Well, it’s been a bittersweet few weeks around the offices of the Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology, or as many people know us, CAMT, or as other people know us, C.A.M.T.
But it’s official. After 10 years of faithful service, CAMT (or any of the other variations) is no longer our name. We are now Manufacturer’s Edge.
The questions is, why did we do it? Because we have changed, and we have evolved beyond traditional services of lean manufacturing to address the strategic issues of 21st century manufacturing.
We have been working over the last 18 months to evolve our mission and vision to focus more on helping manufacturers grow, innovate, and transform… to gain a competitive edge. We have historically been known as “the Lean Manufacturing people”. While that is an important area of service for us, we have expanded well beyond that into strategic planning, product development, supplier scouting, supply chain management, and a number of other areas important to making individual manufacturers more competitive in the coming decades. We wanted a name that at least started the conversation about those new directions, but also told people what they get from working with us…an edge over global competitors.
As the Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology, not only did our name not speak to new directions, but half of the words in our name were flat-out wrong. We were starting conversations by explaining to people not who we were, but who we WEREN’T. “No, we’re not an association.” “No, we don’t deal specifically with technology.” So we wanted a name that told people more about who we were and what they should expect when they work with us.
We also wanted the name to speak to a key characteristic of what we do: we work with individual manufacturers to help them transform their companies. An association serves a group of people. Manufacturer’s Edge provides tailored services to individual companies. A long discussion revolved around a simple thing: where does the apostrophe go? Is it Manufacturers’ Edge, or Manufacturer’s Edge? We chose “Manufacturer’s” because it says we are focusing on you, the manufacturer, and helping you transform your company. We are one company serving another company. We’re not an “alliance” serving an industry, or an “association” serving members. We are serving you, personally and professionally.
Which brings us to our new tag line: “Transforming Colorado One Company At A Time”. As the Colorado Manufacturing Extension Partner of the Department of Commerce, we are charged by the federal government with transforming manufacturers. We can’t transform an industry…but we can and we do help individual companies transform themselves. We have started with ourselves, by working to transform our services to address new directions in manufacturing. We will continue by committing to help every Colorado manufacturer we can to grow and transform their company to become even more competitive.
So there you have it. From now on, you may see references to CAMT as we go about the process of getting everything in order, from bank checks to business cards to presentations. But formally, practically, and philosophically, we are now Manufacturer’s Edge: Transforming Colorado One Company At A Time.
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Contact Tom at tbugnitz@camt.com
