New MMTC president designs Industry 4., source chain tactics
Ingrid Tighe brought more than a 10 years of working experience in economic and workforce progress to her new function as president of the Michigan Manufacturing Technological innovation Middle, exactly where she will assist modest and mid-sized companies adopt provide chain and automation approaches.
Tighe previously this 12 months took around as MMTC’s president from Mike Coastline, who served in the position for 21 yrs and 27 yrs complete at the Plymouth-dependent business that has regional facilities across Michigan.
Ingrid Tighe, president of the Michigan Manufacturing Technological know-how Centre.
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“Ingrid rose to the top rated,” Coastline explained to MiBiz. “She has proved me right in her early dealings at MMTC. She is really energetic, very vivid.”
Tighe and the MMTC group are facing a distinct time period in Michigan’s manufacturing historical past. The industry is suffering from popular workforce demands, provide chain disruptions lingering from the pandemic, and an ongoing force toward automation to keep on being competitive. 
In 2021, Michigan’s manufacturing sector accounted for just about 20 p.c of gross condition solution and utilized 14.32 percent of the state’s workforce, according to the National Association of Suppliers. 
Having said that, due to the fact 1979, Michigan has seasoned a drop in the quantity of manufacturing work. By 2019, motor car manufacturing work, the main sector in the condition, attained just 42 p.c of its 1990 stage, according to federal labor facts.
Tighe said she ideas to deal with these issues by supporting makers adapt to offer chain issues and employee shortages whilst also helping them adopt new automation technologies.
“By four a long time from now, I’d like to have an motion plan that addresses Business 4. and offer chains,” Tighe stated. “There are a large amount of firms that could gain from these technologies.”
Terry Hossink, vice president of production products and services for MMTC’s heart-west staff in Grand Rapids, explained the business will proceed to emphasize courses that supply grants to companies to apply automation systems.
In 2020, the Michigan Financial Improvement Corp., Automation Alley and MMTC launched a application to assist 6,200 corporations — 50 percent of the state’s manufacturing corporations — undertake business 4. technologies by 2025, which incorporated $2 million grants to aid regional initiatives.
“The essential is to continue to keep Michigan producing competitive,” Hossink said. “The far better we are, the improved we can be globally for the reason that it is a world wide world.”
The MMTC is component of the nationwide Production Extension Partnership (MEP), a community-non-public partnership that supports the interests of brands in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. In 2021, the MEP Nationwide Community worked with nearly 35,000 suppliers that generated $14.4 billion in sales and assisted retain 125,746 U.S. producing jobs.
Public funding by way of the point out is a crucial revenue supply for the MMTC to have out its mission.
“One of the causes we get funding from the condition … is to go out and use these pounds to engage small companies to do tasks that they may not be equipped to manage,” Tighe stated.
In 2020, the MMTC also secured additional than $2 million in federal grant revenue through the Coronavirus Support, Aid, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to aid tiny and medium-sized producers in Michigan reply to the pandemic.

Management lessons
Prior to serving as MMTC president, Tighe put in 18 many years doing the job on financial development initiatives in Michigan, equally inside and exterior of the govt, and in the United States Army. She attended Vanderbilt University on a 4-yr R.O.T.C scholarship and, upon graduation, served as a U.S. Signal Corps army captain for approximately seven many years.
“My initial position as a lieutenant was when I was 22 years old, and I had 60 people today that I was in demand of,” Tighe explained. “Walking into that surroundings is daunting. There are several individuals who are skeptical of some younger, tall blonde lieutenant.”
Tighe has led overcome groups in Iraq and Germany, Macedonia and Kosovo as section of NATO peacekeeping functions. 
“There’s a whole lot of leadership classes that arrived out of the armed service that definitely formed my management type and who I am right now,” Tighe explained. “You learn you sometimes have to make a decision speedily. Occasionally an 80-% option now is much better than 100 percent also late.”
Soon after the army, Tighe acquired a masters in community administration at the College of Michigan and worked as the director of Oakland County’s economic improvement department and government director of the Birmingham Searching District.
She was promptly fascinated in the MMTC opening when initially discovering about it. 
“When I grew to become knowledgeable of this part, I explained, ‘What a wonderful possibility,’ and threw my name in the hat,” Tighe said.
Underneath Tighe’s leadership, MMTC will continue on its mission of supporting compact and medium-sized producers, said Jeff Schultz, MMTC’s director of promoting and communications at MMTC.
“We see how crucial manufacturing is. We see how crucial production is to modest firms, household-owned corporations,” Schultz said. “How do we help them? How do we enable them to succeed, to develop and to carry on to utilize individuals throughout the state of Michigan?”
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