Business Operations

If you are a buyer at a big manufacturing firm, you probably discover new suppliers through a mixture of Googling, networking and serendipity. But what if you could search a single database full of suppliers in your state and across the country, view their exact capabilities and certifications and then contact them directly? Or simply list your needs and have qualified suppliers respond to your post, then select the ones who meet your criteria?

You can do all that on CONNEX Marketplace, sponsored by the NAM and run by i5 Services. Think of it as manufacturers’ version of Facebook, LinkedIn or Match.com—the perfect place to find brand-new links for your supply chain. Today, the database boasts 165,000 companies of every size and sector, with more than 300 large buying organizations searching for suppliers on the platform.

One state is way out ahead in the quest to re-localize and strengthen supply chains via CONNEX, and that is, fittingly, Connecticut. We chatted with Connecticut Chief Manufacturing Officer Paul Lavoie about his big vision for the small state and the way it has reshaped national supply chains already.

Making connections: The only chief manufacturing officer in any U.S. state government, Lavoie has a simple mandate: help manufacturing grow in Connecticut.

• As a state official, however, he can’t personally introduce one company to another to help them do business. He needed an intermediary, and CONNEX was the answer.
• While all manufacturers can subscribe to CONNEX to access the national database for a fee, some states have funded state-specific instantiations of the database that in-state companies can use as well. The state governments, manufacturing extension partnerships or other associations cover the costs and help recruit more in-state firms to use the platform, enriching it for everyone.
• Lavoie saw the potential of the state-specific model, created Connecticut’s version in 2022 and began a transformation of its manufacturing sector.

Supply chain success: Today, nearly 600 Connecticut companies have built full profiles on CONNEX, out of a total of 2,504 state-based firms in the database.

• Large manufacturers and other major buyers from across the U.S. have contacted Connecticut manufacturers due to their presence in CONNEX, including Northrop Grumman, the U.S. Army and Hill Air Force Base.
• One large Connecticut company had been working with a supplier in Texas, but CONNEX showed that a similar supplier was located just a few miles away from its facility.
• That supplier now serves several large manufacturers within Connecticut and is “the poster child for shortening supply chains and growing an ecosystem,” said Lavoie.
• And lastly, another Connecticut manufacturer was forced by recent tariffs to find an inspection service within the United States, having previously used a Canadian firm. CONNEX helped the manufacturer find a company in Vermont that provided the same service.

The big guys: Thanks to the efforts of i5 Services President and CEO Alan Davis and Lavoie himself, CONNEX is building out its stable of major manufacturers.

• Several aerospace giants in Connecticut have joined, including RTX. Along with Northrop Grumman, other global companies seeking suppliers through CONNEX include Siemens, General Dynamics, PR Hoffman, Applied Materials and Medtronic.
• Big companies know they need to shorten and secure their supply chains, Lavoie told us—and CONNEX is the perfect tool to help them.

How it works: When a company joins CONNEX, the first step is to build out its profile. This involves providing information about its capabilities, factory equipment, processes, certifications, materials, industry sectors, NAICS/SIC codes, capability statements and more.

• In Connecticut, Lavoie’s office helps manufacturers complete their profiles, providing “concierge service” and even going through the process with manufacturers by phone.
• Once a company is signed up, it can start searching for and sending direct notifications to qualified suppliers or buyers.
• CONNEX also features an Exchange Center, where companies can post their RFQs, RFPs or RFIs. The average contract value of each opportunity posted in the Exchange Center is more than $1 million, and after suppliers respond to a post, they can usually expect an interview within about two weeks.

The last word: Due to the funding from Lavoie’s state office, CONNEX is “an amazing business development tool with no additional costs to Connecticut manufacturers,” he pointed out. “Not only does CONNEX help manufacturers throughout the country strengthen and shorten their supply chains, but it enables state governments and MEPs to strengthen their states’ economies.”

Quantum computing firm D-Wave has achieved a singular breakthrough: it has simulated the “properties of magnetic materials,” opening up the opportunity to “invent” new materials without having to produce them physically in a lab, as D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz told Fast Company.

What it means: The achievement, first published in Science earlier this month, marks the first time a quantum computer has solved a useful, real-world problem that a classical computer couldn’t manage.

• In fact, “To simulate the property of magnetic materials on a classical computer—as the D-Wave team recently did using its quantum computer—would require nearly 1 million years and more energy than the entire world utilizes over the course of a year. D-Wave’s team did it in 20 minutes,” according to Fast Company.

Quantum vs. classical: “Rather than store information using bits represented by 0s or 1s as conventional digital computers do, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, to encode information as 0s, 1s or both at the same time,” D-Wave explains on its site.

• “This superposition of states—along with the other quantum mechanical phenomena of entanglement and tunneling—enables quantum computers to manipulate enormous combinations of states at once.”
• D-Wave’s annealing quantum computer uses these capabilities to solve problems by finding the “lowest energy state” in an enormous range of possible solutions.
• “To imagine this, think of a traveler looking for the best solution by finding the lowest valley in the energy landscape that represents the problem,” as D-Wave puts it.

The possibilities are vast: Being able to simulate materials without creating and testing them in the lab offers significant opportunities for the manufacturing industry and could save companies huge amounts of time and resources. D-Wave foresees that these simulated materials could have applications in everything from “pacemakers to cellphones,” as it told Fast Company.

• “There’s no shortage of potential applications,” said D-Wave Chief Scientist Mohammad Amin.

Further innovation: Another impact of quantum computing is its potential to revolutionize blockchain technology, D-Wave told us.

• “Manufacturers are increasingly adopting blockchain technology to enhance supply chain transparency, track product origins, improve inventory management, and streamline operations. This adoption has led to increased efficiency and reduced costs,” said D-Wave Global Government Relations and Public Affairs Leader Allison Schwartz.
• “Annealing quantum computing offers a potential solution by providing a faster and more environmentally friendly alternative to manufacturers’ current mining operations using classical computers.”

Johnson & Johnson will spend more than $55 billion on manufacturing, research and technology in the U.S. over the next four years, the biopharmaceutical company announced (Axios). These investments include a long-planned $2 billion state-of-the-art biologics facility in Wilson, North Carolina.

What’s going on: The NAM joined J&J for the groundbreaking of the 500,000-square-foot biologics manufacturing plant in Wilson on Friday.

• The White House praised the announcement and J&J’s commitment to manufacturing in America. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein and Rep. Don Davis (D-NC) also attended the ceremony to highlight the facility’s importance to the state economy and the jobs it will bring to the state.

Other projects across the total investment will include:

• Three new advanced manufacturing sites and the expansion of several facilities in J&J’s Innovative Medicine and MedTech businesses;
• Significant spending on research-and-development infrastructure “aimed at developing lifesaving and life-changing treatments in areas such as oncology, neuroscience, immunology, cardiovascular disease and robotic surgery,” according to the company; and
• More investment aimed at speeding drug discovery and development, supporting workforce training and improving business operations.

Common goal: The Wilson site demonstrates the power of collaboration, Johnson & Johnson Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Operations & Risk Officer and NAM Board Chair Kathy Wengel said at the groundbreaking.

• “Today is a tangible example of how J&J is bringing communities, government, education and industry together to achieve the common goal of creating a future-ready workforce that is ready to tackle the toughest health challenges and achieve new breakthroughs.”

Why it’s important: The investments will strengthen not only North Carolina’s economy, but the U.S. economy as a whole, NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said at the event.

• “Every $1 invested in manufacturing adds more than $2.60 to the economy. That’s top-of-the-line ROI for communities, neighborhoods and cities like Wilson—among the best ROIs you can get. And every new manufacturing job supports, on average, five additional jobs in other industries.”

The big picture: The new Wilson facility will generate a $3 billion impact across North Carolina in its first decade of operation.

• It will support about 5,000 jobs during construction and create more than 500 permanent positions—paying an average of $109,000 a year—in the state (WRAL News).

Certainty and predictability: These investments illustrate why policymakers must ensure that manufacturers have more certainty and predictability, not less, Timmons added.

• “Manufacturing—especially biopharmaceutical manufacturing—requires years of planning, ingenuity and investment decisions,” he said. “When there’s stability, common sense and competitive policies, companies like Johnson & Johnson can plan for the future—and plan big.”
• Timmons said that to “make more wins like this happen,” elected officials must stay focused on a comprehensive manufacturing strategy, including a “competitive tax policy, balanced regulations, prompt permitting, abundant energy and smart trade policies.”

The tax factor: J&J credits the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act with allowing it to increase its investment, according to MassDevice.

• Investments like J&J’s “are why it is critical that pro-growth provisions of the 2017 tax law be made permanent and more competitive,” Timmons wrote in a social post. “If Congress fails to act, 6 million American jobs—184,000 in North Carolina—will be wiped out. We can’t let that happen.”
• But if Congress does preserve the measures, manufacturing will win, Timmons said. “And when manufacturing wins, America wins.”

401(k) fees are a hot topic of conversation if you are an HR leader. When Miltec UV Human Resources Director Karen McKernan was discussing 401(k)s with an old friend, she discovered that Miltec, a small manufacturer, paid much more in fees than her friend’s larger employer. She was aghast, but what could Miltec do about it? The company did not have the purchasing power of a large firm, and so its options seemed limited.

Not so fast. Soon after that conversation, McKernan started receiving emails from the NAM about its new multiple employer plan, the Manufacturers Retirement & 401(k) Savings Plan, which allows many companies to participate in one 401(k) plan. Not only does the larger number of participants lower the fees, but the plan offers administrative and compliance oversight, as well as other benefits.

After doing her research, McKernan was convinced. By mid-2022, she was working with the NAM, the plan administrator, and recordkeeper and service provider Principal to make the switch. On Nov. 1, 2022, the new plan went live for Miltec employees. Today, McKernan says, she would never go back.

The benefits: Once McKernan laid out all the advantages for Miltec’s owners and 401(k) trustees, NAM 401(k) was an “easy sell,” she told us.

• Not only did the fee reduction seem like a “no-brainer,” but the new plan would lift a considerable administrative burden that had fallen entirely on McKernan. It would also offer benefits to employees that Miltec, as a small company, could not add on its own without creating even more administrative tasks.
• Furthermore, the NAM 401(k) comes with an independent 3 (38) investment fiduciary, One Digital, which reviews the funds’ performance regularly and issues reports on a quarterly basis, ensuring low-performing funds are “watched” and subsequently removed and replaced when needed. By delegating investment decisions under this arrangement, a company significantly reduces its potential liability for poor investment decisions.
• Additionally, any plan with more than 100 participants must undergo an annual audit, which is time consuming and expensive. Under NAM 401(k), the plan coordinates and manages the audit for participating companies.

What she doesn’t miss: McKernan listed all the duties she used to perform for Miltec’s own 401(k), which have now been taken over entirely by the NAM’s plan. She doesn’t miss:

• Monitoring enrollment, which Miltec’s employees can now undertake directly on Principal’s website;
• Sending out many required annual notices;
• Compliance testing and 5500 filings (which ensures the plan meets the IRS’s requirements for retirement plans, so that employees can receive tax benefits);
• Sending out summary annual financial reports and quarterly statements; and
• Handling employees’ questions and all communications about the plan.

In contrast, McKernan now only provides information to Principal through an automated payroll report and keeps an eye on how things are going, just in case. There have been few problems, she told us, and those were fixed with alacrity by Principal and the NAM.

Implementation: The entire timeline, from learning about NAM 401(k) to finalizing the switchover, took no more than a few months, McKernan said.

• Principal oversaw the transition, with weekly check-ins, a dedicated project manager and a schedule that included clear deadlines. While transitioning 401(k) plans is “a project,” McKernan said, Principal “managed it very well, including all required communications, and finishing right on time.”
• A word of advice: “If I had to do it all over again, I would have moved the plan over on Jan. 1 instead of Nov. 1,” said McKernan. Having two different plans in one year proved to be more of a headache than she expected, as it forced Miltec to do compliance testing on both plans in 2022.

The reception: “The company’s employees and owners are very pleased with the new NAM plan,” McKernan said.

• Aside from the savings in time and money, NAM 401(k) offers a host of other features that manufacturers can customize. One new feature that has proved popular with Miltec’s employees is loans, noted McKernan.
• In addition, Miltec’s previous plan had a 12-month waiting period before employees could participate, but NAM 401(k) reduced the wait to six months—which is far more appealing to new hires, she added.
• Ultimately, Miltec’s leaders and employees understood and appreciated the logic of joining a multiple employer plan, said McKernan. “They recognize the more participants you have, the more buying power you have. They are seeing the positive results of having access to a robust fund lineup and how that translates to lower fees every time they receive a quarterly statement.”

The bottom line: “I honestly don’t see how a small manufacturing company wouldn’t benefit from joining the NAM 401(k),” said McKernan.

• “I’ve been in HR for a very long time, and when we talk to job candidates about benefits, the 401(k) plan always comes up. It’s a benefit that is necessary to attract talent, as well as help your employees meet their retirement goals,” she added.
• “I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this plan to any small, medium or large manufacturer.”

After several grueling rounds of chemo, Lynn Simoncini found herself preparing for a mastectomy in November 2022. She searched for advice on online forums for breast cancer patients and came across a warning that surprised her—a major challenge for patients following surgery was the simple act of wearing a seatbelt.

When Simoncini was recovering from her own operation, she found this warning was correct. it was impossible to drive comfortably with a seatbelt pressing painfully against the surgical scar. She tried wrapping the belt in a hand towel, but it didn’t work very well; other patients also came up with makeshift solutions, but some just drove unsafely while holding their seatbelts away from their chests.

Unlike other patients, however, Simoncini was well-placed to find a solution. A creative director at VML who works on the Ford Motor Company account, she sketched out a design for a seat belt attachment that could be manufactured by the automaker. With the help of her writing partner and manager, she pitched the idea to Ford. The result: Ford’s recently released SupportBelt, now available to patients nationwide—for free. 

Ford takes it on: Ford, which has a 30-year history of supporting breast cancer patients through its Warriors in Pink program, was  incredibly receptive to Simoncini’s idea, she told us. The company gave her design to engineer Emily Obert, Ford’s manager of in-vehicle accessibility in digital product design, who began developing prototypes. 

The process: As Obert worked on the project with Simoncini’s help, they discovered that the need for this belt was considerable. First, oncologists told them that the inability to wear seatbelts was widespread among patients, which Ford had not known previously, Obert said.

• The patients that Obert interviewed also said that their chests were sensitive even during chemo and before surgery, and many still had some chest discomfort long after the operation. In addition, chemo ports are installed in the upper chest and can often make wearing a seatbelt uncomfortable.
• With 100,000 women undergoing mastectomies every year in the U.S., and many more undergoing other stages of treatment, the SupportBelt would be hugely helpful, Obert realized.

The innovation: The winning design is elegantly simple. A soft foam pad, hollow on the inside, rests against the chest underneath the seatbelt, which is secured to it by Velcro straps.

• The SupportBelt’s hollow pad gives it the flexibility to conform to different body shapes, and the soft foam alleviates the pressure on the sensitive area, Obert explained.
• The belt is slightly longer than a typical seatbelt attachment, which keeps its ends further away from the chest. It is also designed to cup the shoulder and reduce pressure on that area as well, which is also often sensitive following surgery.
• Lastly, the SupportBelt is crafted carefully so that the driver can move his or her head with ease and features leather accents that complement a car’s interior.

The launch: After the company completed testing, the SupportBelt was finally ready for production and distribution. This past October, patients began getting their belts—free of charge.

• Right now, the belts are only available to the U.S., and Ford is still fulfilling its first 2,500 orders. It has more belts available, however, and is gearing up for a next round of orders.

Attention, automakers: Ford has made the SupportBelt design open source, in the hopes that other automakers will make their own versions to blend in with their cars’ materials. “That’s my dream,” said Simoncini. 

The last words: Simoncini is glad that her teenage son got to witness the development of the SupportBelt, which became a source of inspiration and pride during a painful time in their lives. She says that the whole experience makes her especially proud to work with Ford, a company that “walks the walk.”

• “This got me to work every day” during her illness, she told us.

Read more, order here: If you want to learn more about the SupportBelt or order one, please go here.