Jack got the opportunity to head out to Capitol Hill this week with CIFT/Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) this past week to discuss the benefits of the MEP program with our Ohio Senators and House members. Dave Cole, from Willy’s Salsa, an awesome salsa company headquartered in Toledo, also traveled from the 419. We met with several different groups including staff from Sherrod Brown’s office, JD Vance’s, Marcy Kaptur’s, Bob Latta’s and others. Our goal was to educate on the positive impacts that the MEP program has had on our organization. While we haven’t directly used many of their services, we have worked with them as a provider of automation for their clients. The visit went extremely well – We were able to discuss the positive impacts of automation within manufacturing, specifically the fact that instead of eliminating jobs, in most scenarios it will make a company more competitive, lead to better paying positions for operators, prepare us for the baby boomer retirement wave and keep the US competitive on a global scale! Jack came home having met some awesome manufacturers within the state as well as helped show the other MEP chapters around the state what we can do for their clients.
