By KELLY LOUISEIZE
Anyone worth their salt has figured out two important components to success how to get the most of themselves and paying attention to detail matters.
Brainstorming on getting the most in the production cycle means people need to work collectively toward improving their product line and their global competitiveness.
Mike Duchene, general manager for Sudbury's Marcotte Mining seems to have found a leg up through the Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium (EMC). He has been a member of the not-for-profit organization for four years and says their programs and training sessions are second to none.
EMC consists of a multitude of manufacturers dedicated to growing their business domestically and internationally by working together within communities and government agencies.
“To go down the lean manufacturing chain, EMC is a good resource to use,” Duchene says.
Founded in the mid 1980's and incorporated in 1997, membership spans the breadth of industries with networking clusters grouping together to address current challenges. Duchene has participated in some of the training sessions and have accessed the pool of seasoned manufacturing professionals through a web-based “member needs help database.” Up to 1,000 questions and answers are provided on their library site. If a question has not been asked before, the consortium will send out a query to manufacturing members for feedback. If another person is dealing with the same issue, they too can be included in the answer session.
The consortium is driven by membership fees and a need to become more globally competitive.
China, Europe and India have developed a community of manufacturing companies that depend on economic agencies to drive private projects back to them. What often happens is one Canadian company comes up against a wall of manufacturing outfits from France, for instance.
“Canadian productivity is low compared to the world and we have a lot of work to do,” Al Diggins, president and general manager of EMC, says.
Between 2002 and 2005 Canada’s trade deficit to China jumped from $12 billion to $22 billion with the raw natural resources share of exports soaring at the behest of manufacturing goods according to the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) website. Adding to this is the high Canadian dollar, energy challenges and a sector that has not invested enough back into infrastructure and resources. Signed international agreements that were to provide global competitiveness have failed, causing an imbalance in trade outcomes and job losses, benefits and working conditions as stated by the CLC.
“One of the best competitive advantages we’ve got is to get better at what you are doing,” Diggins says.
Human resources have become a significant factor in the manufacturing sector.
Metal fabricators and mining houses appear to be in competition with one another for qualified personal, but so too are the provinces. Alberta’s economy is in overdrive. They cannot hire enough skilled trades people and some of those recent hires are coming from Ontario. Others have come from New Brunswick and the Maritimes, Diggins says. The problem became more evident when three manufacturing competitors were sitting in the same room addressing this very issue at a EMC session. All wanted to bid on upcoming projects, but their human resources were limited. Their solution was to pool the three companies together and vie for larger contracts.
These meetings, whether they include executives or directors, are similar to “guerilla warfare,” Diggins says.
They enter into the session with the intent of finding resolution in an expeditious and effective manner.
“They have one objective... and they are in and out and back to work in no time,” Diggins says.
An estimated 650 members belong to Ontario chapters. Sault Ste. Marie has already opened a consortium with Greater Sudbury and North Bay expecting to follow by springtime.
