Mark Schmit

Mark Schmit has served multiple roles while with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). Schmit is currently MEP’s national accounts manager. In this role, he is responsible for developing partnerships with both the public and private sector entities. He identifies new business opportunities that leverage state and federal funding with the goal of improving the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers. His major focus is supply chain optimization.

Tue, 06/25/2024 - 12:03
The MEP National Network’s Supply Chain Optimization and Intelligence Network Helping manufacturers bridge gaps
Tue, 06/25/2024 - 12:03
When a foreign company wants to manufacture goods in the United States, it needs new domestic suppliers for just about everything. When such an initiative involves new technology, it creates even more opportunities for a regional ecosystem and…
U.S. Manufacturing to the MEP National Network: Don’t Let Up! Not wanting to waste a crisis, manufacturing executives detailed their own steps to seize opportunities
Wed, 03/24/2021 - 12:01
The Covid-19 pandemic has asked much of manufacturing executives. They’ve had to make decisions about staffing and operations in the face of tremendous health and economic uncertainty—and then adjust or even change decisions based on myriad shifting…
Pandemic Makes Plain the Need for Manufacturing Workforce Particularly wanted are workers with electrical and mechanical aptitude for jobs as maintenance technicians
Wed, 03/03/2021 - 12:02
During the Sept. 18, 2020, session of the “National Conversation with Manufacturers,” our three West Coast manufacturing leaders on the panel kept coming back to their critical need for skilled workers. The conversation was one in a series of 11…
Manufacturers Share Views on Leadership From the Pandemic Shop Floor National conversations with manufacturers
Wed, 12/09/2020 - 12:02
As a kid I used to be confused by the so-called curse, “May you live in interesting times.” Wouldn’t interesting times be... good? Why would I not want to be interested? Then I got a little older, experienced a little more life, and I started to…
Thinking About Manufacturing and Its Future The MEP National Network Strategic Plan is championing manufacturing
Tue, 12/11/2018 - 12:01
Manufacturers throughout the United States are facing a new set of challenges and exciting growth opportunities. Given the manufacturing industry’s important role in providing both direct and indirect jobs, how firms react to these changing…
Manufacturing As a Vacation Destination A different kind of theme park
Mon, 08/15/2016 - 10:18
Summer is a great time to catch up on reading. I suppose that’s why there’s such a thing as “summer reading,” which starts in grade school and extends a lifetime (or so goes the theory). My initial attempt at summer reading this year was…
Things Could Get Risky The ISO 9001:2015 revision is coming
Mon, 05/19/2014 - 13:10
ISO 9001 has been the quality management standard, with almost a million businesses certified around the world. It has been through many revisions, in 1994, 2000, and 2008, but the 2015 revision has an added element to consider—risk. ISO…
Making the Kids Connection The tale of Kylan and the magic longboard
Thu, 04/17/2014 - 14:13
This is a story about U.S. manufacturing, honoring heroes past and present, and teaching children in ways that textbooks and rote regurgitation cannot. This is a story about why I am optimistic about the future. This is also a story about Kylan.…
A Bolt With a Head Full of Data GM’s smart bolt records every process an engine block undergoes on the assembly line
Wed, 02/05/2014 - 10:29
Waiting for me in my inbox one morning was an email from a longtime friend who works in the financial industry (that fact is sort of important later). The email’s subject line was, “Stuff you should know about.” That kind of histrionic title could…
Manufacturing Is Who We Are U.S. manufacturing may have problems, but identity issues aren’t among them
Thu, 10/24/2013 - 17:08
Toward the end of summer, I was part of an assembled mass of governors and manufacturers at a Walmart-led summit in Florida. My boss, the Secretary of Commerce (or most accurately, my boss’s boss’s boss’s boss) was there, too. There we all were,…