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EMC Belleville/Quinte Consortium
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Belleville, Quinte & Cobourg Region EMC members gathered at The Stirling Creamery, in beautiful downtown Stirling, Ontario to discuss and share best practices regarding “Production Planning, Scheduling and Inventory Management”. Trevor Braun, Operations Manager shared a very comprehensive history of this well established business and their evolution to becoming the only dairy in Ontario that now produces barrel churned butter.
The challenge today is how to take the expertise they have developed in small batch butter print making into a niche market that will allow them to survive and flourish in future.
Trevor noted that the West family founded The Stirling Creamery in 1925 and it was later bought by Butter Ball Farms of Michigan. The main product from 1925 to 2008 was the one pound butter print that everyone recognizes today in the grocery stores. In the 1990's they began to produce butter balls for the…
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October 18, 2011
Ontario Truss & Wall Celebrates FIVE Years of No Lost-Time Accidents!
By Gay Henniger
This special milestone for a small truss company located in Foxboro – north of Belleville, Ontario, will be celebrated not just by its employees but also by Belleville/Quinte/Cobourg Consortium members who have followed its progress since this Consortium began about eight years ago. Instituting a successful Health & Safety program in this plant has been an individual, as well as group effort and required a major change in culture and attitude towards Health and Safety for all concerned.
Throughout this change period, Juanita Hart, Controller OTW, aided by help from the EMC WSIB Safety Group program and supported by networking with other EMC members, never wavered in her goal to help her management team and employees improve the safety record as well as the "bottom line" of this busy and progressive plant.
Photo: Rear L - R: Ray Robson, (Production Supervisor), Dan Gannon, (Design Technician), Frank Shortt (VP/GM), Kevin McGuinness, (Design Technician), Dan Ollerenshaw,…
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December 9, 2010
Ergonomic Challenges of an Aging Workforce, and Strategies for Prevention
By Gay Henniger
Jennifer McGillis, ERGO Inc. joined members recently at Berry Plastics in Belleville to discuss ergonomic strategies that with physical challenges as a direct result of an increasing number of aging employees. One plant present noted that over the next six years, there will be a complete turnover of their 150 employees, as a result of retirement. Meanwhile these workers have been doing their jobs (not necessarily the best way) for many years and without ergonomic consideration to job tasks.
At the EMC Conference last May it was announced that ERGO Ltd. has become an official EMC partner. Jennifer McGillis is one of the four ERGO Inc. specialists and is a Certified Kinesiologist specializing in Biometrics.
Jennifer used a PPT presentation as a guide to the discussion but encouraged members to jump in, ask questions and bring up specific challenges that they were experiencing in their plants. A copy of Jennifer's presentation can be found on the B/Q/C member web page.
Main…
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Blommer Chocolate in Campbellford, Ontario recently hosted a very special Best Practice Event designed to encourage discussion on a subject that affects every aspect of our businesses – “Planning” - but more specifically what it takes to keep our creative juices flowing if you will! With that in mind, Doug Harper, General Manager of Blommer Chocolate set the stage for a very interesting workshop aptly entitled “Getting Unstuck - How to Get Traction with Your Planning Processes”.
As part of the introduction to this workshop, FSA, Gay Henniger spoke with those present about the prestigious "Lean leadership and Cultural Excellence" Award that was awarded to Blommer Chocolate Company of Canada at the EMC Advantage Through Excellence Conference in Hamilton earlier this year, demonstrating the commitment this company has for their people, their community, and their peers to succeed:
"Blommer Chocolate has a deep and public history with EMC. Its roots began with its…
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Metso Minerals, Belleville hosted the first SIG aimed at those employees in EMC member buildings that deal with Customs – logistics, purchasing, shipping/receiving, etc. Sara Jarvis, CCS, Customs Specialist with Kriska transportation, Prescott met with Belleville/Quinte members to talk about Customs documentation, process, future expectations and tips to make the whole process faster and therefore more efficient for manufacturers.
Sara Jarvis, Customs Specialist, Kriska Transport gave a very comprehensive presentation that outlined general customs documentation requirements and also dealt with two particular issues.
- 1. Problems that carriers run into without proper documentation
- 2. US suppliers do not like (or understand) rules in providing NAFTA certificates. How are other companies dealing with this?
A full copy of Sara's presentation can be found on the Belleville/Quinte Webpage or by following this link:
This…
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Blommer Chocolate Company of Canada hosted the October 14th Belleville/Quinte Event at the Holiday Inn Express, Belleville. Members were treated to a very interesting presentation and discussion concerning “performance management” from the big picture point of view – a company’s all over performance. Nicole St-Aubin, Aim Consulting, walked through the construction of a “Strategy Map” for a fictitious company whose goal was “to become the supplier of choice with Competitive Total Cost”.
Highlights!
Members learned when and how to use a "Dashboard" for key metrics - how to choose and calculate the metrics and what characteristics these metrics should possess.
Nicole noted that the following functions need to be aligned in order to meet strategy goals - quality, accounting, marketing, human resources, innovation and shareholder relationship (including customers). Typical metrics that one could consider for all of the above functions were shared with the group and can be found on…
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Despite being the first day after a truly gorgeous Labour Day Weekend, Belleville/Quinte member companies gathered at Airborne Systems, Belleville for the yearly privilege of sharing a very stimulating presentation and discussion with Vince Panetta, lawyer with the Kingston office of the Hicks Morley law firm. Vince gave us an update on legislative changes to the Employment Standards Act as well as OHSA news. A number of Case Law developments were outlined and discussed – as Vince noted, 2008 was a “Supr
Topics included:
- Hours of work and overtime
- Changes involving companies that work with Temporary Help Agencies
- Elect to Work (Casual Employees - Employee Pool)
- Minimum Wage Reminder
A full copy of the presentation will be located on the Belleville/Quinte web page shortly.
Discussion & points related to the presentation included:
- The best time to outline policies re: company's hours of work, is at the beginning of an employment relationship. Note an application that outlines the above is not an…
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June 16, 2009
Health & Safety Updates - MOL, MOE, WSIB & "Contractor Safety" Presentation
By Gay Henniger
Three special events were held this past week across Eastern Ontario. The six Eastern Ontario Consortia were paired, and events were held in Napanee, Morrisburg and Smiths Falls. EMC WSIB Safety Group members also attended. The agenda consisted of update presentations by the Ministry of Labour, WSIB and the Ministry of the Environment. In Napanee Doug Rourke also spoke with members about “Contractor Safety”. In Smiths Falls and Morrisburg, Doug’s presentation concerned “Behaviour-based Safety”. Copies
" Safe at Work Ontario"
Ministry of Labour (Inspectors Brad Moon, Alain Roy & Matt Clouthier)
Main points (detailed presentation on web site):
· Launched in June, 2008
· Expansion of selection criteria for inspections beyond WSIB stats - now inspections are based on a combinations of factors - H&S record, history of non-compliance & presence of H&S hazards (sector hazards)
· MOL may inspect workplaces that have had no injuries
· Move to a emphasis on…
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Ontario Truss and Wall hosted a very interested SIG at their Foxboro plant (just north of Belleville).
Bernadette Hymus, Public Health Nurse and Workplace Health Coordinator of the Hasting and Prince Edward Health Unit gave our members and a guest a very detailed presentation re: Establishing a Comprehensive Workplace Health Program in your organization (Making 'Cents' of a Good Idea). The Framework used as a model will be very familiar to any of our members who have worked through a model of "Continuous Improvement" or "Change" in their buildings.
Bernadette's presentation included:
- Factors in…
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Tyco Thermal Controls hosted the April EMC event and members were treated to two presentations and lots of discussion opportunity re: Pre-Start Safety reviews including racking challenges, auditing and racking safety. Allen Line, PSR Inspections shared a package of information re: Racking Safety with members. Allen also shared his extensive personal experience with both racking and machinery requirements for pre-starts as well as examples of “the good”, “the bad” and “the ugly” situations he has noted in
Main points of this presentation include:
Racking:
· Need to familiarize yourself with the legislated requirements
- CSA A344. 1-05/A344.2-05 (Inspecting & Maintaining Steel Storage Racks)
- IAPA Safety of Pallet Racks (Construction, Purchase, Installation & Use - note in Ontario is must be free-standing - not attached to a wall)
- CSA Z432-04 (Safeguarding of Machinery)
· Racking must be installed to manufacturers specification to meet code
· Can add…
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