RIDGEWAY, S.C. — A new database in the state aims to prevent supply chain issues.
It’s called CONNEX SC and it gives all manufactures a central place to post and fill available contracted jobs.
“We are a small business that actually flourished during the pandemic and have now invested in 3D knitting technology to be able to utilize it for the automotive sector and interiors sustainably made interiors,” said Donna Brin.
Brin is founder and CEO of BFIVE40 textiles in Little River, one of over 7,000 manufacturers in the state.
BFIVE40 has already started using CONNEX. They created a profile and can access a forum for requests and bids. Brin says it’ll help them continue to grow.
“This platform- because our products and services are more niche- really allows us an opportunity to be showcased as a South Carolina small business to, you know, OEMs and other companies that are coming into the state,” Brin said. This is the perfect platform to find, you know, a rich resource like BFIVE40.”
Governor McMaster joined the state’s department of commerce, manufacturers alliance and manufacturing extension partnership to announce CONNEX SC Tuesday.
“It will put our manufacturers in communication with others all around the country as well as in South Carolina,” McMaster said. “To give them new ways to get what they want, get it quicker and to move manufacturing forward.”
The goal of the software is to speed up production and increase business opportunities for small and medium manufacturers.
But it’s also prevention of supply chain issues, a phrase South Carolinians heard often during the pandemic.
“We put millions of dollars into technical colleges at great technical colleges to provide the workers,” McMaster said. “But often the problem is not the workers, but there's a kink in the supply chain somewhere. We saw that in the- during the virus, Covid virus.”
The president and CEO of South Carolina Manufacturing Extension Partnership says the visualization tools help strengthen supply chains by showing suppliers the entire supply chain.
“Some of the trip things that cause trip ups in the supply chain,” Carr said. “It's not the people they were directly it's the people they deal with, or the people they deal with some of the tier threes, fours and fives, there's a lack of visibility. And again, this tool provides that.”
All manufacturers in the state can access statewide CONNEX for free.
It costs $500 yearly to access the nationwide software.