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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

Propelling Forward with 3D Scanning

Reported Year
2024
Renegade Marine Jet Drives originally had their high-thrust impellers hand-made in New Zealand. However, the artisan who made the impellers retired, requiring Renegade Marine Jet Drive to try sourcing new impellers. This problem was two-fold as Jeff Schlagel, the owner, needed both a computer-aided design (CAD) model and a new way of manufacturing

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

Accelerating Production with Additive Manufacturing

Reported Year
2024
Seat Concepts' ownership aimed to explore the potential of integrating industrial 3D printing technology into their production process. The primary focus was on automating the creation of seat molds and developing a streamlined method for scanning existing foams or molds to accelerate the replication process. Ownership reached out to the

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