4 min read June 2023 — In an interview with Invest:, Peter Connolly, CEO of the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program (NJMEP), talked about plans to keep the organization’s work with small and medium manufacturers and help them stay relevant, profitable and in New Jersey. NJMEP is also working on initiatives to prepare the region for the next industrial revolution, including robotics and AI programs, cybersecurity regulations and workforce development programs.
What is your vision for NJMEP and some immediate priorities?
I’m not changing the direction or the force of where we are going and plan to keep the philosophy of supporting small and medium manufacturers and helping them stay relevant, profitable and in New Jersey. We have done a lot of good work with our state and local governments and have already done great things with our governor’s office and the Department of Labor. We are also starting to see more support for keeping manufacturing in New Jersey. We plan on staying the course in regard to helping manufacturers as we have already become the leading voice in that respect.
What are some highlights and milestones you would like to share?
We are proud to be in every state within the United States, including Puerto Rico. For the last five years, we have been the top-ranked MEP in the NIST MEP national network and we are looking to continue that. In the summer of 2021, we opened a South Jersey office and saw an increase in our support for South Jersey-based manufacturers in 2022. Northern and Central Jersey contain a bulk of the manufacturing but South Jersey was an untapped market and we are glad that we were able to make a change there.
Another big development in working with the governor’s office and the Economic Development Authority (EDA) was the $35 million that was allocated to supporting the manufacturing industry in the state budget. A program that came out of that was the Manufacturing Voucher Program, which allows companies to apply for grants valued at anywhere from $5,000 to $250,000 to buy capital equipment. That was initially a $20 million project but they received close to 500 applications so we have worked with the governor to provide another $20 million to that project.
We’ve helped create and retain over 50,000 new manufacturing jobs in New Jersey since our inception. I also have to mention ‘MADE in NJ’ Manufacturing Day. It is always the first Friday in October and this past year we had over 1,000 people made up of state and federal legislators, around 400 individual manufacturing companies from New Jersey and even had a robotics competition.
What does the next industrial revolution look like for New Jersey and how are you preparing the region?
Robotics is key going forward and many more manufacturing companies are starting to use it. It does not eliminate jobs, it just moves people around to make them more flexible. We have robotics programs in collaboration with high schools but AI is something we are still looking at.
In regard to cybersecurity, the Department of Defense is coming out with new regulations and we are working with a lot of companies to help protect their systems. There is a cost to that kind of protection and often it is the mom-and-pop shops that we are helping to mitigate the cost as much as possible.
What workforce development initiatives are you working on?
College and universities are getting more and more expensive and you are seeing a downtrend in people attending traditional four-year colleges. For that reason, we spend a lot of time on pre-apprenticeships at the high-school level and at community colleges to train students in manufacturing jobs. We are also working to train retired veterans and their families, which is a five-year, $5 million program. You don’t see woodworking and metalshop classes in high school anymore so we are trying to fill that void.
How are you capitalizing on sustainability?
We definitely want to support the workforce development in those segments, whether that is offshore wind or anything else related to sustainability efforts. During our State-of-the-State of Manufacturing Recording, we will be rolling out a New Jersey supply chain database where companies can request the kind of equipment they need and be matched with companies they can work with throughout New Jersey.
What legislation or regulation are you monitoring as it relates to manufacturing?
At the top of the list is the manufacturing initiatives through the EDA and the New Jersey Business Action Center (NJBAC). We work with New Jersey Business and Industry Association (NJBIA) on a number of issues, including the corporate tax rollback, which is significant. There are a number of bills on manufacturing and higher education that will aid the funding of workforce development programs.
What are the challenges you are seeing?
The biggest challenge is jobs. There are probably over 40,000 manufacturing jobs open in New Jersey. We are working with high schools and guidance counselors to promote manufacturing as a career since college doesn’t have to be the only option for young adults. We need mechanics, who are no longer the grease monkeys that people might view them as, especially now with the average vehicle having about 400 computer chips in them, essentially making today’s mechanics computer scientists. There are high-paying jobs in manufacturing and you are seeing a lot of companies training earlier on to secure that manufacturing workforce.
What is your outlook for NJMEP?
The outlook is very good but New Jersey has a lot of red tape and it takes a long time to get things done. However, companies want to be here with New Jersey being a logistics hub for the nation. There is also a high-tech sector and qualified workforce here.
I’m really pleased with how the state has supported manufacturing over the last few years and it has been nice to see the growth. We have a relationship with the New Jersey Devils where they highlight manufacturers in New Jersey at each home game and we would like to continue doing that.
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