating employers. TWMS’s mobile training units provide access to training in rural areas of the states.

$37 Million for MEP Centers to Increase Small and Mid-Size Manufacturers’ Competitiveness
TWMS is the Managing Agent for five Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Centers funded through the Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) MEP Program. As the Managing Agent, TWMS manages cooperative agreements between the MEP Centers and NIST MEP and DOC Economic Development Administration valued at $37 million in cash and matching funds and provides the MEP Centers back office services and access to the TWMS product line that allow the MEP Centers to assist SMEs by delivering products and services that improve technology resources, eliminate waste, improve production processes and efficiencies, bring products to market and share industry best business practices. As a result, sales, profits and efficiency increase, costs often decrease, and their competitiveness in the global marketplace rises.

$5 million for Incumbent Worker Training
In addition to the basic NIST MEP cooperative agreements and the MEP Centers fees from services, TWMS has assisted TWMS-managed MEP Centers in accessing over $5 million in state grants and special federal funds to support Incumbent Worker Training. In this context TWMS works with state and regional workforce boards to assist employers with incumbent worker training grants for increased productivity, retained jobs and expanded capacity. Professional staff from TWMS and the MEP Centers has worked with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMS) in many sectors to ensure requirements are met to restructure supply chains to prevent the off-shoring of jobs.

$17.9 Million for Increasing Small Manufacturers’ Access to Department of Defense Supply Chains
TWMS administers and manages a defense contract, funded by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), to strengthen and expand the defense industrial supply base, improve procurability of hard-to-source parts, enhance response to surge demands and accelerate fulfillment of the DLA’s Battlefield Backorder Breakout (B3I) requirements. Achieving these objectives is accomplished by deployment of SupplyPoint® and the Center for Supply Chain Integration. TWMS leverages the resources of the MEP centers to identify and screen candidates for the non-traditional CNC skills training, and provide Lean manufacturing training to participating employers.