Supplier Scouting
Manufacturers as well as federal, state and local agencies need critical products that are in short supply to ensure our nation’s health and safety as well as our national and economic security. Small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) are especially challenged with sustaining operations in light of current conditions. There is a widespread struggle to find domestic manufacturing suppliers to meet present needs.
Impact Washington and our The MEP National Network™ are able to connect U.S. manufacturers that have relevant production capabilities and capacities with other manufacturers – enabling them to fulfill current market and societal needs. We can then assist those manufacturers in actually delivering needed products. We can identify manufacturers’ production and technical capabilities and connect them with supply chains of larger companies and government agencies.
How MEP Supplier Scouting Can Help Find U.S. Manufacturers:
- Locate Difficult-to-Source Products
- Leverage the MEP National Network’s extensive relationships
- Critical technical and process capabilities
- Match production volume capacity
- Prototyping and pilot run capability
How Much Does it Cost:
- Free Connection Service Provided by the MEP National Network™
What to Expect:
If you would like assistance finding suppliers to meet state or local critical domestic production, please contact Impact Washington. If you have a Supplier Scouting need or opportunity at the national level, please submit the form below. Upon receipt of your request, NIST MEP will make an appropriate connection between the NIST labs and the MEP Center client. NIST lab staff typically begin by sharing technical expertise relating to the manufacturer’s issues.
How to Get Started:
If you have a Supplier Scouting need or opportunity at the national level, please complete the form at link below
Link To Supplier Scouting Form
More About The program:
The MEP National Network™can support your vendor, materials or technical search by identifying:
- Technical and process capabilities.
- Production capacities.
- Ability to make products.
- Manufacturers to pivot production to critical supplies
Locating Difficult-to-Source Needs
- The MEP National Network has partnered with public and private organizations to identify U.S. suppliers for difficult-to-source needs.
- Supplier Scouting facilitates the interaction between top-of-supply chain companies and government agencies, with U.S. SMMs to help identify new suppliers who can produce hard-to-source items.
- Working with various top-of-the-supply chain partners, the MEP National Network is able to distribute information about their procurement needs to U.S. manufacturers on a national scale.
The MEP National Network’s supplier scouting assistance can be applied on a national, regional or local scale. By leveraging our extensive relationships and knowledge of U.S. manufacturer capabilities, we are able to identify manufacturers’ production and technical capabilities and connect them with supply chains of larger companies and government agencies.
Supplier Scouting partnerships include: U.S. Department of Transportation, including the Federal Railroad Administration, Federal Transit Administration (intra-city public transportation systems), Federal Highway Administration, and Maritime Administration; U.S. Department of Energy, including alternative and renewable energy technologies; U.S. Department of Commerce, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology; and U.S. Department of Defense, including the Defense Logistics Agency and Naval Air Systems Command.
The MEP National Network has conducted Supplier Scouting for supply chains including:
- Defense & Aerospace
- Home Retail
- Construction
- Rail Equipment & Infrastructure
- Transportation Infrastructure
Domestic manufacturing capabilities and capacities can produce any item needed by our nation’s supply chains. The MEP Nation Network’s Supplier Scouting provides a viable means by which U.S. manufacturing can be catalyzed to produce critically needed items in the near term. The result of the MEP National Network Supplier Scouting has been the identification of hundreds of domestic suppliers representing the domestic manufacture of hundreds of critical supply chain products and tens of millions of supply chain production dollars kept in the U.S.
THE MEP NATIONAL NETWORK
The MEP National Network is a unique public-private partnership that delivers comprehensive, proven solutions to U.S. manufacturers, fueling growth and advancing U.S. manufacturing.