It was a small but mighty group that got together on June 25, 2009 to discuss 'Creative Strategies and Government Programs'. The group was an interesting mix of manufacturers and what was interesting was one was currently building their facility, one was looking to expand their physical building space and one was fully staffed and busy!   Definitely not like the media's portrayal of a downturned economy.

We talked about things that could be done by companies in lean times to make them more viable as the economy improved.   Little things like cross-training are valuable and can't be overlooked!

We also talked about the following government programs and the types of projects that would fit:

IRAP ARP

Yves Landry AIME

OCE Connections

And of course some of the great programs from EMC:

THRC online training courses

SRED

Energy

It was interesting to watch the conversation move and at one point we talked about what an ideal orientation program would look like if we had the time to create one from scratch.   What about if you included:

∙ An introduction to Lean

∙   The chance to meet or at least understand who your end customers were and what they were looking for from your product

∙  Explaining the core company values

∙The meeting finished with a tour of the HUGE warehouse space that Mitten occupies in Brantford.  Thanks again to Connie Barnard and Melissa Boylan of Mitten Inc for hosting.

Our next event in Brantford will be September 24 , 2009 at Norlock where we will be discussing the topic of Attendance Management.   The topic will be Attendance Management.   For more information on the Brantford Region SIGs please contact lgibson@emccanada.org .