Not unlike any other region, the manufacturing sector was met with some real challenges over the past 12 months.  As I toured the region and met with all of my newly inherited EMC Members, the common theme was transition.  The transition that manufacturers in this area of Ontario were dealing with was to move towards a more efficient and less wasteful operation.  This is not to say that most facilities hadn't already had some strategies and tools in place prior to the economy tanking but the past 18 months have been a great opportunity to look deeper into their operations to identify new areas of focus.  The focus for many has been on diversification, collaboration and innovation to indentify new markets that can lead them out of this down time.  Many other members needed to re-define how they do business to enhance their delivery of their core competencies.  These are topics that were discussed throughout the year during our SIG events.

This year provided me with the opportunity to realize that each manufacturing region throughout the province has many specific challenges and it was important to identify these so that we can find some solutions during our benchmarking exercises.  Some excellent discussions resulted with all participants walking away with some fresh ideas to assist in freeing themselves of nagging challenges.

The outlook for manufacturing in 2010 is promising, while it may be a slow upward trend at least the direction for most manufacturers is promising!  EMC offered many opportunities throughout the year to manufacturers in order to foster their continuous learning and expand their knowledge network.  One of the strategies that was employed was an Industry Business Briefing, that was designed to offer some ideas in order to move forward as a company.  Chad Metcalf (Value Stream Solutions) discussed how facilities can bring their business closer to world class organizations by focusing on the culture change - developing a corporate culture mindset so that all employees are engaged in your growth.   This singular event brought some excellent membership growth to the region and we saw a number of new members join the EMC Canada family. 

We decided to spend more time this year on EMC Member shop floors to see real-life examples of how members are implementing strategies for success. We had some excellent Continuous Improvement benchmarking exercises that proved to be very valuable for all participants regardless of the size, sector or sophistication of their own facilities.  In 2010, we will continue with having EMC members hosting tours of their facilities so that we can have a better understanding of what our neighbours do and how they do it.  Those that hosted this year will tell you of the huge benefit to have 'outside eyes' view your processes and offer unbiased ideas for future activities.

I look forward to manufacturers realizing some new opportunities for growth and the continuation of 'borrowing and sharing with pride' in the new year. 

I wish you all a healthy, happy and memorable holiday season and let's all raise our coffee mugs for a prosperous 2010!

Tim