Advancing manufacturing: Q&A with Jim Walsh, North Central Indiana Business Assistance Center.

• Position: Interview

Jim Walsh is the vice president of the North Central Indiana Business Assistance Center (NCI). Michiana Advantage recently sat down with Walsh for a discussion of the state of manufacturing in Michiana.

Michiana Advantage: "What is your realistic take on the state of manufacturing in the seven-county region known as Michiana?"

Walsh: "2009 is going to be a tough year. Certainly all of the RV-related industries, its suppliers and RV manufacturers are all suffering from the price of fuel and the economic downturn. It's painful, there are a lot of jobs lost and many people we are in the process of retraining and reeducating, but the result will be the increased market share for the companies remaining and hopefully an emphasis on new, more fuel efficient, greener technologies that will propel the industry into the future."

Michiana Advantage: "How are companies rethinking the way they do business?

Walsh: "I think one area of success is the Center's new technology program. Through this effort we are challenging the university technology transfer groups to think in terms of our area's patents. We are providing them with an incredible variety of patents that are available from all the manufacturing innovators in our area and asking them, 'What fields or markets could these technologies work in?' It's very exciting stuff."

We created a website at www.michianatech.org and made them available to entrepreneurs and technology transfer groups. But they need to be interpreted. It's sometimes difficult to understand exactly what the technology is, and how it can be applied. Starting with Notre Dame, we've got a team that...