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Manufacturers join forces, create ‘virtual assembly line’

 

RENO -- Northern Nevada manufacturers are banding together to build a virtual one-stop shop for customers.

The idea is to link local manufacturers with varying skills and expertise in a dispersed assembly line that can quickly respond to orders. The goal is to attract more work and in turn create more jobs and turn the area into a haven for contract manufacturing.

“Manufacturing used to be all in one building, but in today’s world there is customization,” says Susan Clark, founder and president of Reno’s Nevada Venture Accelerator 250 known as NVA250, which is spearheading the effort. “People want (products with) mass-produced price points but customized for them. Think of it as a virtual manufacturing hub.”

The backbone of the project is a supplier database built and hosted by NVA250. That database was funded in part by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, which has identified manufacturing as a key industry in the state’s economic future.

The database contains detailed information on 200 manufacturers that can be searched using precise criteria such as materials, machine types and part size. The group is continuing to develop it and plans to add more features, including an interface to computer-aided design programs which would assemble a Nevada-based supply chain for a product as it’s being designed.

But NVA250 is working with a smaller group of manufacturers — about 15 right now, says Clark — to coordinate their work on some initial forays into producing products using the team approach.

One of the first projects the group has worked on is parts for a motorcycle engine being built by a California racing outfit. (Customer names aren’t revealed because manufacturers’ work is done under nondisclosure agreements.)

“One of the success stories of these manufacturing clusters is the UK-based motorsport market,” says John Kucjaz, a manufacturer who moved here from Michigan and is developing component technology to improve the performance of hybrid vehicles. “There is this amazing cluster in southwestern England that caters to that industry.”

The California customer hopes to duplicate that environment here, says Kucjaz, who says he moved to northern Nevada largely because of the manufacturing know-how.

Several manufacturers are working on the project, passing off parts to one another as the pieces move back and forth down the virtual assembly line. Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technology, for example, is developing material for a piston and needed a 3D scan of the part. So Tripp Enterprises Inc. in Sparks scanned the piston for AM2T.

“We gave them a piston and they did the 3D scan and produced data files for a CNC (computer numerical control) program which we in turn gave to a manufacturer in Carson City and said here’s the files, here’s the materials, now fabricate the pistons,” says AM2T owner Henry Meeks.

The machine shop in the production chain was Vineburg Machining Inc.

Meeks estimates having access to Tripp’s 3D scanner cut production time in half.

Meanwhile, Betra Manufacturing is working on incorporating in the engine the lightweight aluminum it is beginning to work with.

“There’s a lot of demand for the material, anywhere where weight saving is important,” says Larry Kondik, owner of the Carson City foundry. “I’m making cases for the outside the engine.”

So far, all the manufacturers are pleased with the results.

“It’s really a way for manufacturers in this area to come together and understand each other’s capabilities and strengths, and then organize to create an offering that’s compelling to potential customers,” says Frank Terrasas Jr., marketing and business development at Tripp. “Rather than doing it individually, what NVA250 is saying, and I think it’s brilliant, is this is what we can do as a region.”

_{Fri, 17 May 2013 10:55:28 -0700}

Repeal of Nevada’s mining tax cap one step closer to 2014 public vote

 

CARSON CITY -- As the price of gold hit its lowest level in a month Thursday, the Assembly Committee on Taxation took a vote on a controversial resolution that would remove the state’s long-standing mining tax cap. Senate Joint Resolution 15 made its way through the Legislature during the 2011 session and needs only to pass in the Assembly before June 4 in order to go to a public vote next year.

After just a few minutes of discussion and an unanswered call for public comment, Assemblywoman Irene Bustamante Adams moved to pass the resolution. The move was quickly seconded and the committee went into recess after a 7-5 vote in favor of passage.

A handful of mining lobbyists and journalists were present in room 4100 of the legislative building when the committee took its vote, a mere fraction of the number who were in attendance during the May 2 meeting when legislators heard public comment from eight opponents of the resolution and seven supporters.

At present, mining operations in Nevada are taxed on their net proceeds—their proceeds after operating expenses. The rate of taxes on mining net proceeds was capped at 5 percent in 1989. Supporters of SJR15 say that the tax cap and other mining tax provisions reflect an outdated imperative from the days when mining was the state’s largest industry. Mining currently ranks as the 9^th largest industry in the state.

Nevada historian and former state archivist, Guy Rocha was one of the individuals who testified in favor of the resolution during the May 2 meeting. In his written testimony, he asked legislators to give Nevadans the opportunity to vote on the issue.

“In the end, let 21^st-century Nevadans decide if they want their elected representatives to decide mining tax policy and mining taxes or continue with a mining tax policy dictated by the state constitution first adopted almost 150 years ago under circumstances dramatically different than today,” Rocha said.

Opponents of the resolution point out that the 5 percent tax on net proceeds is not the only tax that mining operations pay. Like any other business, mines must also pay payroll, property, sales taxes, etc. Some opponents have also suggested that mining operations might actually pay lower taxes if the resolution were to pass and the tax cap were removed from the constitution.

SJR15 passed the Senate on April 1 in a vote of 17-4 and is expected to pass in the Assembly as well. If it does it will be placed on the ballot for the 2014 general election.

 

_{Fri, 17 May 2013 10:36:50 -0700}

Nevada land bills one step closer to passage

 

WASHINGTON, DC – The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources have moved forward with two pieces of legislation that focus on resolving issues in Nevada.

Both bills, the Multispecies Habitat Conservation Plan Implementation Act, introduced by U.S. Senator Dean Heller (R-NV), and the Pine Forest Range Recreation Enhancement Act, coauthored by Heller will provide for much-needed growth in the Silver State. Today’s actions were considered a critical step towards enactment of these bills. 

“The federal government controls roughly 87% of Nevada’s land base. Lands bills, such as those we considered today, are a necessity for Nevada. The federal government has limited flexibility with public lands and we often need to step in to do what is right for the Silver State. These pieces of legislation are what I believe to be examples of balanced efforts to improve and protect precious habitat and provide opportunities for growth.  I look forward to continue working through the collaborative process to balance the need for conservation and development in Nevada,” said Senator Dean Heller.

The Multispecies Habitat Conservation Plan Implementation Act (S. 757)

• Senator Heller introduced this bill to allow the city of Mesquite and Lincoln County to implement important habitat conservation measures using funds in specials accounts that were created over a decade ago. The bill also provides the City of Mesquite with additional time to purchase land around their airport.

Pine Forest Range Recreation Enhancement Act

• Senator Heller co-authored this legislation with Senator Reid in an effort to improve recreational access and appropriate permanent protection in the Pine Forest Range. This legislation is ‘wilderness done right’ and the result of a collaborative community process where all stakeholders were given a seat at the table.

_{Fri, 17 May 2013 09:51:03 -0700}

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