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MEP Success Stories from Idaho

Rapid Prototyping Helps Athletes Radically Improve Performance

Reported Year
2024
While AVA Cooling’s anti-fatigue bar is a great way to improve athletic performance, its technology hinges upon the device's temperature being within a specific temperature range. However, the original release of the device lacked a temperature monitor. As a small business owner with only himself wearing the many hats that keep a business running

Sustaining Industry Leadership in Sensory and Consumer Testing

Reported Year
2024
The J.R. Simplot Company has a well-known and respected sensory department in the foodservice side of the industry. Within its primary customer accounts, the program is highly respected by its largest customer, McDonalds. After some attrition within the department, the team began the challenging job of backfilling its global sensory manager

Potatoes with a Purpose: Elevating Standards with HACCP

Reported Year
2024
Walters Produce 2.0 LLC customers (retailers and business-to-business (B2B)) require 3rd party certification to ensure their food safety and quality systems meet rigorous standards. Walters Produce 2.0 LLC sought the required training to keep its HACCP food safety team compliant. Melissa Moss, Walters Produce's Human Resources and Food Safety

Makerspace Interns Help Bring Dreams to Life

Reported Year
2023
Gizmo frequently receives inquiries from community members seeking prototyping services – but as a small non-profit, the organization has historically lacked the capacity to meet this need. With limited local options, companies in Coeur d’Alene began soliciting product prototyping from Boise State University’s New Product Development (NPD) Lab

Validating New Production with Objective Sensory Measures

Reported Year
2023
Many of B and D Food’s clients were asking for shelf life data that could either substantiate a new product’s useful life or offer evidence for the frequently encountered request to extend shelf life for existing inventory. In addition to providing their customers with objective quality assessments over the shelf life of their product, this client

Idaho-Shaped Axe Makes the Cut

Reported Year
2023
Maria Lopez, CEO of Idaho’s Iron Pine LLC, has an eye for detail and design. She noticed that the state of Idaho was shaped like an axe, thin at the top and broad at the bottom. The shape stuck with Maria because an axe in the shape of Idaho looked like a branding bull’s eye. Maria needed help with design, prototyping, market research, brand

At Ballard Cheese, The Only Thing Better Than Cheese is More Cheese

Reported Year
2023
Exiting the milk business allowed the Ballards to refresh their brand as they pivoted from Ballard Family Dairy and Cheese to Ballard Cheese. The company’s Yahoo Store, built in 2004 on one of the web’s first e-commerce platforms, needed a major overhaul and Ballard brand elements, including logos, imagery, videos, fonts, wording, and colors

Sensory Quality Programs: A New Offering for Food Manufacturing Specialists to Consider

Reported Year
2022
The sensory team focuses primarily on consumer testing for new product introductions. Many larger manufacturing organizations have strong consumer insights programs, but find there is a gap in how to translate consumer insights into sensory quality grading programs at the factory level. That's because the type of data collected in consumer testing

Enhancing Lumber Production Through Improved Training and Leadership Development

Reported Year
2022
Several members of IFG’s leadership team have collaborated with TechHelp, part of the MEP National Network™, and their office in Northern Idaho over the past 10 years to develop customized solutions to IFG’s challenges. This has included working with IFG’s director for training and development, corporate controller and numerous mill superintendents

Accelerating Automation in the US Manufacturing and Engineering Talent Pipeline

Reported Year
2021
In three years House of Design grew rapidly from 20 to 96 employees and outgrew its space at the Nampa Small Business Accelerator, requiring a move to a new facility. During this period of growth the company identified needs in workforce, engineering and operations and reached out to TechHelp, a member of the MEP National Network™, for assistance.
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