Well I have to say that my first year with EMC has been one of learning, sharing and enjoying!

What can we say about Brantford and Region in 2009???

We started the season with a legal update at Hartmann, had a couple of discussions about violence in the workplace - definitely a benefit of EMC and being in a safety group.  Trust me I've talked to companies that aren't even thinking about the violence in the workplace legislation which passed final reading in early December 2009 which means the Ministry of Labour will be issuing fines and orders regarding it by June 2010. Check out this link http://www.emccanada.org/membersonl/ontario/brantford/emcbrantfo

Despite the rocky and ever changing nature of Manufacturing, we had great attendance at our SIGs and every event I received positive feedback about the topic, discussion and networking.

Here's a couple of tidbits from the April event at Canvil that seems to be very timely advice:

Change is and will never be an easy or quick process.   When looked at on a classic bell curve we discussed how 20% will adapt immediately; 60% will adapt within 12-18 months and 20% will never adapt.  

Jim Collins in his book 'Good to Great' talks about making sure you have the right people on your "bus" and gives 2 key questions to determine how you know if they are the right people:

1. Would you hire the person again?
2. If the person came to tell you that he or she is leaving to pursue an exciting new opportunity would you feel terribly disappointed or secretly relieved?

In September we discussed one of my favourite topics - attendance management - where we looked at scenarios different companies encountered regarding attendance.  General consensus was that attendance was a problem in all organization but there were generally only a handful of employees that caused the problem.

We finished off the year with a Sr. Manager's meeting where we talked about the challenges going into the next decade - the discussion was positive - everyone seemed to be positive thinking about the future of manufacturing in the province - it created a great list of topics for 2010 - including what community resources are there to help manufacturing; how best to manage multiple roles; time management and inventory control.

All of our participating members deserve an A for positive attitude (throughout these tough recessionary times); attendance and networking with others! 

All the best for the holiday season and look forward to working with you in 2010!

In 2010 watch for a greater variety of SIG events - including January where we will start doing plant tours and continuous improvement SIGs!

For more information on the Brantford and Region consortium, please contact Laura Gibson at 519-304-4648 or by e-mail at lgibson@emccanada.org