The West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation, 501 Professional Building, Fairmont, West Virginia 26554

B -- UTILIZING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND MODERN MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES TO ENHANCE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE BLUE-COLLAR WORK FORCE IN THE UNITED STATES - A DEMONSTRATION PROJECT Sol WVHTC-F-A95-1040. Due 033095. POC L. Wade Linger, Vice-President of Research (304) 363-5482. The WVHTC Foundation seeks a forward-thinking manufacturing firm to participate in a partnership in West Virginia. The partnership will include government, industry, and academia, and will act as a demonstration of how the effective application of information technology, self-directed, empowered workers, and advanced management techniques can enable U.S. blue-collar workers to compete with foreign manufacturers. The WVHTC Foundation intends to establish a manufacturing demonstration facility adjacent to the Innovation and Incubation Center (IIC) in Fairmont, WV. This location will encourage and foster collaboration between manufacturing demonstration projects and high technology initiatives underway in the IIC. Potential partners in this initiative must: 1. Provide an operational manufacturing environment around which the project will evolve; 2. Utilize the self-directed, empowered work force approaches; 3. Apply advanced management techniques and virtual company concepts to its operation; 4. Collect metrics and provide feedback to allow measurement and improvement of the effectiveness of the techniques. Organizations wishing to respond to this announcement may submit a Demonstration Project Overview. This document should not exceed 10 pages, single-sided, double-spaced. The following provides an outline for the Project Overview: 1. Identification of potential partners. 2. Points of contact. 3. Description of the proposed demonstration project. 4. Number of manufacturing jobs expected to be developed as a direct result of this project. (044)

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