Manufacturing Resiliency Initiative

Center for Industrial Services Program Manager Beth Phillips discusses the agency's manufacturing resiliency initiative. Through this initiative, UT CIS is connecting manufacturers and communities to resources including the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the University of Tennessee EDA University Center, Tennessee Development Districts, state and regional economic development organizations (EDOs) and others to strengthen business, retain jobs and build long-term economic resiliency. 

Transcript

Audio file

Beth Phillips edit_mixdown.mp3

Transcript

00:00:04 Speaker 1

Hi and welcome to In Touch with Tennessee, a podcast of the UT Institute for Public Service.

00:00:09 Speaker 1

Today's guest is Beth Phillips, director of Economic development programs for the Center for Industrial Services.

00:00:17 Speaker 1

Beth is here to talk about the Center for Industrial Services Tennessee manufacturing resiliency initiatives.

00:00:25 Speaker 1

Welcome, Beth.

00:00:27 Speaker 2

Hi Susan, glad to be here.

00:00:30 Speaker 1

Can you explain to our listeners what the Tennessee Manufacturing Resiliency initiative is?

00:00:36 Speaker 2

I'll be glad to and I'll give you.

00:00:38 Speaker 2

A brief overview of the program, and then I'll.

00:00:40 Speaker 2

Tell you more about how it

00:00:41 Speaker 2

Was developed and why?

00:00:42 Speaker 1

OK.

00:00:44 Speaker 2

The Tennessee Manufacturing Resiliency initiative

00:00:47 Speaker 2

Was launched about two years ago to help manufacturers strengthen their resiliency.

00:00:53 Speaker 2

To recover and withstand natural and man-made disasters.

00:00:59 Speaker 2

The program brings together a variety of Tennessee programs or excuse me.

00:01:04 Speaker 2

CIS programs and services that really help manufacturers be more economically competitive and help them withstand any disruptions to the economy.

00:01:16 Speaker 2

So we developed this program actually.

00:01:19 Speaker 2

Through a grant from the US economic development and Business Administration, we applied for this grant, actually, at the.

00:01:28 Speaker 2

End of 2019. In the very beginning of 2020, before the pandemic and the program that we applied under was the EDA Disaster Preparedness program.

00:01:42 Speaker 2          

We looked at.

00:01:42 Speaker 2

That grant proposal back in the fall of 2019. It was. It was really early on and the program actually, the grant program was designed to help communities and businesses improve their resiliency. And it was targeted towards.

00:01:47 Speaker 1

Oh, goodness.

00:02:03 Speaker 2

Communities, counties, regions that had experienced.

00:02:07 Speaker 2

Disasters and so we took a look at the state of Tennessee and we had to look at each county in Tennessee.

00:02:08 Speaker 1

Right?

00:02:16 Speaker 2

A county had to be designated by FEMA.

00:02:20 Speaker 2

As having a natural disaster that had occurred within the past two years, and remarkably in looking at at the state of Tennessee and looking at all 95 counties, we saw that 59 of the 95 had experienced a FEMA declaration disaster.

00:02:39 Speaker 2

In the last two years so.

00:02:40 Speaker 2

That could have been high.

00:02:42 Speaker 2

Winds flooding some other sort of.

00:02:44 Speaker 2

That we looked at.

00:02:47 Speaker 2

Across the state at those counties and we we saw that a lot of those counties had a significant amount of manufacturers in their county, and that oftentimes these manufacturers did not have any type of plan in place that would help them in the event.

00:03:08 Speaker 2

Just ask.

00:03:09 Speaker 2

We also looked at the nature of those counties and largely those counties were rural counties and were lacking in some of the resources that might help them at the Community level as well. So we proposed to EDA at in January of 2020.

00:03:20 Speaker 1

Right

00:03:28 Speaker 2

This manufacturing resiliency program and little did we know that in less than two months we'd be.

00:03:35

In the middle of a

00:03:36 Speaker 2

Global pandemic and you know we can obviously.

00:03:41 Speaker 2

Look at what that.

00:03:42 Speaker 2

Did to the manufacturing supply chain.

00:03:46 Speaker 2

To business and industry to employees.

00:03:49 Speaker 2

The disruptions that have occurred since so.

00:03:54 Speaker 2 

Long story short, we pivoted this grant proposal from that disaster declaration pot of money to another pot of money under EDA that was focused on.

00:04:06 Speaker 2

Impacts of the pandemic and we were. We were funded under that program. It's a three-year funding and it pulls together a variety of resources within the Center for Industrial Services to not only help manufacturers improve their resiliency, but help communities build resiliency as well. So it's a three-year program.

00:04:24 Speaker 1

Right

00:04:26 Speaker 2

And we are in in about a year.

00:04:29 Speaker 2

Half into that program.

00:04:30 Speaker 1

Oh wow OK OK.

00:04:32 Speaker 1

So tell us.

00:04:34 Speaker 1

How this initiative can help manufacturers?

00:04:36 Speaker 1

Prepare for disasters or work stoppage.

00:04:39 Speaker 2

When obviously when there's an economic disruption, there are several things.

00:04:44 Speaker 2

That that occur.

00:04:46 Speaker 2

And can impact a manufacturer.

00:04:48 Speaker 2

First of all, as we've said, supply chain disruptions are huge.

00:04:54 Speaker 2

We looked at.

00:04:56 Speaker 2

Manufacturers in Tennessee to see what level of preparedness manufacturers had to withstand those disruptions.

00:05:04 Speaker 2

One of the key indicators is whether or not a manufacturer has what is called a business continuity plan in place, and that's.

00:05:12 Speaker 2

Something that really.

00:05:12 Speaker 2

Guides their efforts to recover from a natural disaster.

00:05:16 Speaker 2

To respond, very.

00:05:17 Speaker 2

Quickly and we found that really only

00:05:19 Speaker 2

10 percent of companies of manufacturers in the state had those plans in place.

00:05:25 Speaker 2

So there was a real need there.

00:05:27 Speaker 2

The other thing is looking at supply chain disruptions.

00:05:32 Speaker 2

Some of the.

00:05:33 Speaker 2

Yeah, and and I'm just going to refer to some of my my figures here, but

00:05:39 Speaker 2

If you look at manufacturing, output that

00:05:45 Speaker 2

The decline in manufacturing output the impact from the pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, manufacturing output fell by the greatest amount in the past 75 years. It was a huge decrease in manufacturing output.

00:06:02 Speaker 2

Key supply chains were disrupted, and of course one of the largest supply chains was the automotive supply chain. And as we know we have considerable automotive production in Tennessee. In fact, 7% of vehicles in the US are made in the state of Tennessee.

00:06:22 Speaker 2

And with three OEM's and over 900 automotive suppliers, the automotive industry was significant.

00:06:29 Speaker 2

Only impacted right?

00:06:31 Speaker 2

So the need for resiliency, planning and preparedness was really strong in this state.

00:06:37 Speaker 2

So looking at some of the resources that the CIS has to bring.

00:06:42 Speaker 2

To the table.

00:06:43 Speaker 2

We have a wealth of resources already in place to help manufacturers with these issues.

00:06:51 Speaker 2

You look at the manufacturing extension program as being the key manufacturing Extension Partnership program across the country, helping companies solve problems, improve their competitiveness.

00:07:05 Speaker 2

A variety of resources to do that.

00:07:08 Speaker 2

You look at the OSHA program that that CIS operates that's helping companies respond to disasters, helping them prepare for disasters.

00:07:20 Speaker 2

Bringing a wealth of resources to the.

00:07:23 Speaker 2

You look at our community economic development program and we train economic developers, community leaders and others in how to respond and be more resilient and identify strategies and implement strategies to build their competitiveness.

00:07:41 Speaker 2

You look at the PTAC program.

00:07:43 Speaker 2

Procurement Technical Assistance Center program.

00:07:44 Speaker 1

Right

00:07:46 Speaker 2

That's helping companies connect with suppliers.

00:07:49 Speaker 2

Uh, a variety of resources in those programs so.

00:07:54 Speaker 2

We were able

00:07:55 Speaker 2

To pull all these programs together and offer these services to companies.

00:08:00 Speaker 1

Wow, that's great.

00:08:01 Speaker 1

That's great.

00:08:02 Speaker 1

So what were some of?

00:08:03 Speaker 1

The you know, I know you've mentioned.

00:08:05 Speaker 1

The CIS all of the different CIS areas.

00:08:08 Speaker 1

What were some of the particular services?

00:08:11 Speaker 1

I mean, did you all help some of these companies develop their?

00:08:15 Speaker 1

Business resiliency plans or help certain communities.

00:08:19 Speaker 2

So really what we've done is we've kind of categorized these resources and services in four different areas, one being supply chain is s

00:08:28 Speaker 2

Key one.

00:08:31 Speaker 2

Another one being cyber security.

00:08:33 Speaker 2

Oftentimes we don't think of cyber security as being important to resiliency, but obviously if so, if your cyber security.

00:08:43 Speaker 2

Is compromised it has a huge impact of growth, operations, health, safety and emergency preparedness.

00:08:45 Speaker 1

Right

00:08:51 Speaker 2

Another area and then leadership and communications.

00:08:55 Speaker 1

Oh OK, yeah.

00:08:56 Speaker 2

So all of those areas really comprehensively.

00:09:01 Speaker 2

Is the focus of this program right right?

00:09:05 Speaker 1

So in addition to manufacturers, can you talk about how the initiative helps communities?

00:09:13 Speaker 2

We're working with communities in several different ways.

00:09:16 Speaker 1

I'm fine.

00:09:16 Speaker 2

As, as I mentioned, the Tennessee Certified Economic Developer Program, which is operated through UT Center for Industrial Services.

00:09:25 Speaker 2

It prepares economic development practitioners and community leaders across the state.

00:09:32 Speaker 2

In principles and practices of economic development, what we realized early on that we needed a course that was focused on economic resiliency.

00:09:42 Speaker 2

You know, resiliency is a term.

00:09:44 Speaker 2

Now that we hear all the time.

00:09:46 Speaker 2

But back when you know pre pandemic.

00:09:49 Speaker 2

There wasn't a lot of talk about resilience, but.

00:09:51 Speaker 1

Right

00:09:52 Speaker 2

We had, we had recognized that with other disasters that we had seen impact Tennessee such as floods, tornadoes and other things where communities were really.

00:10:03 Speaker 2

Right?

00:10:05 Speaker 2

Disrupted the economies were significantly disrupted.

00:10:09 Speaker 2

We needed to help community leaders understand.

00:10:12 Speaker 2

How can we develop strategies, identify resources and then take actions that can really help mitigate those disruptions when they occur and help you.

00:10:24 Speaker 2

Entities respond quickly to business and industry and others in the community and and recover more quickly.

00:10:32 Speaker 2

So we developed a course in economic resiliency that we offered for the first time last fall.

00:10:40 Speaker 2

Another thing that we're.

00:10:41 Speaker 2

Doing is we're working closely with regions across the state, the development districts.

00:10:48 Speaker 2

And helping to identify what?

00:10:50 Speaker 2

Are the resiliency plans that are?

00:10:52 Speaker 2

In place at the regional level, what are the resources that are available at the regional level?

00:10:58 Speaker 2

Can we help?

00:10:59 Speaker 2

Communities align their local strategies with these regional strategies and state resources as well.

00:11:05 Speaker 1

Right, right

00:11:07 Speaker 1

Are you finding at the regional level where the resiliency plans in place or?

00:11:14 Speaker 1

Something that.

00:11:15 Speaker 1

You had to work on.

00:11:15 Speaker 2

It it it's something that that we're working on and I think this is just something that we are all now focused on.

00:11:25 Speaker 2

You know local, regional, state, level and national level globally.

00:11:30 Speaker 2

It's all about building that resiliency and being able to respond more quickly and mitigate.

00:11:30 Speaker 1

Right

00:11:35 Speaker 1

Those risks, yeah, absolutely absolutely.

00:11:39 Speaker 1

Well, great, well how will this?

00:11:42 Speaker 2

How do you see?

00:11:42 Speaker 1

This evolving I know you said it's a it's a three-year grant and there's probably about a year left.

00:11:50 Speaker 2

It's interesting because as we've gotten into this program.

00:11:56 Speaker 2

Resources are.

00:11:57 Speaker 2

Are being developed as we go.

00:12:00 Speaker 2

I'll give you a really.

00:12:01 Speaker 2

Good new example of a resource that Utah is delivering.

00:12:07 Speaker 2

As part of this program that was not in place before the pandemic.

00:12:11 Speaker 2

There's a program that the manufacturing extension partnership.

00:12:16 Speaker 2

Has developed to help strengthen supply chains and it's called. Excuse me. It's called connects and other states. I think there are maybe 10-12 other states in the country that have adopted this program in Tennessee. Has adopted it as well. It's a program to help strengthen.

00:12:36 Speaker 2

Supply chains and to help strengthen individual manufacturers, help them identify new potential suppliers and also help a manufacturer become a supplier to other companies so.

00:12:50 Speaker 2

Through that program.

00:12:53 Speaker 2

We are helping companies register.

00:12:58 Speaker 2

Develop profiles, get the word out about their capabilities, what they are looking for, what they have to offer, and we're seeing a really great response to that program for manufacturers and economic developers across the state we have, I believe, over 100 companies.

00:13:19 Speaker 2

Richard, in the comics supply chain database and Tennessee and more are coming online every day and we've just been working on this program for about two or three months, right?

00:13:30 Speaker 2

Right that's great.

00:13:32 Speaker 2

And a A.

00:13:33 Speaker 2

Good example of that is just recently one of our staff was.

00:13:38 Speaker 2

Working with with.

00:13:39 Speaker 2

A company and they said they had registered under the connects program and another supplier, actually a company in Tennessee.

00:13:49 Speaker 2

Had contacted them very quickly shortly thereafter.

00:13:54 Speaker 2

And so now they are.

00:13:55 Speaker 2

Supplying to that company and they were not even.

00:13:56 Speaker 1

No why?

00:13:58 Speaker 2

Aware, even though.

00:13:59 Speaker 2

They were located just a few counties from each other.

00:14:01 Speaker 2

They really weren't.

00:14:02 Speaker 2

Aware of the capabilities and and the connections.

00:14:07 Speaker 2

Within that supply chain.

00:14:08 Speaker 1

Wow, that's great.

00:14:10 Speaker 1

That is great.

00:14:11 Speaker 1

Well, what else would you like to share with us about the manufacturing resiliency initiative?

00:14:18 Speaker 2

One thing that I think is really.

00:14:22 Speaker 2

Important under this initiative is that it brings together.

00:14:28 Speaker 2

A lot of.

00:14:28 Speaker 2

Partners to do this work.

00:14:29 Speaker 1

Right

00:14:31 Speaker 2

The funding through EDA, is critical to this.

00:14:36 Speaker 2

It helps.

00:14:39 Speaker 2

CIS, it helps regions.

00:14:42 Speaker 2

It helps the state of Tennessee.

00:14:44 Speaker 2

It helps us really build those partnerships, identify other resources that we can bring to the table as well.

00:14:51 Speaker 2

So I think that's that's really important.

00:14:54 Speaker 2

Another part of this program that we feel is very important is that this is not something that will just go away after the pandemic ends.

00:15:03 Speaker 1

Right

00:15:05 Speaker 2

This is something that we will continue to build on.

00:15:09 Speaker 2

Will continue.

00:15:11 Speaker 2

To look at how we can strengthen resiliency of business and industry in the state, how we can build their competitiveness.

00:15:18 Speaker 2

So how we can help communities be more resilient.

00:15:21 Speaker 2

I think this is something that.

00:15:23 Speaker 2

Is here for the long run, right?

00:15:26 Speaker 1

Right?

00:15:27 Speaker 1

Well great, well thanks for joining us today, Beth.

00:15:29 Speaker 1

It's been very informative and thank you listeners for tuning in to in touch with Tennessee.

00:15:35 Speaker 1

Be sure to look for us on all major podcast providers, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

00:15:44 Speaker 2

Thank you Susan it’s been a pleasure.