Spring 2002 Issue
SCMEP Launches Plastics Initiative
By Charles Rampey, P.E., CME
South Carolina is home to a well established and growing plastics industry. Although it initially originated to support the textile industry, its role has evolved into serving today's leading industries including pharmaceutical products, automotive products and packaging.
At SCMEP, we believe a well-supported plastics sector in South Carolina can create wealth and secure, rewarding jobs for the next generation of South Carolinians. We offer the following vision of the plastics sector in 2010, at the end of another decade of growth and development.
In 2010, South Carolina's plastics firms are the premier plastics sector in the southeastern United States. South Carolina plastics companies are valued as resourceful suppliers and respected as vigorous competitors throughout the world. Their concerted capabilities generate solutions for those customers that demand substantial design and engineering contributions and require a broad range of processes from their preferred suppliers.
The plastics sector in South Carolina is one with great potential and significant challenges. To achieve this vision, the sector will require excellence in the infrastructure that supports the plastics sector in its quest for superiority. A collaborative effort must provide the building blocks that are so important to the growth of this sector.
SCMEP Program for the Plastics Sector
Prior to 2002, SCMEP gathered information and input from selected companies in the plastics sector. The SCMEP program for the South Carolina plastics sector will have three core components that address priority needs defined by plastics firms. The program will mobilize SCMEP resources and focus SCMEP partner capabilities to:
1. Provide plastics firms that invest in their workers with customized workforce development and assure that growing plastics firms can hire well-trained, work-ready new employees.
Workforce development is without question the most urgent need among the broad ranks of South Carolina plastics firms. This fact has been echoed throughout the focus groups that have been conducted by SCMEP. Not only are firms finding it difficult to recruit and/or retain employees, many state that there is a significant gap between the current skills of their workers and those required to meet their business objectives.
2. Deliver expert consultation on modern manufacturing technologies and quality assurance methods to progressive plastics firms that strive to succeed in competitive global markets. - South Carolina plastics firms clearly recognize that their customers will demand increasing commitments to quality, precision, timely delivery, and design and engineering content from suppliers. However, a substantial segment of firms currently lag behind national averages for sector firms in adoption of modern manufacturing methods and performance on key quality metrics.
3. Develop a statewide infrastructure that provides plastics firms with objective, reliable expertise on informational technologies relevant to their enterprises, a suite of electronic business services appropriate to the needs of plastics firms at several stages on the learning curve, and a dedicated portal for aggressive plastics firms that seek the resources and environment that support steady development of electronic business.
SCMEP believes these three initiatives are our best response to the current and future needs of South Carolina plastics firms based on research and consultation with companies during the past 18 months.
How We Will Develop the Program...
Five principles will govern the development of our program:
Build in Phases. We will learn by doing. Once initial lessons are absorbed, we will adjust as appropriate, emphasize succeeding initiatives, discontinue any that did not work, and consider new program dimensions that have emerged from our launch phase. Our key indicator will be the percentage of plastics firms with whom we have established an ongoing relationship as their preferred strategic resource. If a third or more of plastics firms enter such a relationship with us, we will be well positioned to recruit many of their executives as advisors with whom we will plan succeeding phases of our program for the plastics sector. The objective is to build toward full realization of our 2010 vision for South Carolina plastics.
Build through Manufacturer Leadership. We will learn from our plastics customers. Our initial plan was formed based on a survey of the sector and a first round of discussions with plastics executives. In 2002, additional visits with firms conducted by SCMEP field staff will deepen plastics companies' contribution to our program. Full implementation of this principle will come when further development of the program is defined by a Program Council of leading plastics executives who step forward to represent the general interests of their sector.
Build SCMEP Staff and Partner Capability. Our program requires steady development of SCMEP staff and partner ability to provide the services which aggressive plastics firms will demand. The swift arrival of electronic business in manufacturing will bring global sourcing to all supply chains. As South Carolina plastics firms compete in this dynamic marketplace, the range of services we offer must evolve with changing needs. Current staff must acquire new skills, we must recruit new experts, and our pool of specialized consultants on which we can draw must grow.
Focus on Firms that Invest in Performance and Growth. SCMEP will continue to serve all South Carolina plastics manufactures who want our services, but we will target those firms within the plastics sector that invest in higher performance and growth. Our objective is to expand the ranks of these firms and support their development as world-class competitors.
Adapt to the Evolving Needs of the Plastics Sector. Rapid change is certain. In the first decade of the 21st century, as electronic business transforms industry, regions will compete in the new economy through the power and adaptability of the infrastructures they deploy to assist manufacturers on their turf. Regions with the skill to read the future and adapt quickly will succeed. The SCMEP Program for the Plastics Sector will be a crucial component of South Carolina's dynamic infrastructure.
If you are a member of the plastics manufacturing community and want to play a role in the development of this program, please call John Irion, SCMEP president, at 803-252-6976, ext. 231, or jirion@scmep.org.
