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Print Edition StoriesWednesday, September 1, 2010
New England startups: Consider keeping manufacturing local
By James M. Connolly
UMass President Jack Wilson on Entrepreneurship
MHT's Emerging Technologies Forum: Health IT and the Cloud
When we set out to take stock of some of the interesting companies across New England, we asked industry groups and others which companies are worth watching for interesting technology or management teams.
We ended up with several dozen suggestions. There was one surprise. Mixed in with the breakthrough technologies that are still at the applied research stage, we found companies where the innovation is as much in the integration of proven technologies in new ways.
Take the case of Holase. Traffic light technology won’t knock your socks off, but Holase took its controller technology, built out a metal frame and incorporated proven LED technology to design a life-saving portable, traffic light.
Many of these technologies are in production or heading for it. Production means manufacturing, and as entrepreneur David Friend makes the connection on the following pages, manufacturing brings jobs. The question facing today’s innovators is: What are they going to do as their companies grow? It’s not unusual for tech companies to farm out their manufacturing — in many cases it makes perfect sense — but will they outsource manufacturing to a partner down the street or overseas?
At face value, domestic manufacturing costs can’t compete with overseas manufacturing. Yet, isn’t it possible that a tech company can make the case for keeping its manufacturing in New England? How much of a factor should the benefit to the local economy be when making an outsourcing decision? We often document the tech community’s complaints about the shortage of tech workers, but too often the members of the community go on to base their outsourcing decisions solely on labor costs. With luck, the companies profiled on the following pages will give consideration to keeping their jobs here as they grow.
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