Change is almost impossible without industry-wide collaboration, cooperation and competitive like-mindedness.
An environment where trading ideas and benefitting from each other’s expertise and equipment can only lead to both parties and, more importantly, the end user benefitting greatly.
For ICAMP, the natural inclination to form strong partnerships and collaborations has meant equipping themselves for efficiency, effectiveness and, above all, advanced innovation.
“None of us are big enough to do these things alone, partnerships are critical,” Butler-Jones said sternly. “If we didn’t have the network of partners that we do, we just couldn’t execute on this.”
With the foundation of groundwork
solidified well before the program was launched, it was only natural
for ICAMP to partner with local industry leaders.
Just one glance
at the names of ICAMP’s specific rooms and you’ll soon understand
that companies have lined up to get involved too: the WipWare
Demonstration Room; Gin-Cor Industries Inc. 3D Scanning Room; Atlas
Copco Creative Room; Pilot Diamond Tools Ltd. Material Testing
Laboratory; Rotacan Prototype Development Room; and Premier Mining
Productions Inc. 3D Theatre.
As Butler-Jones emphasized, the importance of building that network of expertise and support cannot go understated. Everyone’s there because they have a unique set of skills and value.
Ranging from funding partners, industry collaborators and training and service cohorts, ICAMP’s various partnerships have allowed it to move ever-closer to a one-stop-shop for all manufacturing and business needs.
That fabric of fruitful minds has also been a pivotal component in spurring the economic development aspect that ICAMP promotes.
“All of those pieces come together to meet this mandate,” said Butler-Jones. “If we didn’t have the guidance from industry, financial and non-financial support, and the government support, we wouldn’t be ready to serve the people that walked through the door.
“This whole model is definitely setting a precedent,” he added.
Take, for instance, ICAMP’s mutually beneficial technological partnership with the Materials Joining Innovation Centre (MaJIC) on the Northern College campus in Kirkland Lake.
MaJIC, a not-for-profit organization, fills the void of practical welding expertise within the industry, while also providing a wide spectrum of services with their state-of-the-art laboratory.
Some of those services include certification testing, technical advice training, procedure development and applied research. But rather than laboriously compete against an already-established innovation hub, ICAMP recognized the potential in partnering with their expertise.
“The big thing is ICAMP is working within the arena of other innovation centres and reaching out to any of the other innovation centres to leverage the knowledge, expertise and equipment that’s already in the region, rather than go out and reinvent the wheel 15 different times,” said Jeff Molyneaux, the executive director of MaJIC.
“Instead of everyone getting a little wee piece of the pie, we work together and we are able to be very efficient and quick in what we are doing for industry,” he explained
The two like-minded organizations were the first to sign a memorandum of understanding and now, when ICAMP doesn’t have the ability to deliver on a request in-house, they refer the client to MaJIC.
Those on either side of the affiliation say establishing a working relationship with others who are just as passionate about innovation and economic development made the partnership all the more natural.
“The most difficult thing innovation centres face is getting the word out that we are here to help, so the partnership is invaluable,” said Molyneaux. “We allow them to do work that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do or they would have to outsource to a high-priced private firm somewhere not in the North.
“Likewise, access to their expertise allows us to do the same, whether it’s water jet cutting, or CNC machining or the SolidWorks and 3D printers,” Molyneaux added. “It’s equipment that we wouldn’t have access to in an economic manner.”
One recent aspect of their partnership that the two parties are proud of is the purchase of a scanning electron microscope with electron dispersive x-ray analysis capability, the first of its kind in the region.
While both parties will benefit from different aspects of the split purchase, it’s their industry collaborators who will prosper the most.
“We bought a portion of it that allows for the evaluation the chemical composition of the sample, while ICAMP purchased the portion of the microscope that allows parts to be visualized,” Molyneaux explained.
“It’s something that neither of us would have been able to afford previously, but because we partnered together it’s now available to industry in the North,” he said.
Innovations Initiatives Ontario North (IION) also utilized the two cooperative counterparts by offering an Innovative Manufacturing and Facilitation Program.
Aimed at small and medium companies looking to accelerate innovation and commercialization in the advanced manufacturing sector, the program covered up to $5000 of technical experts and facility usage at the ICAMP and MaJIC labs.
But that is just one avenue that ICAMP and MaJIC, together, are using to advance their manufacturing capabilities by lifting the financial burden and allowing businesses to access what was once out of reach to them.
From reverse engineering and rapid prototyping to welding certifications and training, the two organizations helped spur innovative ventures and continue to use each other’s facilities in an exchange that has made both parties exponentially more beneficial to clients.
ICAMP is also guided by an advisory council made up of industry partners who provide input on a regular basis that helps them better serve their specific needs.
Together, those flourishing partnerships are seizing new ground, making connections between industry leaders, bringing ideas to life and, most importantly of all, working boundlessly without a map.
“There’s no way we could have been as successful without all of the support that we’ve had,” Butler-Jones said gratefully. “Our plan moving forward is to continue with that model and continue to engage with our industry and funding partners, while looking for new partners until we really can say we are a one-stop-shop.”
