Polaris MEP seeks ONR support to strengthen the workforce that will be pivoting to support COVID-19 efforts, while maintaining their viability to provide Navy and DIB manufacturing capabilities today
Abstract
The Polaris Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) is supporting the procurement of critical inventory for Rhode Island hospitals and is coordinating the filling of available manufacturing jobs with recently laid off workers. Work under this award will expand the Polaris MEP efforts to support Navy and Defense Industrial Base (DIB) critical manufacturing capabilities. Specific tasks to be performed: (1) Develop on-site and remote training for employees that will provide critical manufacturing capabilities to support current COVID-19 response and that will be used to sustain and eventually expand the Navy and DIB workforce in critical skills areas; (2) Identify ideal small businesses with capabilities to produce critical COVID-19 supplies by additive manufacturing and provide a workforce-to-employer matching capability that will empower Navy and DIB surge capability for future demands; and (3) On-board a COVID-19 coordinator to meet immediate response demand.Task One: Ramp-up training for the manufacturing workforce. Develop and launch both on-site and remote training to quickly skill up employees going into hiring companies (like Honeywell or others) who are struggling to meet the demand to support hospitals and other healthcare professionals during the epidemic. Using lean training and technical support, improve capacity to scale criticalmanufactured products for COVID-19 efforts. Resurrect TWI (Training Within Industry) program. This is a program that assisted the industrial base to retrofit their machinery, materials, and processes to enable the manufacturing of tanks and bombs in WWII. Now, specialized training is needed to pivot the workforce into manufacturing medical supplies and machinery at scale.Task Two: Build Team Capacity to support and scale COVID-19 efforts. Develop an outreach system with MassMEP to identify ideal small manufacturing competency of additive manufacturing to delivery critical supplies during the COVID 19 virus outbreak. Respond to urgent requests from FEMA, the FDA, the DON, state and localgovernments, and hospitals as needed to ensure that the best quality products are being procured from capable companies. Develop a workflow that can be used locally and across other MEPs to handle the influx of information, capabilities, and requests that come through the MEP. This outreach system should be documented with repeatable processes that could be used in case of another crisis. Conduct outreach to manufacturers displacing workers due to business decline from the COVID 19 virus outbreak as well as other companies hiring in order to manufacture medical and other critical supplies. Develop connection program to quickly identify displaced manufacturing workers that would need minimal training to begin work in another manufacturer of critical supplies.Task Three: Hire a COVID-19 Coordinator.Hire one full-time employee for a period of six months to support the above efforts and to conduct routine check-ins with manufacturers to capture capabilities, training needs, and assist with matchmaking of displaced employees to hiring manufacturing companies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 17, 2020
- Source ID
- N000142012638
Entities
People
- Christian Cowan
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Rhode Island