Manufacturers Make Most of Tech Center Consultants

The California Manufacturing Technology Center says a record number of Orange County companies--249 in all--received assistance from its consultants last year.

That’s more than 2 1/2 times the number of Orange County manufacturers helped by the nonprofit center in 1996. Officials credit the increase to an expansion of services available at the Anaheim regional office.

The center, based in Hawthorne, has 109 business and technical specialists on staff to assist small and medium manufacturers--companies with fewer than 500 employees. By the end of 1997, the Anaheim branch office had 30 of those consultants on its staff, up from five in 1996.

Manufacturers who qualify for assistance can receive help in developing management systems, refining their manufacturing operations, developing and training workers and improving their business operations.

The center was formed to provide smaller manufacturers with the kinds of professional and technical help that large manufacturers usually get from in-house experts.

Typical of the Orange County companies using the center is Kittyhawk Products, a 12-employee Garden Grove firm that specializes in a heat-treating process to strengthen metal alloys used in the defense, aerospace and automotive industries. The center assigned a consultant to Kittyhawk to help it draw up all the plans and paperwork needed to receive ISO 9000 certification--a standard of documenting production processes that all exporters need to meet in order to market their goods in Europe.

Center consultants also assisted Pilkington Aerospace, a Garden Grove manufacturer of aircraft windows, in drafting its successful application for a $249,000 state grant to help fund additional training for its 366 employees over the next two years.

John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and manufacturing for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com