WIN scores $2.19M grant to grow custom manufacturing

Workforce Intelligence Network for Southeast Michigan has scored a piece of a $2.19M federal grant to help spur more job creation in advanced manufacturing.

Advanced manufacturing is another way of saying custom manufacturing, which means short runs of products done on spec.

“We will be working with small-to-medium-sized manufacturers in southeast Michigan and help them be ready for more custom manufacturing,” says Lisa Katz, executive director of Workforce Intelligence Network for Southeast Michigan. “So instead of long runs of tens of thousands of parts they can do smaller runs of custom parts.”

The Workforce Intelligence Network for Southeast Michigan will partner with the Detroit Regional Chamber, Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center, and National Center for Manufacturing Sciences to leverage the grant over the next three years. The funding will support development of the Innovation Realization Cluster of Southeast Michigan and connect local businesses with new opportunities in an effort to foster growth and development of the region’s custom-manufacturing base

“This will help companies meet that demand,” Katz says. “We can become a destination for contract manufacturing.”

The money is coming from the U.S. Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge for Advanced Manufacturing.

Source: Lisa Katz, executive director of Workforce Intelligence Network for Southeast Michigan
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.