URI engineers at Rhode Island firm keeping manufacturing alive

When manufacturers need to reduce costs, they call Boothroyd Dewhurst. The company’s innovative software lets manufacturers estimate the cost of components and recommends efficient designs that save time and money. Founded by two University of Rhode Island engineering faculty and now in the hands of URI alumni, the Rhode Island company touches hundreds of products from dishwashers to jet engines.

It’s a place where innovation flourishes and a passion for encouraging U.S. manufacturing runs deep. Launched in 1983 by then URI engineering Professors Geoff Boothroyd and Peter Dewhurst, the company now counts more than 800 clients with names like General Electric, Boeing, Whirlpool, Motorola and John Deere. President H.W. Bush awarded the professors the National Medal of Technology for their work.

Today, the professors are enjoying retirement but URI engineers fill vital roles at the company. Lured to Rhode Island from New York by Geoff Boothroyd, manufacturing engineering graduate alumni Brian Rapoza (’96) serves as research and development manager. Peter Dewhurst’s son, mechanical engineering undergraduate alumnus Nicholas Dewhurst (’93), is executive vice president on the frontlines of exchanges between client engineers and his company.

“What I got out of the URI engineering program is I know how to learn,” the younger Dewhurst says. “I’m not afraid to try anything. Give me a book and I’ll learn it.”

That skill has come in handy. During a single week, Dewhurst met with a company looking to refine the manufacturing of a medical device before moving to a meeting with a firm looking to price out a new laptop. Then another client with concerns about their engines and finally another with questions about automobile parts.

Dewhurst takes special satisfaction in helping Rhode Island manufactures stay competitive. The company has worked with Hasbro in Pawtucket, Hexagon Metrology in North Kingstown and Textron in Providence, among others. The company’s specialty, known as Design for Manufacture and Assembly, helps companies understand that a product’s cost stems from more than the price of labor. Even with inexpensive labor overseas, companies smart about their designs can compete with foreign manufacturers.

“It turns out most of the cost is locked in when you design a product,” Rapoza says. “What we do is important for companies if they want to stay competitive because sooner or later their competitors will start thinking about it.”

Boothroyd Dewhurst’s software encourages minimizing the number of different components and utilizing the same part across multiple products. To develop the software, the company relies on engineers who can think outside the box and see the big picture.

Both executives say they see too many recent engineering graduates design products impossible to manufacture in the real world. To overcome that shortcoming, Dewhurst and Rapoza say universities must invest in facilities that provide spaces to design and produce prototype components. They must also attract the best faculty with facilities that allow them to inspire students and develop next-generation technologies.

Dewhurst says such investments are imperative because manufacturing remains a surprisingly large piece of the national and local economies. Nationally, nearly 9 percent of all nonfarm workers work for a manufacturer. In Rhode Island, manufacturers employ about 8 percent of the workforce, according to the National Association of Manufacturers.

“To keep manufacturing alive, universities must construct the programs and facilities to graduate engineers who understand the manufacturing process from design to prototype to final product,” Dewhurst says.