In 1988, Congress passed the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act which charged
the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to help smaller manufacturers adopt
and apply performance-improving technologies as needed to meet the intensifying domestic and
global competition in manufacturing. NIST established the Manufacturing Extension Partnership
(MEP) program to create and implement a nationwide system of technical assistance centers,
staffed by knowledgeable manufacturing and other business system professionals, to enable
small and medium-sized manufacturers reach this goal.