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Defending a Country, Growing a Regional Economy

In 2011, through the Grand Rapids Procurement Office, The Right Place assisted 212 regional companies in accessing and bidding on government contracts which brought more than $36.4 million in revenue to manufacturers in the region.

Experienced Industry Leaders

The federal government awards contracts totaling more than $500 billion annually, with a significant portion going to aerospace and defense. The Right Place collaborates with regional partners like the Michigan Defense Center to build relationships with the federal government on behalf of our region’s manufacturers. Those new to industy join a cluster that already includes such leaders as: 

• Mahle Behr Industry America LP -- A global leader involved in the design and manufacture of heavy duty engine cooling systems.
• GE Aviation -- a leading global provider of electrical power systems, avionics, actuation and landing gear, aerostructures and propeller systems to the builders and operators of military and civil aircraft, from large transports to fighters, UAVs to armored vehicles, and from helicopters to regional and business jets.
• Leading Edge Fabricating -- specializing in welding, machining and fabricating with expertise in exotic materials.
• Recco Products Inc.-- a global provider of filters, strainers, filter fittings and screens that protect critical systems for aerospace, industrial, military, scientific and marine OEMs
• Precision Aerospace -- performing machining, stamping, welding, assembly, testing, and extensive layout/inspection of medium- to high-complexity mechanical aircraft components and assemblies.
• Eaton Corp. -- a global technology leader in electrical components; hydraulics components; aerospace fuel, hydraulics and pneumatic systems; and truck and automotive drivetrain and powertrain systems.
• Jedco Inc. -- providing titanium fabrications; combustion chamber and iso-grid formed assemblies; heat shields; and transition, chem-milled augmenter, and exhaust nozzles/mixer ducts
• Aerofoil International -- specializes in the design and manufacture of electronic gauges for Aerospace and IGT turbine engine high- and low-pressure components, as well as tooling and machining for the automotive industry.

Assistance Programs

West Michigan manufacturers are finding aerospace and defense opportunities with the assistance of The Right Place and its partners. As the host site for the Michigan Economic Development Corp.’s (MEDC) Procurement Office, The Right Place provides easy access to procurement specialists trained to assist area businesses in qualifying for and bidding on government contract opportunities. Other resources include:

• The DC3’s Defense Capabilities Directory is an online solution for defense industry buyers seeking to fill difficult supply chains. The Michigan manufacturers listed in this Web-based search engine are pre-screened for qualifications and government contracting readiness. Department of Defense and defense prime contractors can obtain access to the directory by requesting a login. Access is free and available only to defense industry buyers. If you have an urgent supply chain need, please contact the MEDC Procurement Office team listed below.
• Contractor Services The MEDC Procurement Office located at The Right Place, provides several services to new and existing West Michigan companies interested in becoming federal contractors. They include:
• Orientation to the procurement system
• Bid matching for government solicitations
• Bid package assistance
• Training seminars and conferences


• The 21st Century Job Fund – provides financial assistance to support commercialization and technology transfer in key industries, including Aerospace and Defense.

Success Stories

West Michigan’s extraordinary diversity among its companies, and the innovation capacity of those firms makes it an ideal market for not only developing new standard equipment, but also next-generation technologies. Here are just a few examples.

Christensen Fiberglass Tooling

In 2005, about 70 percent of Christensen Fiberglass Tooling (CFT) business was making tooling for the marine industry. In 2008, the company filled its last boat order. Bill Christensen, owner of the Holland-based company, saw the company's future lay in becoming one of about eight plants in the U.S. to create tooling for gigantic parts. In 2007, CFT invested over $2 million in equipment, including a 44,000-pound Auto-Motion Titan SX60 5-Axis Gantry Mill. The mill's capacity to create masters for enormous components launched CFT into the aerospace industry and the military market.

"Our market is for big parts, low volume," Christensen says. "If the military wants a cockpit mold, we machine them a cockpit exactly the shape that they want with the materials we have in-house, ship it to them and they cast a master mold out of it. We've done wings 45 feet long and 14 feet wide at the widest point, and maintained accuracy of 30-thousandths of an inch tolerance from one end to the other; that's about the thickness of three sheets of paper.”

Fleetwood Group

Holland-based Fleetwood Group recently received its 11th patent for its innovations in radio frequency (RF) wireless technology, and that technology is the catalyst to launch the company into the healthcare, homeland security and wind energy fields.

The technology allows a handheld device to communicate with a base station via radio frequency, for example, when electronic voting takes place at a conference or seminar. Fleetwood's patented RF technology avoids interference caused by cell phones, pagers, wireless Internet access and other devices by automatically hopping from frequency to frequency for clearer reception.

"We design, develop, manufacture, package and ship a little over one million RF devices a year," says Don Beery, director of new business development. Fleetwood aims to enter the healthcare, homeland security and wind energy fields, in that order, with advanced products geared to solve problems within the industries.

Each RF keypad has a unique serial number assigned to, say, a college student. It detects when the student enters and leaves a classroom. Beery says the company is close to signing a contract with an OEM to produce a similar tracking device for patients, staff and equipment in healthcare settings.

"For homeland security," he adds, "we have a mobile handheld device for checking I.D. – security guards can use it to tap into computer system to check authorizations, etcetera."

Paragon D&E

Paragon D&E, a Grand Rapids-based mold supplier, has continued its drive to provide innovative, leading-edge services to customers by investing $3.5 million in an Italian-made, double gantry 5-axis FIDIA milling machine. The piece is about the size of a car wash and can easily cut the entire fuselage of an F-22 Raptor fighter jet within a hair's width of tolerance. It's the largest of its kind in North America and one of perhaps only a handful in the world, says Dave Muir, president of Paragon D&E.

The investment is significant for Paragon D&E, and a determined effort to meet the needs of industries that demand large, highly precise molds and machined parts. It took nearly a year to prepare the site and install the machine at the company's plant at 5225 33rd St. SE. The company did not have a specific job in hand when it ordered the machine, but has since landed several contracts to utilize it, including some from the U.S. Defense Department.

Over the last five years, the company has sought to diversify its customer base that now includes companies in the aerospace, alternative energy, automotive, heavy truck, agriculture and other industries. "We're almost in any industry that you can think of that would need our technology," Muir says.

Orthopedic Associates of Michigan

For the first time, the federal government is tapping the knowledge of civilians like West Michigan trauma surgeon Clifford Jones on how best to treat traumatic battlefield injuries. Jones and other trauma surgeons at Orthopedic Associates of Michigan are participating in a five-year, $18.5 million study funded by the Department of Defense. Orthopedic Associates is one of 12 medical centers picked for the program.

Jones knows firsthand how split-second decisions on the battlefield can have a lifetime of consequences. He saw his share of amputations caused by infected lower leg injuries during a two-week stint last year in Germany treating soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. One infection caused a former Division I college football tight end to lose most of his leg, Jones said.

"These people are going to have a long time -- if not a lifetime -- of problems from these injuries," Jones said. "If you can do something to intervene early in the correct way, then, hopefully, you can avoid these problems and rehabilitation."

Comerica Bank

Comerica Bank [NYSE: CMA] has entered an informal partnership with the Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association (MAMA), to provide financing, as well as expertise, for companies entering the international aerospace industry.

"We see this as one of the components of diversifying Michigan's manufacturing base successfully into aerospace," said Gavin Brown, executive director of Grand Rapids-based MAMA. "It can happen because we already have the technology on the ground."

The emphasis will be on companies already manufacturing for aerospace, said Grand Rapids-based Scott Hibbard, Comerica vice president for international trade finance. The bank will serve as a resource and guide for global expansions. That doesn't rule out manufacturers making a transition to aerospace -- those will be evaluated case by case, he said.

Business loans make up 91 percent of Comerica's total portfolio, according to its most recent earnings report, and the bank is confident that, despite its present downturn, aerospace will rebound and Michigan manufacturers will be able to succeed in it, Hibbard said.

“It's a $200 billion per year industry, and there is a $400 billion backlog of unfilled orders, as of the close of 2008,” he noted. "From my research, for most of those unfilled orders, financing is already in place."


To learn more about our location advantages, contact us or talk to our Business Development team.