Consortia: an idea whose time has come.

In addition to new high-performance consortia formed last year with support of the Oregon Manufacturing Workforce Strategy, existing strategic alliances are gaining ground and obtaining funding to achieve manufacturing gains.
Recognizing that much is to be gained and less to be feared by revealing company practices, consortia are increasingly finding that strength in numbers helps attract attention and funding. This year, for example, Governor’s Workforce Training Funds are tied to cluster and consortium efforts.
All these consortia are driven by the same passion for sustaining Oregon’s manufacturing economy—including providing workforce development to ensure a pipeline of skilled workers that will continue to fill the manufacturing economy’s needs.

Feature profile: Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition—Oregon Gets Defensive
Military contracts awarded to Oregon companies in 2006 totaled just $562 million. Compare that to $7.7 billion for Connecticut and $2 Billion for Oklahoma. (Source: Oregon Business)

The Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition (PNDC), a member-funded organization dedicated to improving the defense industry climate across the Pacific Northwest, aims to change those numbers.

In just over two years since its 2005 founding, when a small group of business leaders who founded PNDC to share resources and ideas, PNDC’s membership has grown to include more than 90 companies from across the Pacific Northwest. These members represent a wide range of industrial activities, including manufacturing, metals, electronics, outdoor equipment, software and textiles. PNDC's activities are aimed at helping its members operate in all corners of the defense market, including the military, homeland security and civil defense.

PNDC is partnering with the Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership (OMEP), The Manufacturing 21 Coalition and other regional entities on a federally funded grant program known as the Northwest Manufacturing Initiative. This exciting program, which will total more than $2M, will allow for new workforce training programs, additional grants for manufacturing process improvement, and an outreach program to get regional manufacturers in front of defense procurement officials from around the country. PNDC’s role in this initiative is to identify and close gaps in the Defense industry base in the Pacific Northwest and facilitate the outreach efforts.

PNDC’s diversity reflects the vibrant manufacturing climate that exists in the Northwest today. One of the strengths of the region is our high-quality, flexible manufacturing base. These strengths are in high demand in today’s government acquisition environment, which means that Pacific Northwest businesses are in a position to succeed in the marketplace like never before.

Executive director Brice Barrett says that Oregon’s ranking among states isn’t necessarily a benchmark that the organization is judging itself by. But make no mistake, PNDC exists to make sure that our manufacturers have a chance to be a part of the nation’s defense industry base.