After more than 20 years in business, Merdick McFarlane is looking to expand his truss-manufacturing business, and he acknowledges he needs financial help to do it.
As an attendee at a Sudbury session of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters’ (CME) SMART Program, the founder of the Manitoulin Truss Co. Ltd. is looking to see how he might be able to tap into the $25 million the province has set aside to help companies like his.
“This is very relevant to me, seeing as how I’m looking at helping to improve my roof truss manufacturing facility on the Island,” says McFarlane.
“It’s helpful for us to try and keep our employee base stable.”
Having founded the Manitoulin Truss Co. Ltd in Providence Bay in 1986, his products are now carried by the likes of Evans Lumber in Sudbury, and he’s worked on and exported to large custom projects all over the province.
However, his plant was built 25 years ago and his equipment is becoming outdated, straining his ability to adapt his business to changing financial times.
Modernizing his shop and installing a new sawline will improve his cutting capacity by 25 per cent. This would help penetrate the smaller housing market as a “back-up plan,” keeping his 11 staff working year-round rather than the current nine-month period.
Small and medium-sized companies like McFarlane’s are the target of the SMART Program, according to Myriam Zitouni, a workshop manager with the CME.
Earmarked to fund productivity enhancement projects for Ontario manufacturers, SMART provides up to 50 per cent of such projects, up to a maximum of $50,000.
Delivered through the CME, the SMART program will take applications until May 2009. There can be one application per facility, which must have from 10 to 500 employees and have been in operation for at least two years.
Organizers pointed out that although there is only enough funding for 500 manufacturers, the number of applications seen thus far is quite low. In fact, despite having put on roughly 15 workshops, only 50 companies had put through the paperwork for their slice of the funding pie. Of those applicants, 12 have been approved for funding.
Similar room is still available for expert productivity assessments, which are funded separately from the $50,000 project stream. Up to 250 such assessments will funded through the SMART program, with the company left paying $1,000 of the $7,000 cost.
Paul Finley, business development officer with the City of Greater Sudbury, came out in full support of the program, saying even the assessments are a “no-brainer.”
“We can stand against any global competitor,” he says. “These types of initiatives help us to move those companies forward.”
The need to pursue this kind of productivity enhancement was further cemented by the event’s keynote speaker Sandy Adam, former CEO of Algoma Steel.
Adam rattled off several examples of pointless waste he observed in his time at companies like Stelco and Algoma Steel.
In one instance, he found that one of the Stelco plants had built up a 10-year supply of couplings and hoses, simply because nobody had noticed that two different naming systems were used for the same product. Not only did this create huge redundancies, but the company was still buying more couplings and hoses on a daily basis.
To prevent these kinds of profit-killing actions, business leaders need to strive to instill a company-wide culture where departments work together to improve overall productivity.
“Long-term success comes to those who plan long-term,” he says. “Process and productivity improvement is a never-ending journey, not a one-time program. Things like SMART are helpful, but only if you make it part of a much longer term commitment to improve every single thing in every way you possibly can.”
