January launch is set for manufacturing center

A member-service group is set to launch in January to help local manufacturers keep up with their fast-moving industry.

The Center for Advanced Manufacturing Puget Sound, based in Kent, will among other things, introduce companies to new technologies and manufacturing processes, said Tom McLaughlin, who started as executive director in late October.

The organization, which calls itself CAMPS, also will help local suppliers position themselves to be suppliers to major manufacturers, and help companies here find qualified consultants, he said.

Washington already has organizations to help manufacturers. Washington Manufacturing Services helps companies develop lean manufacturing programs, while the Washington Technology Center helps developers of new technologies turn those into viable businesses.

CAMPS will partner with both organizations by supplying services that they do not, McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin has had a 30-year career in manufacturing in the Puget Sound area, including a five-year stint as CFO of a Kent window manufacturer.

The new center is being launched with $300,000 in grants, half of that from the state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development. But McLaughlin expects the center will be largely self-supporting in three years, primarily through membership fees that will be tied to members' size. Already seven companies have joined, including Alpha Precision Machining, of Kent. McLaughlin said he hopes the organization will have 100 paying members by the end of 2008.

Creation of the center was initiated by the city of Kent and the Kent Chamber of Commerce in 2002, when officials at the organizations perceived that the vitality of the valley's manufacturing base was being threatened by strengthening overseas competition.

"I think it's very exciting," said former Kent Economic Development Manager Nathan Torgelson in a 2006 Business Journal story on the center. "Manufacturing jobs continue to be some of the highest paid jobs in the region and have a high multiplier effect. We're trying to do everything we can to ensure that manufacturing remains a competitive part of our economy."

Torgelson then said about 67,000 people work in manufacturing companies in South King County.

McLaughlin said he hopes to have five employees by the end of the year, who will be working in newly secured offices at Green River Community College's Kent Station campus. He added that the organization will be open to any company in the region that wants to join, possibly including those on the west side of Puget Sound.

"The whole concept started in Kent Valley, but we have expanded this. It will be a whole Puget Sound initiative," he said.