The London/Oxford/MWO Consortiums continued to grow and members continued to actively participate in EMC activities in 2011.

The Consortiums welcomed new members;

• Kaiser Aluminum
• Accucaps
• Labatt Brewery
• Sleco
• Arcelor Mittal
• Checkfluid
• Diversey
• HNH Wood Products
• London Machinery
• Rho Can
• What's Up Clothing
• Armtec
• Novacraft Canoe

Presently there are over 100 local manufacturing companies in the London/Oxford/MWO Consortiums!

A full schedule of Strategic Interest Group (SIG's) sessions took place in 2011. The group visited Labatt, McCormick, Firestone Textiles, JMP Engineering, IMT Corporation, Jones Packaging and Keiper Automotive to name a few SIG hosts! Not only was some great best practice sharing and benchmarking happening at these events, attendee's also enjoyed plant tours at every facility we visited. The tours provided some great feedback to the host because everyone picks out three things they saw that they liked and three things they think should be improved on to the host at the end of the tour.

Unfortunately the Consortium did lose a few members due to plant closures in 2011. One such closure did result is some very positive outcomes...In early 2011 it was announced that Keiper Automotive in London was closing. Keiper was a great EMC Member, actively participating in the Consortium for a number of years. One of the things that stood out about the staff at Keiper was how well trained and engaged they were. Bob Cook the former Plant Manager of Keiper had taken advantage of EMC Lean Training programs having a majority of his staff take some form of Lean Training.

When it was announced that Keiper was closing it was immediately recognized that losing all these very well trained and motivated workers would not be good for the talent base in the London Area workforce. So the Consortium decided to do something about it...

In late February Keiper hosted its final SIG. Plant Manager Bob Cook prepared a skill matrix for all remaining Keiper employee's which numbered about 120 at the time. The idea of this SIG was to highlight the skills of these remaining employees to other EMC Member facilities. The goal was to see if we could get some of these folks hired at other local EMC Member Manufacturing facilities.

We had an overwhelming response to this event...Representatives from over 60 local EMC Members facilities attended this SIG, beyond the expectations of anyone. In the end we had the best possible outcome. All 120 remaining employees were offered positions at other local member facilities. We are able as a Consortium of local manufacturing facilities able to keep all these people and their skill sets in the London Manufacturing community.

Another highlight of 2011 was a special event put on for local High school Guidance Councillors. Five EMC Member facilities opened their doors to 75 local London/Oxford/Elgin High school Guidance Councillors. The goal of this exercise was to overcome any negative perceptions these Guidance Councillors had about recommending a career in manufacturing to students. The idea that a job in manufacturing is way more than just someone putting a nut on bolt all day was clearly demonstrated! The Guidance Councillors than participated in a panel discussion with representative from each plant they toured.  Positions available in a manufacturing company were discussed as well as opportunity and the skills needed to be successful. The Guidance Councillors really had their eyes opened as a result of this event. Their perception of a career in manufacturing has definitely been changed!

2012 will be another very productive year for the London/Oxford/MWO Consortiums. A full schedule on SIG events will again take place and special events will pop up throughout the year! The Consortiums will continue to grow and members will continue to strive for world class by benchmarking/best practice sharing and working together.

Happy Holidays!

Jason Bates

Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium

jbates@emccanada.org