Hartford Business Journal

10 Hartford Business Journal • February 18, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com FOCUS: Manufacturing Does CT need a manufacturing czar? Q&A talks to Eric Brown, the vice president of manu- facturing policy and outreach at the Connecticut Business & Industry Asso- ciation, about the various issues impact- ing the state's manufacturing sector. Q. The CBIA has pitched a number of legislative proposals it hopes will get support in 2019. One includes creating a secretary position within the execu- tive branch to manage Connecticut's manufacturing policy and programs. How did this idea come about? A. Last fall, CBIA and our affiliate CONNSTEP facilitated meetings with manufacturers from across the state to create a comprehensive list of needs and solutions to the challenges facing Connecticut manufacturers. From workforce to technology, at- tracting students to hiring teachers, we found a nearly endless array of silos, both within and outside of state government, working on these issues with a severe lack of strategic and col- laborative coordination among them. And there is no single person inside or outside of government who owns responsibility for comprehensive, strategic coordination on Connecticut manufacturing, including the establish- ment and attainment of strategic goals. This is how we came to realize that creating a cabinet-level secretary position within the governor's office is absolutely critical. Q. CBIA has also recommended continu- ing to fund the state's manufacturing voucher, incumbent worker training, and apprenticeship programs, and ex- panding the apprenticeship tax credit to so-called "pass-through" entities. Why are these policy initiatives so important? A. It's important to make policymakers in the new administration and the new legislature aware that among the dozens of state-funded programs designed to help manufacturers, there are a few that have proven highly beneficial and that should be preserved, and hopefully ex- panded. The voucher, incumbent worker, and apprenticeship programs are highly utilized and valued by manufacturers. As to extending the existing manu- facturing apprenticeship tax credit to pass-through entities, the legislature has been anything but resistant. In fact, Eric Brown Vice President of Manufacturing Policy and Outreach, CBIA By Matthew Broderick Special to the Hartford Business Journal A s the director of strategic partnerships at the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Michelle Cote is bullish about Hartford's future. She was part of the planning team that helped draw investment from CTNext, a subsidiary of the state's venture capital firm Connecticut Innovations, to create the Hartford/East Hartford Innovation Spaces in 2017. One of four regional in- novation places in Connecticut — which collectively received $30 million in state investment — the Hartford/East Hartford hub is focused on innova- tion and entrepre- neurship in the capitol region's bedrock indus- tries: insurance, health care and manufacturing. "Those indus- tries make up a vast majority of economic activity in the region, but all three are go- ing through sig- nificant changes as a result of new technologies, the changing ways consumers live, and the way business is done," Cote said. While innovation spaces have given rise to several startup initiatives to address these sectors' needs, Cote acknowledges that for many fledgling companies, the cost to develop a prototype or test new tech- nologies can be prohibitively expen- sive and a challenge to innovation. But a new service, the Technology Labs Assistance Program (TLAP), created in partnership with the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT), Uni- versity of Hartford and Goodwin College, is hoping to change that. The program's goal is to provide in-state entrepreneurs and companies (with fewer than 300 full- time employees) with access to myriad advanced-manufacturing resources and services available at each institution. Projects submitted by Hartford and East Hartford-based companies that are selected will receive a 50 percent subsidy of the total project cost up to $10,000, funded by CTNext. "Small businesses and entrepreneurs have unique needs and [our institutions] have a lot of great equipment that's been supported by the state, so we wanted to open those resources up to businesses," said Lynn Baronas, director of strategic partnerships at the University of Hart- ford. The collaboration took root last year with an inventory of each institu- tion's resources and the creation of a website for the program. Baronas points, as an example, to the facilities and equipment at UHart's Cen- ter for Manufacturing and Metrology. "We have equipment that can test the strength of steel and other metals that are often used in aeronautics," Baronas said, not- ing the university works closely with manufacturing gi- ant Pratt & Whit- ney. Aerospace is a key hub under the Hartford/East Hartford innova- tion program. UHart also does a lot of work in the area of mechatronics and process automation. That's a valuable resource for manu- facturers, Cote says. With more ad- vanced supply chains, Cote explained, there's increased pressure on manufac- turers to improve production efficiency with a smaller degree of error. Most firms, she said, aren't able to purchase new advanced equipment, or risk existing orders, to implement unproven processing techniques. "We hope this [TLAP] program can be a testing ground for manufacturers to aug- ment traditional manufacturing process- es and see if the results justify making an investment in new equipment," she said. TLAP Program Manager Paul Streibel, who works for CCAT, says the top priority is to promote the program to the state's network of nearly 4,000 manufacturers, with focused out- High-tech Assist New technology-assistance program designed to support manufacturing innovation Claudio Campana, associate director of the Engineering Applications Center at the University of Hartford, works on equipment in the school's Center for Manufacturing and Metrology, which is now available for use by in-state manufacturers as part of a new technology-assistance program. Lynn Baronas, Director of Strategic Partnerships, University of Hartford PHOTOS | CONTRIBUTED

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