History

Established in 1988 by the Pennsylvania Department of Commerce under Governor Robert Casey, Sr. (1987-1995), the Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center (IRC) is part of a network of seven private, non-profit corporations. The DVIRC serves the five-county, Southeastern corner of the state. These Centers were established to help small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) respond to changing markets, new technology and the competitive pressures of today’s global economy.

DVIRCs founding sponsors were the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation and the University City Science Center.

In 1995, the DVIRC became an affiliate of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a nationwide network of 59 affiliated centers established under the federal stewardship of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) within the U.S. Department of Commerce. MEP centers offer technical assistance and the latest business practices to help the nation’s smaller manufacturers improve their competitiveness.

In the early years, DVIRC was focused on Total Quality, MIS and CAD projects. As the Center matured, a world-class manufacturing philosophy was adopted and management determined that an in-house team of multi-disciplined content experts would serve the market most effectively.

Today, in addition to our fee for service for manufacturing, DVIRC maintains multi-year performance based contracts with the State and Federal Government to provide an array of consulting services to assist SMEs compete and grow in the global economy.

The DVIRC is governed by a Board of Directors made up of Presidents and CEOs of manufacturing firms, along with representatives from banking, economic development, and the academic community.