The Burlington / Oakville SIG event for March featured a presentation from Brent Foreman of Evans, Philp LLP.  During the presentation, Mr. Foreman and the EMC members discussed and shared experiences with Employment Law issues that they face as manufacturers today, especially their challenges with:

Our February SIG was hosted by Mancor in Oakville.  A Big thank you to Jadra for that!  Our discussion topic for our February event focused on the challenges of managing a workforce with workers over age 65.  It is clear that many workers are choosing to continue to work beyond 65 years of age either due to a desire to keep working or financial need.  As an employer there is a great value to having them continue working since they often have a lot of technical and job specific knowledge. …

Our guest speaker, Bruce Craig, discussed the topic of creating and maintaining a lean culture with a great group of participants.  We talked about how employee engagement fits into the mix and discussed ways to sustain Lean and transfer Lean thinking to our daily work practices.  The rewards are significant: companies that are engaged in Continuous Improvement are finding that they are more competitive.

A great discussion took place with some of the following comments/thoughts:

• I didn't…

EMC is listening to member needs and to industry trends, so this year we will be facilitating a number of "Green-focused"/Environmental Sustainability SIGs.   These sessions will provide manufacturers the opportunity to learn from their peers and industry leaders on what incentives have been used, strategies implemented and successes realized.

Here are ideas/strategies that were shared during roundtable discussion:

• using eco-friendly chemicals (talking with suppliers about alternatives)
• lig…

Did you know that most manufacturers that submit an SR&ED claim are leaving money on the table?

 EMC, realizing the potential for member companies, is undertaking a massive effort to ensure that every manufacturer knows how to receive benefits under the SR&ED program.

Manufacturers often struggle to bridge the language barrier in describing their activities to the Canada Revenue Agency (oversees SR&ED). Many manufacturing companies shy away from potential SR&ED claims because…

Not unlike any other region, the manufacturing sector has met with some real challenges over the past 12 months.  As I toured the region and met with EMC Members and soon-to-be 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…

Marnie Downey of ERGO Inc was our guest subject matter expert and she held the room captive as she took us through various workshop exercises to help us to identify the potential for MSDs or Muscoskeletal Disorders.  In her presentation, Marnie instructed the assembled group to identify the potential for injury when she showed us a somewhat typical workstation and then later asked the group to come up with solutions that they might implement at their own facility if presented with the same…

Whiting Door is hoping to double the sales/output with a new opportunity coming down the pipeline but are challenged with doing this based on space limitations and possibly no additional workforce.

WHITING Door Manufacturing is 100% Canadian-owned and has been building doors since 1967. Through WHITING's diverse affiliations globally and expertise locally they are able to produce world class quality with every order. The cornerstone of their quality process is determining what provides value for…