Ron Gaudet, CEO, Windsor Essex Economic Development Corporation started our morning out by asking participants if "collaboration can lead to a better me?"  As part of his message, Mr. Gaudet pointed out that collaboration is not understood or endorsed.  Even though unemployment is down from 15.8% to 7.2% in two years and consumer confidence is starting to trend up that we are indeed at a cross road.

We have two choices, to take the well travel road or the path less traveled.  The well-travelled road has predictable and familiar milestones; lean, familiar, will take us where we want to go but predictably will end at some point.  The familiar path is one that will not cut it in today's reality. 

The road less-travelled is unfamiliar, pitted and unstable in a world economy and where it goes is somewhat unpredictable.  Global competition, cheaper labour, new technology advancement, business developments are all areas that we cannot control, so why take the road less-travelled?  Traveling in this way ensures we are watching and looking as we don't know where it will lead us.  It requires us to multitask at all times and join forces with others to share the load.  It requires us to be agile and flexible as some obstacles are harder than others but we will always come ahead if we use our strengths and look to learn something new.  It allows us to connect more points, not miss interesting places and experience a richer and more fruitful journey.

We can no longer afford to just understand our own sector but must embrace the idea of collaboration in order to continue to learn and support each other, leading to strength for our region and support for our businesses. 

Keys to remember along this road are to embrace collaboration as a strategic way of learning from others.  Continue to communicate with your community partners about your needs in the supply chain and take advantage of the tools and resources at your disposal, like Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium.  Ron left the attendees with a challenge…"Help us tell your story as the world needs to know who we are and what we do."

Jim Waters, President / Partner of BDM Millwrights shared his perspective on collaboration and how is serves his business and his team in today's market.  Mr. Waters shared with us some of his perspective on business challenges today:

•       Protective boundaries have been removed on a global scale

-      Internet

-      Access to markets

-      Emerging economies

-      Freight

•       Cars are the toaster ovens of the 00's, this is a linear process in a world that is no longer operating linearly.

•       Ontario is one of the highest regulated areas in the world to manufacture

•       Standard of living is high when compared globally

•       Need to continue to innovate and focus on value added manufacturing

Jim then decided to share the definition of collaboration with us.  As you would imagine, collaboration is defined as: The action of working with someone to produce or create something; something produced or created in this way; and lastly, Traitorous cooperation with an enemy.  Shocking as it may seem, traitorous cooperation is how many manufacturers feel at times when they have reached out to collaborate with others.

In the spirit of sharing at EMC, Jim offered up some examples of collaboration and the use inside and outside of his organization:

The idea of Coopetition is to not strive to be all things to all customers, but rather align and collaborate with other organizations that can allow a richer offering and expand on our abilities to bid on more work.

Utilizing organizations like EMC to support your efforts by providing opportunities to meet and learn from other manufacturers and by providing programs to help reduce your costs is another way BDM continues to position themselves a global competitors and neighbours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The morning concluded with our last speaker, Al Diggins, President & General Manager of EMC.  Al shared with the group that the idea of collaboration is not natural, it is a learned behaviour that takes time to cultivate and foster.

EMC has been an organization built on the idea of collaboration.  It started with an idea to support a local community group of manufacturers who were relatively isolated and struggling with common issues.  Today, that idea of getting together regularly to share problems and solutions and elicit group power to go and find out, now finds Consortiums all over Ontario and the Maritimes.

 

Al is quick to point out that support for manufacturers is limited by the number of organizations that get involved and see this as a way of doing business.  For many, it seems easier to just stay inside your organization and labour away and what you do, for fear of competition or risk of exposure for what you do and don't do. 

 

The consortium activity, at a grass roots level is to provide a non-competitive environment to share best practices and solutions for common problems in manufacturing today.  Ideally, the month-to-month events are provided to encourage those with something to share to come forward and lead others.  Other services like "Member Needs Help" (MNH) are designed to aid those who have questions, with quick answers from a repository of topics collected from members and reviewed annually by EMC. 

The consortium also recognized that no one knows the challenges of the manufacturing industry, better that the manufacturers but uses collaborative strategies to try and provide opportunities for cross pollination between sub-sectors; Food & Beverage, Agri-Business, Green Energy, Bio Mass and on and on. 

It is through strategies and activities such as these, that manufacturers can support each other, learn from each other and continue to prosper.