June 2016

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a national network of specialists who assist U.S. manufacturers, has designated the Advanced Institute for Manufacturing (AIM) at Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) as an MEP center. AIM will provide business and technical development, manufacturing training and instruction, and certification-related services to manufacturers in a six-county region that include Oneida, Herkimer, Fulton, Montgomery, Schoharie, and Otsego counties.

Hackers aren’t just targeting banks and credit card companies anymore. They’ve harmed hospitals with ransomware, a type of malicious software that’s designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid. Now, factories are on hacker hit-lists, too. Most cyberattacks are aimed at larger companies, but that doesn’t mean small-to-medium firms can neglect data security. How much do you know about ransomware, Trojans, and worms? More importantly, how will you defend against them?

Are you in the food, beverage, or agricultural industry in Upstate New York? On Monday, June 27 attend a free workshop and resource expo sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Empire State Development, NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets, and the Small Business Development Center at Niagara County Community College.

As a small to medium-sized manufacturer in New York State, what types of challenges are you facing? What barriers are preventing you from moving your business to the next level? Let us know by taking the 2016 New York Manufacturer Survey.

FuzeHub, a not-for-profit organization responsible for growing small to medium manufacturing companies (SMEs) in New York State by matching them with technical and business resources, has been designated by Empire State Development (ESD) as the Statewide Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Center, a new entity that complements New York’s robust network of 10 regional MEP centers that provide hands-on services to companies in every corner of the state. FuzeHub will be the first MEP Center to have a footprint that spans the entire state. Funding for this award is $2.4 million per year for five years.

Manufacturers are under pressure to squeeze greater productivity from their human workforces. Industrial robots can automate repetitive tasks, but that’s only part of the reason that robots are spreading like wildfire across the factory floor. Most discussions of this phenomenon center on whether robots will replace human workers. The choice is presented as “yes or no”, and this stifles deeper analysis. For smart manufacturers, learning to think about robots is as important a topic as whether robots are learning to think about us.