Hardware Podcasts

MEP Impact: Empowering Small Manufacturers with Training, Partnerships and Advocacy w/ Pete Connolly

The Manufacturing Executive · 2 Sept 2025 · Episode 273

What this episode covers

Pete Connolly, CEO of the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program (NJMEP), explains how the MEP network supports small and mid-sized manufacturers through workforce development, lean manufacturing, and supply chain resilience. He details the 'Future Makers and Creators' mobile training RV program that introduces high school students to modern manufacturing careers and discusses the critical challenges of tariffs and offshoring pharmaceuticals. Connolly also provides an update on the MEP network's recent survival of federal defunding threats and highlights a success story with Mac Products, which gained $3 million in new sales through MEP-led data analysis.

Most relevant to

established companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program, NIST, Johnson and Johnson, Campbell Soup, DRS technologies, Mac Products, Guerrilla 76, Junior Achievement, Cumberland County Tech Education Center, County College of Morris

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