Helping New Jersey Manufacture Success - NJMEP

Nick Masiello is an emerging leader in the manufacturing segment. Nick is tasked with implementing and managing apprenticeship program cohorts. If data is passed internally or externally, chances are, Nick has his eyes on it first.

What made you decide to become a part of the NJMEP?

After graduating, I knew I wanted to work for a small to mid-size organization and preferably in the nonprofit and/or energy industry. During school, I had the opportunity to work/intern at a few nonprofits and I loved how much exposure I got to the real-life issues our communities and country face. I also enjoyed working alongside passionate, goal-oriented people. 

When I learned about NJMEP, I found out they were a nonprofit whose mission was to help improve the competitiveness and profitability of manufactures in the state of NJ. In a prior internship, I was engaged with a similar initiative—interviewing small business owners and giving recommendations on how they can increase their triple bottom line. While the theme for manufacturing airs more towards surviving I saw the intersection and I know if manufacturing wants to attract a new generation, sustainability issues will eventually have to take the forefront. After a few interviews and a sit down with the CEO, who was also an Eagle Scout, I felt this could be a good opportunity to learn from industry experts and an ideal place to start my career.

My position was just recently created as well, as Governor Murphy had signed a bill to increase apprenticeships across the state and NJMEP was awarded $600,000 under the GAINS (Growing Apprenticeships in Nontraditional Sectors) grant.

What is the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program and what makes it unique?

NJMEP engages in consultative selling but also serves as an intermediary between the manufacturing industry, government, and academia. This is critical as it helps ensure the manufacturing industry continues to have a voice and is noticed as a critical and foundational pillar of New Jersey’s economy. 

What makes NJMEP unique as well is it is connected to a parent organization called NIST-MEP. NIST or the National Institute of Standards & Technology is a government agency connected to the Department of Commerce which provides federal funding for the MEP National Network. Each MEP is a public-private partnership which means they receive half of their funding from federal appropriations and half from state/local entities. There is a MEP in every state, including Puerto Rico, and each center has their own business model. For instance, NJMEP outsources almost all of their training and utilizes a vast resource pool of New Jersey based training providers. Over the years, NJMEP has positioned itself as the one-stop shop for all matters manufacturing related and has even paved a big presence at the statehouse due to our outreach efforts. 

How have you helped businesses?

NJMEP helps businesses in many ways. We have a full suite of offerings across three main areas: Operational Excellence, Innovation & Growth, and Workforce Development. And we offer all manufactures a no-cost complimentary assessment which gives a deep-dive into a business’s operations and includes a summary of what they do well and what can be improved on. From there, all parties sit down and discuss a five-year plan and what possible projects make sense to help improve their business. We also apply for a lot of state grants and handle all paperwork and documentation for our clients. We offer many free workshops in the office, open enrollment courses for a small fee and also hold and run many events across the state. NJMEP has also been around since 1996 and we have accumulated a vast network to ensure any question or concern a client has gets answered. If we can’t, we connect them with someone that can.

Given the pandemic, what do Manufacturers need?

The biggest needs for manufactures given the pandemic has been guidance on how to operate, finding workers, and the need for additional financial resources. Workforce issues have long existed before this pandemic, however, due to people getting sick and/or fear of coming into work, many businesses have had to reduce hours and run less shifts. There have also been many issues regarding supply chain which has caused lots of uncertainty especially for companies that had suppliers in China. If you were to ask my CEO, he would say manufactures need recognition as he believes the path to recovery revolves around manufacturing.

How has NJMEP shifted their efforts?

NJMEP has shifted their efforts in a number of ways. For starters, we created a COVID-19 Supply Chain Support database. We reached out to all of our clients and essentially asked them what their supply chain inventory levels and capabilities were. This allowed us to gather information on two main objectives. What businesses are struggling and need help; and what businesses have the capacity to retool their facilities and produce the essential products like PPE’s for the people that need them most. We found many businesses that had the capacity to produce these items, they just didn’t know where to send them. NJMEP was able to connect these businesses with the right people. We also reorganized our entire company and created separate task force teams to focus on the various initiatives that sprung up and during the first couple of weeks held daily conference calls with our clients and resources to spread guidance given by the state and answer any questions.

If someone is interested in assisting your organization, what can they do to best support you?

The best way to support our organization is to read up on our Manufacturing Cares mission (https://www.njmep.org/manufacturing-cares/) and assist with any of our current charitable initiatives. If you are involved in the industry, follow and connect with us our socials, we have a great Marketing team that is constantly promoting the work we do and helping bridge connections.

What has this pandemic taught you about manufacturing and what is your expectation for the future?

The biggest takeaway this pandemic has taught me is how globalized our country has become. As seen from the hysteria that has ensued, one of the biggest issues our country faced (and still faces) was not having a reserve stockpile of the necessary resources our front line workers needed in order to safely combat this virus. This is mostly due to how dependent we are on other countries to manufacture these goods. My expectation for the future is that we will take a long look at not only our delayed reaction to this virus but how unprepared we were to fight it. I know NJMEP will be fighting for a seat at the table as at the end of the day, the clothes you wear, the food you eat, and the bed you sleep in are all manufactured somewhere. While I do understand why a lot of manufacturing has become outsourced over the years, it is still very alive and well with over 11,000 manufacturers in the state of NJ alone. What I believe the question becomes is not necessarily how do we bring it back; but how do we make it a more attractive and sustainable industry?

Is there anything I did not ask that you think needs to be shared?

https://www.njmep.org/covid-19-coronavirus-faqs-resources/