Tech Treasure Hunt

David Bianco discovered three years ago that he could easily sell his gay and lesbian history column to newspapers across the country by using e-mail. When Bianco was approached by neuroscientist Simon LeVay to sell his gay science column too, a business idea was born.

Today, Bianco has a stable of 10 columnists and cartoonists in a thriving business, Q Syndicate, the largest provider of content to gay and lesbian newspapers across the country.

“E-mail is at the center of my business,” Bianco said. “It saves me an incredible amount of time and money and enabled me to expand quite rapidly.”

Bianco, based in Culver City, is an example of how small-business owners can use technology to create enterprises that would not otherwise exist.

Southern California, one of the nation’s leading high-tech centers, has thousands of businesses developing new technologies. Small companies here thrive by researching and creating new biomedical techniques and equipment, computer software and hardware, communications equipment and other technologies.

But many more small firms simply take off-the-shelf technology, apply a new twist and create an entirely new business or significantly expand or improve an existing one.

To help them, a network of centers and agencies has grown up in Southern California. They provide low-cost technical expertise, training and consulting for small businesses that seek a technological edge in their operations.

For Bianco, that technological edge was simple e-mail, without which he said his business could not exist.

When he started his company in 1995, 75% of the gay papers he queried had an e-mail address or an editor with e-mail, Bianco said. Now 99% have e-mail, enabling him to send his features to more than 100 small papers across the country.

He has tried to duplicate his success by expanding to other specialty newspapers. He now sells a Jewish crossword puzzle, but has had less luck with an African American crossword puzzle because too few black papers are online. For Bianco, the cost and labor involved in duplicating, faxing or mailing his features would be prohibitive.

“I don’t even have a Web page,” Bianco said. “I just use e-mail.”

Pat Scott, co-owner of NC Dynamics Inc. in Long Beach, a $15-million machine shop, is another company owner who used his knowledge of existing technology to create a business.

In 1979, before personal computers were widely available, Scott and his business partner, Randy Bazz, both computer programmers, went into business leasing time on big main-frame computers. They analyzed complex specifications and wrote machine settings needed by tool companies to produce aerospace and defense industry parts. Small machine shops couldn’t afford computers, nor did they have programming expertise, Scott said.

He and Bazz were, in effect, middlemen for machine shops until they realized that they could become a machine shop themselves. These days, Boeing and other companies send them computer models of needed parts over the Internet. NC Dynamics takes the data and programs its machining tools to create parts accurately and rapidly. Gone are paper blueprints and laborious hand-measuring by machinists.

“To exist in this environment, you can’t do what we do without the technology,” Scott said. “Economically, it would be impossible.”

For George Industries, a long-established anodizing shop in East Los Angeles, the addition of computer technology in the last two years has enabled the company to more than double the number of employees to 370 and increase revenue by more than a quarter last year.

“A dirty, low-tech industry of necessity added technology for survival and it has translated into profitability,” said David Gering, a company spokesman.

Although both these companies installed new equipment, new technology can simply mean using technological tools to do sophisticated analyses of existing business practices and improve operations.

“Soft technology” is the term for this approach, according to Jerry Gross, vice president of operations at California Manufacturing Technology Center in Hawthorne, which provides technology help to small businesses.

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For example, a computer program called MRP2 (material requirements planning) can help businesses examine their purchasing system to simplify it and make it more efficient. Say a small manufacturer makes 16 products and buys parts from 16 sources. The computer program might discover that one part fits all the products, allowing the business to buy it from one supplier in large quantities and save money.

Other software systems can track wasted materials and wasted labor, while other computer systems can create a “paperless factory.”

“Small companies aren’t going to buy a lot of robotics, but they are looking to upgrade their efficiencies and get rid of ineffective utilizations of what they have,” Gross said.

Besides the center, companies can also use Southern California Edison’s Customer Technology Application Center in Irwindale. Here, manufacturing equipment, lighting, air conditioning and other electrical equipment are displayed and consultants can provide businesses with low-cost help.

Many small ethnic restaurants, food processors and even retailers have turned to CTAC for help in improving their cooking, lighting and heating systems, said Sandy Brandligt, CTAC manager.

Meanwhile, other businesses seeking to contract with the federal government have gone online with the help of the Electronic Commerce Resource Center.

Said Kathleen Allen, a center consultant, “Small businesses are struggling to find enough information on what kind of technology is out there.”

If their growth in Southern California is any indication, many small businesses are succeeding in finding that information and have become savvy and creative users of technology.

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Manufacturing Assistance

Small businesses seeking information about manufacturing and technology-related issues--ranging from employee training to new manufacturing technologies and from market assessments to global expansion plans--can turn to several organizations for assistance.

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For seminars and consulting programs tailored to individual apparel-business needs, call:

Apparel Technology and Research Center

California State Polytechnic University

3801 W. Temple Ave., Pomona, CA 91768

Tania Tolmasov, project manager

(909) 869-5294, (909) 869-4333 (fax)

tntolmasov@csupomona.edu

https://atrc.age.csupomona.edu

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For assistance with developing, administering and financing employee training, contact:

California Manufacturers Assn.

1121 L St., Suite 900, Sacramento, CA 95814

Brian McMahon, program contact

(800) 655-2640, (916) 441-5420

(916) 447-9401 (fax)

https://www.cmafg.com

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For access to new technology-based manufacturing techniques, assistance with manufacturing problems and training in total quality management, hazardous materials and lean manufacturing, contact:

California Manufacturing Technology Center

13430 Hawthorne Blvd., Hawthorne, CA 90250

(310) 355-3060, (310) 263-4282 (fax)

https://www.cmtc.com

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For information about partnership agreements with Department of Energy laboratories, and about technical consulting and facility and equipment utilization, call:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Industrial Partnerships and Commercialization

L-795, P.O. Box 808, 700 East Ave.

Livermore, CA 94551-9234

(925) 422-6416, (925) 423-8988 (fax)

https://www.llnl.gov/

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For networking opportunities, to identify funding possibilities, to be paired with a consultant, to expand your markets in emerging and mature industries and to obtain manufacturing training, contact:

Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance

746 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90089

(213) 743-4150, (213) 747-7307 (fax)

https://www.calaccess.org

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For a list of manufacturing-related Web sites compiled by the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Sciences with information on everything from energy efficiency to manufacturing software and equipment referrals to education and training, visit:

https://www.iams.org/mfg/mfg.htm

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For technology consulting, defense conversion advice, problem evaluations, market assessments and assistance with obtaining funding from government and private sources:

NASA Far West Regional Technology Transfer Center

3716 S. Hope St., Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90007

(800) 642-2872, (213) 743-2353

(213) 746-9043 (fax)

https://www.usc.edu/dept/NASA/

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For general assistance in finding resources to meet technical and training needs, contact:

National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing

1201 New York Ave. N.W., Suite 725

Washington, DC 20005-3917

(202) 216-2740, (202) 289-7618 (fax)

https://www.nacfam.org

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For information on and comparisons of electric manufacturing equipment, air conditioning, heating, lighting and other systems, call:

Customer Technology Application Center

Southern California Edison

6090 N. Irwindale Ave., Irwindale, CA 91702

(800) 336-2822

https://www.sce.com

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For entry-level training in machinist and metalworking skills, call:

National Tooling & Machining Assn.

Los Angeles Training Center

14926 Bloomfield Ave., Norwalk, CA 90650

(562) 921-3722, (562) 802-0894 (fax)

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Orange County Training Center

3036 Enterprise St., Costa Mesa, CA 92626

(714) 545-3202, (714) 545-3624 (fax)

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For technical assistance, training and workshops provided at the Centers for Applied Competitive Technologies in various community colleges, contact:

Glendale Community College

2340 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020

Claudia Hess, CACT director

(818) 957-0024 ext. 223, (818) 541-0832 (fax)

chesscact@aol.com

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North Orange County Community College District

Adult & Continuing Education

4175 Fairmont Blvd., Yorba Linda, CA 92886

Nellie Espiritu, CACT coordinator

(714) 695-1507 ext. 214, (714) 695-1514 (fax)

cact@wavenet.com

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Irvine Valley College

5500 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine, CA 92620

Nick J. Kremer, dean, economic development

(714) 451-5217, (714) 451-5544 (fax)

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College of the Canyons

26455 N. Rockwell Canyon Road

Santa Clarita, CA 91355

Dena Maloney, CACT director

(805) 259-7800 ext. 3305, (805) 253-3461 (fax)

dpmmdm@aol.com

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West Los Angeles College

4800 Freshman Drive, Culver City, CA 90230

Tasos Sioukas, CACT director

(310) 204-1832, (310) 204-3732 (fax)

asioukas@aol.com

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Riverside Community College District

4800 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, CA 92506

Wayne Sutter, CACT director

(909) 222-8845, (909) 222-8055 (fax)

sutter@iinet.com

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El Camino Community College District

16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance, CA 90506

Bill Yates, CACT director

(310) 660-6475, (310) 660-6470 (fax)

byates@admin.elcamino.cc.ca.us

Sources: Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Sciences; program representatives

Researched by JENNIFER OLDHAM / Los Angeles Times

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Times staff writer Vicki Torres can be reached at (213) 237-6553 or at vicki.torres@latimes.com