Who We Are

About us

TechHelp Idaho Manufacturing Specialists help Idaho manufacturers, food processors and entrepreneurs/inventors improve their competitiveness through continuous product and process innovation. Our consultants provide services statewide from our university-based offices in Boise, Twin Falls, Pocatello and Coeur d’Alane. Additionally, our services fall into three primary areas of practice that include:

• Food Manufacturing Excellence – We bring a broad range of services to the food industry through site visits, needs assessments, on-site project work, on-site training, and public courses.  As a result, Food Manufacturing Specialists offer a wide range of services that can help food processors grow revenues, improve productivity and performance, and strengthen their global competitiveness.
• Operational Excellence – Our Operational Excellence Team can help manufacturers produce products more efficiently and with higher quality. Our team of trusted advisors has experience in all phases of manufacturing and can help you make key operational improvements in Leadership, Lean Six Sigma, Quality, and more.
• studio\Blu – studio\Blu partners with Idaho manufacturers to mentor Boise State students in using their skills to move real-world projects from concept through designing, prototyping, testing, initial manufacturing, funding, and marketing.

We are a partnership of Idaho’s three state universities. This partnership gives Idaho companies statewide access to our manufacturing specialists, university facilities, students, and faculty that can help meet their needs. 

As a part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP), we give Idaho companies access to the knowledge and expertise of a national network of 1,500 manufacturing experts at 50 centers.

As Idaho’s Economic Development Administration University Center, we leverage university resources to create growth and jobs in rural and economically distressed areas of Idaho.

We give our clients access to a large network of local and national resources through our university, private sector, and national MEP partners.  

Our Mission

TechHelp strives to be the catalyst for strengthening Idaho manufacturing — accelerating its ongoing transformation into a more efficient and powerful engine of innovation driving economic growth and job creation.

Our Vision

• Accessible – TechHelp is an accessible organization that communicates regularly with clients,  partners, and employees. TechHelp builds business relationships based on long-term commitment, trust, tangible results, and putting client interests first.
• High Performing – TechHelp enhances customer satisfaction by helping businesses transform their operations and become self-sufficient in managing the change.
• Impactful – TechHelp is an investment that pays for itself through significant returns to businesses, stakeholders, and the state economy. TechHelp’s services drive higher productivity and wages, an increased tax base, quality jobs for Idaho graduates, growth in rural areas, and improvements to the environment.
• An Extension – We extend our people, services, resources, knowledge, and expertise to help Idaho manufacturers, processors, and inventors improve competitiveness and profitability. We are an extension of your company and your staff.

Our Guiding Principles

• Customer success is our passion.  Our customers receive innovative and highly impactful consulting services that create a sustainable company in which its success is measured by high performance, profitability, and growth.
• Relationships are critical.  We achieve these successes by developing and maintaining lasting, principle-based, trusted-advisor relationships with key company leaders, by observing and listening, and then offering holistic assessments and proven practices that facilitate effective team-based solutions.
• We work as a team.  Our team success is the result of a focused strategy powered by three distinct but closely related components:
  • Business development
  • Client consulting
  • Project economic impact

Our organizational efficiency is enhanced by valuing and leveraging the contributions of our internal team, third-party service providers, and our key stakeholders (e.g., Board members).

• We value individuals.  Our people are our colleagues on the continuous improvement journey; they embody the skills and characteristics that are TechHelp’s competitive advantage. We must behave in ways that utilize every bit of our team’s abilities—not to do so leads to failure. We are more than the sum of our parts; synergism is enhanced by respectful inclusive dialogue, thinking together, honesty, and ultimately caring for one another.
• Internal and external positive outcomes are enhanced by self-directed individuals, who communicate openly and respectfully.  All individuals operate on positive intent and include their team members in all key aspects of the business. As a group, we recognize a wide variety of individual contributions are key to the success of the team.
• Our consulting is unbiased, innovative, and authentic.  Our brand is powered by unbiased consulting, by providing skilled delivery resources, and by consistently satisfying our customers.  Our name recognition is bolstered by the existing brand influence associated with the three state universities, the Idaho Manufacturing Alliance, and the national Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) system and is synonymous with actively demonstrating the best practices we use with our clients.
• Positive financial impact is fundamental to our success.  TechHelp’s financial health is reflected in a healthy reserve balance established by multiple, steady streams of client revenue, state and federal grants, and special initiative grants. Our financial success is boosted by our reputation for plainspoken honesty, data-driven strategies, and innovative, long-lasting, and highly impactful solutions.

About National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

The MEP program is a federal public-private partnership that provides small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) technology-based services they need to thrive in today’s economy and create well-paying manufacturing jobs. MEP is managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and implemented through a network of industry-led centers located in every state. Additionally, MEP centers are not-for-profit corporations that employ industry experts who work directly with manufacturers. Manufacturing is one of our country’s greatest economic strengths, producing 11.7 percent of GDP. Over 99 percent of manufacturing firms in America are considered small, with less than 500 employees.