SPRINGFIELD — Senator Eric P. Lesser, along with local leaders in manufacturing and vocational education, held a roundtable discussion on the state of manufacturing in Western Mass. on Tuesday at Advance Welding.

The aerospace and defense industries formed Nadcap as a worldwide program to cost-effectively manage special processes and products. Using a consensus approach and continuous improvement methodologies Nadcap assembles technical government and industry experts to define operational requirements and to establish accreditation requirements to enable a qualified vendor ecosystem that can deliver repeatable quality services and products.