Expanding a Small-Business Operation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Meg contacted TMAC for assistance in supplier matching. Because of TMAC’s expertise in batch specialty chemicals manufacturing, they were quickly able to quickly sketch out a solution to scale-up the production of Southside Plant’s products. TMAC broke down the recipe that Meg was using in her kitchen and came up with a way to replicate her process steps in industrial-size equipment such as jacketed batch-reactors and mixers instead of kitchen utensils. With these specifications, TMAC was able to find a toll manufacturer who had the appropriate equipment and was willing to make the quantities that she required. TMAC then utilized MEP Connect, a web-based collaboration and information-sharing tool developed by NIST, to look for suitable toll manufacturers who had the capability to implement the manufacturing solution. This led to a collaborative effort between TMAC and Phil Plyler, Manager of Client Services at the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, which is the MEP center in Arkansas. This connection resulted in the identification of a toll manufacturer in Arkansas. Meg visited the toll manufacturer’s facility in Arkansas and she was very pleased with their large-scale equipment and facilities. Since they are in the United States and are also willing to not only manufacture the material but also package it, this gives her the advantage of keeping her product manufacturing local and is less likely to be affected by global events (e.g. her current supply of packaging material got delayed because of the problem in the Suez Canal where a large container ship got stuck in the channel and prevented other ships from passing).