Knocking their socks off

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1 MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST ALLIANCE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT April Volume II Issue II aerospace advanced materials shipbuilding geospatial marine science workforce/aerospace Knocking their socks off Inside this Issue: VoTech 4 Think Tank 5 Alternative Energy 7 The Alliance is an independent partnership of the six Mississippi counties nearest the Gulf of Mexico. This professional group works as a central contact for businesses and industries considering relocating or expanding into the area. George County Economic Development Foundation Hancock County Port & Harbor Commission Harrison County Development Commission Jackson County Economic Development Foundation Partners for Pearl River County Stone County Economic Development Partnership Mississippi Power Company Copyright , Alliance Insight Northrop Grumman Image Northrop Grumman employees, Mark Reed (top) and Jessie Kemp (bottom), aircraft structure mechanics, drill holes on a RQ-4 Block 30 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft center fuselage at the Moss Point Unmanned Systems Center in Mississippi. Northrop Grumman, some might say, took a chance when it established a new center to build high-tech, unmanned aerial vehicles in Moss Point. After all, workers in that county had no experience building aircraft. Ships, yes, aircraft, no. But what happened was extraordinary. Workers rolled out products that surpassed expectations, given the usual learning curve. Just ask Ed Walby, director of business development for Global Hawk in San Diego, California. We knocked the socks off the projected learning curve for Moss Point, and that reputation goes all the way through the company, Walby said. The 101,000-square-foot Northrop Grumman Unmanned Systems Center opened in April 2006 and does finishing work on the Fire Scout vertical takeoff unmanned aerial vehicle and fuselage work on the Global Hawk fixed-wing UAV. It has also worked on the Hunter UAV. When a company decides to set up an operation in an area with no background in a particular field, there are a host of considerations, including quality of the work force and the availability of job training, said Bryan Mahoney, Moss Point site manager. Economic drivers, like the labor cost, also play a role, said Walby. And there s more. A lot of it has to do with the growth potential of an area, said Walby. Northrop Grumman has already said it expects to send more work to the new facility and possibly expand. Sometimes a place that doesn t have anything is one of the best places to grow something, he said. (See Unmanned Systems, page 2)

2 Unmanned Systems (continued from page 1) Workforce There were over 1,200 candidates who applied for the 40 positions at the center, and of those about 500 were qualified for the positions, said Mahoney. Applicants were from across the country, but a common thread was some tie to South Mississippi. Mahoney said both the number of applicants and the amount qualified for the positions were relatively high, especially considering the area is new to this kind of work. He attributes that, at least in part, to the facility offering a new type of work, a new technology and a company with a solid reputation. Walby said that if a new production line were to have opened in San Diego, the figure would have been more like a couple of hundred applicants. He spoke to some workers in San Diego who were considering applying for the jobs because of the lower cost of living, quality of life and slower pace of living in Mississippi. About 50 to 60 percent of the workers are from Jackson County, 30 percent from the Mobile area and the rest from George and Harrison counties, said Mahoney. Over half the workers at the center have a military background, some with a family history of service in the military. He thinks they were attracted to the job because of the sense of pride in building high-tech equipment for the military. While some companies in the region continue to have problems filling positions, that has not been the case with the UAV center. Mahoney thinks part of the reason is it s an exciting new technology and the attractive work environment and the commitment of the company to this new facility. Mahoney said many see the growth potential and want to be in on the ground level. Even now there are up to 10 calls a day inquiring about work at the Unmanned Systems Center. Many expressing interest said they know somebody who works there. I think our best advertising has been the people, Mahoney said. "We knocked the socks off the projected learning curve for Moss Point..." - Ed Walby, Northrop Grumman Growing a workforce One appeal of South Mississippi is that there is less competition for aerospace workers. We ve tapped out San Diego County of engineers, said Walby, so it s really hard for us to grow people who want to be lifetime members of the Northrop Grumman family because they re going to graduate from college and maybe go off and do something else that s attractive in the area. Walby said that in an area where there s the potential for university involvement, we can develop our own engineers, (See Unmanned Systems, page 3) Special Report An EADS aircraft plant to the east and NASA's ambitious plans for the Michoud facility to the west may have put South Mississippi in the catbird seat. To see our special four-page report, go to: briefing_paper_special_report_ pdf Alliance Insight Volume II Issue II Page 2

3 Unmanned Systems (continued from page 1) so to speak. That, along with training courses for those leaving high school, can help them build a workforce that can grow in the company. It s hard to grow people in San Diego because there s so much competition for jobs, he said. Loyalty is always a big deal with a company and you build loyalty. If you think you re a good company and service your employees well, your focus then is on growing those employees up through the ranks, you know, getting them the raises, getting them the movement forward in their position, and then you create another generation behind them. And I didn t realize any of this until I came here to San Diego We don t get very many people from the universities here because they re tapped out. They re going other places. Certification Any new site needs to meet certain qualifications and earn certification, and usually that takes several years, said Mahoney. But the new facility was able to receive ISO 1401 and 1801 and portions of ISO 9001 within a year of opening the site. With the Global Hawk work, defect count has improved over 95 percent from the initial delivery. Last year over a period of six months the facility did modifications on Hunter UAV from Model A to Model B, Tony Griffith, an aircraft structures mechanic at the Northrop Grumman Moss Point facility, installs fasteners on an RQ-4 Block 30 Gobal Hawk. Northrop Grumman Image and handled all six aircraft with zero defects, said Mahoney. He said that considering it s a new site, with any new program the scrutiny would be very high, as would the anxiety level. But the feedback he received was exceptional. He said his team in Moss Point was able to deliver a quality product that they did not have to tear apart. The bottom line is a product out of Moss Point is one you can count on. Future And what does the future look like based on Northrop Grumman s experience with the aerospace workforce? I think it s pretty bright because, for what I know about the region, I think Northrop Grumman was pretty much the first to go Bryan Mahoney down there and say, hey, let s try it out here for all the reasons we talked about before. And usually success breeds more success. So, I don t see a reason at all why it won t grow in the region. Even outside Northrop Grumman, said Walby. We ve got our own pursuits and business areas that will lend itself to grow right there at Moss Point in that facility and that will spill over, as sure as can be, that will spill over. When you build a facility like we did, like we have there in Moss Point, it brings along with it like-businesses to support the business that you have. And in many respects there s just one or two field offices that may open up, by a subcontractor that helps you out, but then that in fact brings several more, he said. I think the future s really bright. I think Northrop Grumman s got a lot of things that it hopes it can win in terms of contracts, and business will show up along the Gulf Coast. When you have such a successful startup of an operation you know other people have to be looking at it Ed Walby and saying, Oh my gosh, look at how quick they spun up and how fast and how good the activity is down there, we ought to move down there. We ought to also. It just breeds more success. - Tcp Alliance Insight Volume II Issue II Page 3

4 education Training the next generation workforce They are two of the most important economic development tools for South Mississippi. Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and Pearl River Community College are among the state s 15 community colleges that help ensure the state has a trained workforce. I could not ask for a better economic development partner, Charlotte Koestler, executive director of the Stone County Economic Development Partnership, said about Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Ditto Pearl River Community College. Dr. William Lewis and his team have put together a world class workforce development training program that trains anything from brick laying to geospatial software technology, said Ron Fine, director of Partners for Pearl River County. Community colleges provide four key services in post-secondary education: They offer courses for students who plan to go on to a four-year college, enrichment courses for adults, next-step courses for high school vocational training students and job-specific training based on requests from local businesses and industries. For local economic development professionals, the colleges role in workforce training, votech and pre-employment, are crucial. Workforce availability is a key question for any business and by extension for economic development professionals. MGCCC and PRCC are conduits for the curriculum developed at the state level, and work through the district workforce council and Mississippi Department of Employment Security along with talking at length to local officials to get an understanding of workforce demands on both the broad and local level. The largest of the two schools is Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, which offers more than 60 career and technical programs. With its main campus in Stone County s Perkinston, it serves Harrison, Stone, Jackson and George counties. It has four campuses and four centers - George County (Lucedale), West Harrison (Long Beach), Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Center (Gulfport) and Keesler Center at Keesler Air Force Base (Biloxi). MGCCC, ranked in the top 100 for the past five years of colleges producing the most associate degreed students, hosts a quarterly workforce development workshop to discuss trends and opportunities to develop and improve training for our labor force, said Koestler. MGCCC works closely with existing and new industry to provide needed classes for employers and will customize training to suit the employer as well, she said. MGCCC is like having an angel on your shoulder. They re always there if you need them. Both schools offer workforce training and pre-employment programs. The older of the two is Pearl River Community College. It has the distinction of being Mississippi s first two-year institution of higher learning and 16th oldest in the nation. It serves six counties: Pearl River, Hancock, Forrest, Lamar, Marion and Jefferson Davis. In addition to the main campus in Pearl River County s Poplarville, it operates the Forrest County Center and Woodall Advanced Technology Center in Hattiesburg and the Hancock Center in Bay St. Louis/Waveland. They have the knowledge and skill to determine the workforce training required and can design and implement instructional programs that meet the precise needs of the customer at the customer s site, said Fine. PRCC has a range of programs in a variety of fields, including barbering, brick/block/stone masonry, cosmetology, dental assistant, practical nursing, truck driving training, welding, and more aerospace electronics technology. One of the key roles played by MGCCC and PRCC is responding to the needs of local businesses for training. The colleges, under the Workforce Development program, are able to custom-design a training program to meet the needs of a company. In the most recent year for which figures are available, 17,000 people were enrolled in non-credit programs at MGCCC, some for enrichment programs, others for jobrelated programs. At PRCC the figure is 5,000 to 8,000 annually. Non-credit, workforce training programs are funded by the state, the industry, federal dollars or, in some cases, it s jointly funded. Pre-employment programs can include everything from welding, apprenticeship programs in pipefitting, blueprint reading classes, beginning computer classes and more. Tcp Alliance Insight Volume II Issue II Page 4

5 advanced materials New center a think tank on steriods The scientists gathered in a room to hear about some of the issues faced by one of the biggest industries in the region one crucial to national defense. They brainstormed, and then small groups agreed to come up with proposals to tackle the problems. Welcome to the National Composites Research and Development Center at the University of Southern Mississippi. But don t bother looking for a sign for the new center. It s not a brick and mortar building, but rather a virtual center within the Southern Miss School of Polymers and High Performance Materials. And that s by design. Shelby Thames, the former Southern Miss president who has returned to active research, said he d rather the $8.2 million grant from the Department of Defense be used to buy some $3 million in equipment, hire staff and fund research projects. There are about 50 personnel receiving support including full, part time and partial faculty summer salary from the grant awarded in October. That includes administrative (faculty and staff), and researchers (postdoctoral fellows, research associates, graduate students and undergraduates). The challenge is huge but the rewards are immense, Thames said during a recent interview. Background It was in October 2007 that the school learned it was getting the grant to establish the center designed to tackle the issues faced by manufacturers who use composites as a replacement for steel. It was a natural extension of another initiative just 10 months earlier, when Southern Miss, two community colleges and shipbuilders in Gulfport established the marine composites consortium. The composites work underway, both technically and workforce training, is tailored to the needs of the consortium, said Thames. Southern Miss personnel, led by Drs. James Rawlins and Phil Dur, held meetings with shipbuilders who use composites to determine their most pressing needs with respect to design, manufacture and use of advanced materials. The university group then prioritized the issues and held a brainstorming session involving the school s experts. We re now working on those challenges to find solutions, said Thames. The solutions will find their way back to the industries. Our department is much like a major medical complex We have people who specialize in a variety of different polymer systems, types, techniques, fields, methods of investigation, said Thames. And so we bring these challenges to these scientists and say, OK ladies and gentlemen, here are these challenges, this is what we need to have answers to, who in this room has expertise to solve these various problems? he said. And those who say they wish to be part of the effort to find needed solutions write a white paper describing the work they propose, provide a budget, the number of personnel required and the work begins, Thames said. The idea is to provide the industry with solutions that will help the companies improve their processes and products, lower their costs and improve their performance. That s what s driving our work here, said Thames. (See Think Tank, page 5) The national center operates out of the Shelby Freland Thames Polymer Science Research Center. University of Southern Mississippi Image Alliance Insight Volume II Issue II Page 5

6 Think Tank (continued from page 5) The Expertise The center is an outgrowth of the areas of polymer science in which Southern Miss has established a high level of expertise. If you think about it aircraft, naval vessels, autos, construction materials, sports materials and many other products are being made of composites, said Thames. Composites are polymers reinforced with a variety of materials, such as fiberglass and carbon fibers, to name just two. They are far less prone to corrosion than metals, can be as strong and their lighter weight translates into lighter ships and aircraft, and that in turn means less fuel consumption. These are the manufacturing components of the future, said Thames, who notes that composites have been used for years. But there are areas in the use of composites that need to be improved. So there are technical issues that must be resolved before we can say we ve optimized the use of these materials, he said. One focus of the research is to extend the lifetime of ships and aircraft by reducing the rate of corrosion and/or oxidation. But that s just one area of research. The solutions the university finds for the maritime industry would also have applications in other industries, including aerospace - a field of high interest to the Gulf Coast - because the topical interests expressed by the shipbuilders are broad. One of the things we re doing is we re looking at the factors that affect adhesion and bonding. We will understand these phenomenon better, and the progress we make will hopefully translate into better performing composites, Thames said. We re also investigating the phenomenon of corrosion, he said, which costs the military billions of dollars each year. Composites corrode, too, particularly when they re joined to metal. The key is finding a technique to join dissimilar materials without having corrosion of either. Partnering with business In addition to helping the industry, it will help Hattiesburg and the broader region in part by attracting more companies that work with composites to the region. Thames believes companies will see the benefit of working closely with a university like Southern Miss. Southern Miss has established its Innovation and Commercialization Park to attract new companies to the area, in particular composite companies that can work side-by-side with Southern Miss. Southern Miss is a unique institution in that we want to be heavily engaged with industry. We cherish these type Dr. Shelby Thames thinks work done by the national center will have huge implications. University of Southern Mississippi Image relationships as we understand industry needs, we have an industrial flavor in our thinking process, Thames said. Sure we want to know the fundamentals, sure we want to perform the high level scientific investigations necessary for our knowledge-base, but we also want to go one step farther. We want to see science in action and in use. We want to be a partner with industry. We want to help them as we can, said Thames. He said companies that work with composites need to be associated with Southern Miss because it s doing the studies on improving polymers and working to solve problems. We strive to find solutions to problems in our laboratories and share this knowledge with our industrial partners, thereby making Mississippi industries much more competitive than they would otherwise be. They ll have an upper hand and therefore our people should be able to get the contracts, win the contracts and be successful. And that s what we want. While it s unlikely the broader public will be aware of the center s achievements, Thames said the military and composites industry players will know. And that will help them obtain additional funding. Thames said the grant will only take the center so far. But he believes if the center proves its value, additional resources will come. He also hopes for funding from the state. In either case, soft money will be used from the onset. We would hope that, as we make progress, the federal government would see a need to continue our efforts on a yearly basis, said Thames, pointing out that their work involves issues of national security. So will there eventually be a name on the door? We haven t really thought about it, said Thames. - Tcp Alliance Insight Volume II Issue II Page 6

7 newcomer/materials Alternative energy in Stone County For Coastal Paper, the new facility in Wiggins is a workhorse that supplies the plant s steam needs. But for the company that built the $10 million gasification plant, it s become a showcase and popular location for tours. Somebody comes through every week, said Thomas Meth, vice president of sales and marketing for Richmond, Va.-based Intrinergy, which owns and operates the biomass gasification plant in Stone County. We re ecstatic about it and excited to have it up and running. The state-of-the-art facility converts biomass wood into steam for Coastal Paper, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cellu Tissue Holdings Inc. With six employees, Intrinergy Wiggins in December began providing steam to Coastal Paper up to 50,000 pounds per hour. Russ Taylor, chief executive officer of Cellu Tissue, said in a news release last year that by displacing natural gas with renewable synthesis gas generated onsite by our energy partner, Intrinergy, we will maximize our competitiveness by securing our energy supply at a predictable price. Environmental and cost concerns over fossil fuels are at the heart of interest in the renewable industry. The renewable field includes biomass, hydropower, geothermal energy, wind energy and solar energy. Intrinergy is in the biomass to steam and power portion of the renewable industry biomass. Using off-the-shelf technology, it designs, builds and operates gasification facilities that convert wood chips, organic waste or finely shredded rubber tires into a synthesis gas that can be used to generate heat, steam, electricity or a combination of the three. Intrinergy developed a plan to make industrial customers more likely to give it a try. Matthew Markee, Intrinergy s business manager, said the agreement calls for Intrinergy to remove much of the risk to customers. It builds, owns and operates the unit, meaning Coastal and other customers do not have to make the capital investment, nor worry about obtaining the feedstock to fuel it. The deal struck with Coastal Paper is, in fact, Intrinergy s business model. It takes care of the entire operation, and sells the energy to the customer at a fixed or variable rate. That overcomes an important hurdle in building an energy plant. We take the financial, technical and operating risks usually associated with renewable energy and take them out of the equation for customers, John Keppler, president and CEO, said in a story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The system in Wiggins is currently running on wood biomass, but has the technical capability of running other clean feedstock. The wood biomass makes sense for Stone County because it fits in with the existing industry. Coastal Paper, which makes specialty tissue hard rolls used in the manufacture of facial and bath tissue, paper towels and napkins, signed a 15-year energy supply agreement with Intrinergy in the fall of The steam produced by the unit is used by Coastal Paper for its core processes paper machines, driers and more, according to Meth. For Coastal Paper, it eliminates having to deal with the volatile natural gas market and provides it with a predictable supply and price. Meth said Intrinergy expects to displace 20,000 tons a year of carbon emission from the Coastal Paper site. As for the visitors? Intrinergy always expected it to be a model site. Keppler has said as far back as the date of the initial agreement that the company hoped to use the facility as a model that can be replicated with companies across the country and around the world. Tcp A load of wood chips is unloaded at the Intrinergy-owned boilerhouse location at the Coastal Paper site in Wiggins Intrinergy Image Alliance Insight Volume II Issue II Page 7

8 first quarter regional news headlines Aerospace Northrop Grumman increases employment estimates (Northrop Grumman, 03/11/08) Boeing files protest (Multiple, 03/11/08) Boeing protest hinges on debriefing (Mobile Press-Register, 03/06/08) Northrop Grumman winner of tanker contest (Multiple, 02/29/08) Decision on tanker draws near (Multiple, 02/24/08) New proposal would not move test wing (Northwest Florida Daily News, 02/15/08) NASA taking applications for program (NASA, 02/08/08) GAO rejects Air Force appeal (Mobile Press-Register, 02/05/08) South Mississippi vying for Cyber Command (Multiple, 01/24/08) Ground broken on R&D building (NASA, 01/17/08) Airport Authority hires architect for office building (Mobile Press-Register, 01/16/08) Final air tanker bids submitted (Multiple, 01/04/08) VT Halter wins contract (02/13/08) Coast Guard pleased with cutter (The Sun Herald, 02/13/08) Northrop receives housing award (The Sun Herald, 02/12/08) Shipbuilder returns to New Orleans (New Orleans Times-Picayune 02/12/08) Facility will train shipyard workers (Mobile Press-Register, 02/08/08) Cruise ship makeover (Mobile Press-Register, 01/31/08) Star Aviation to pursue marine work (Mobile Press-Register, 01/31/08) Ship christened in Pascagoula (Mississippi Press, 01/27/08) Northrop Grumman consolidating shipbuilding operations (Multiple, 01/17/08) Shipbuilder lands tax incentives (Mobile Press-Register, 01/17/08) Signal International to move corporate to Mobile (Mobile Press-Register, 01/06/08) Materials Geospatial Tindall to unveil new plant in Moss Point (Mobile Press-Register, 03/07/08) Wellman files for bankruptcy protection (The Sun Herald, 02/26/08) Baton Rouge nanotech company sold (Baton Rouge Advocate, 02/25/08) Wicker gets overview of advanced materials role (Hattiesburg American, 02/05/08 Biodiesel plant in the works (Pensacola News Journal, 02/02/08) Albemarle to invest $26 million (Baton Rouge Advocate, 01/27/08) Northrop Grumman gets sensor award (Associated Press, 03/11/08) Advanced sensors to be put on platforms (New Orleans Times-Picayune 02/14/08) Shipbuilding Budget omits 10th amphibious ship (New Orleans Times-Picayune, 03/06/08) Edison Chouest to expand (Baton Rouge Advocate, 03/06/08) Northrop VP to work at Pascagoula site (New Orleans Times-Picayune, 03/04/08) Warship to be commissioned in Mobile (Mobile Press-Register, 03/01/08) Austal net profit up (Mobile Press-Register, 02/26/08) Northrop awarded contract (The Sun Herald, 02/15/08) Marine science Gulfport-Biloxi among the fastest growing metro areas (Tcp, 01/30/08) Mississippi tax system gets high marks (Governing, 01/08) Mississippi No. 2 in R&D earmarks (AAAS, 01/07/08) To see summaries, visit: Post Office Box 1341 Gulfport, MS Phone: mploughm@southernco.com Website: partially funded by the NASA John C. Stennis Space Center Image Alliance Insight Volume II Issue II Page 8