FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Federal CARES Act provided $630,000 to Advantage Kentucky Alliance (AKA) to help Kentucky manufacturers emerge successfully from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Advantage Kentucky Alliance is a statewide, not-for-profit partnership of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership in Kentucky supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. AKA provides assistance and training to manufacturers across Kentucky and is a close partner of the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers (KAM).
“We want to be sure Kentucky manufacturers are getting the support and resources they need to help manage and recover from the challenges they are currently facing,” said Lee Lingo, executive director of the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers.
“One of the greatest needs we are hearing from manufacturers across the state is a lack of supply chain resources,” said Scott Broughton, Center Director at Advantage Kentucky Alliance. “If a company has a supply need or if they can supply commodity or proprietary engineered products, we will conduct a no-cost cursory search and provide them with a list of potential suppliers and customers located in Kentucky.”
Both AKA and KAM are committed to rebuilding Kentucky’s economy by providing needed tools and assistance to manufactures throughout Kentucky. Access to reliable supply chain resources is essential to get businesses up and running again. To help ease supply chain disruptions for manufactures, AKA is gathering information from potential suppliers and then sharing those resources with KAM to distribute to businesses across the state.
In addition to performing no-cost sourcing and customer searches, AKA is providing other no-cost activities funded by the CARES Act assistance program including:
• Operational assessments to align immediate corporate and workforce needs with area resources
• Financial business analysis to align financial needs with resources
• Safety assessments to ensure businesses are prepared to open or reopen within COVID-19 guidelines
• Development of remote and virtual workshops and seminars/webinars
• Video productions of individual Kentucky manufacturers allowing them to showcase and better broadcast their capabilities to prospective customers
Advantage Kentucky Alliance will perform 70 supplier searches, 80 total assessments, 40 manufacturing showcases, and 18 webinars/seminars leveraging the CARES Act monies. These actions will be completed by the end of the year to expedite Kentucky’s emergence from the pandemic as soon as possible.
For questions about AKA’s Supplier Sourcing Initiative, please contact Kent Waide, client services manager of Advantage Kentucky Alliance, at [email protected] or (270) 875-1508.
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