Advanced Manufacturing Newsletter

"A must-read for decision-makers who manage, source and implement manufacturing technologies. Canada's #1 source for advanced manufacturing technology news, analysis and products."

Want to learn how Canadian companies are succeeding on the global stage? Then you may want to mark May 16 on your calendar and come and spend the morning to discuss this relevant topic with some of your peers at, Taking on the World – Canadian Manufacturing Operations are winning in the Global Marketplace: What are Keys to this Success?

Siemens in collaboration with Richard Ivey School of Business, Advanced Manufacturing, and The Access Group would like to invite you to join the conversation about the keys to global success on May 16th from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. in London, Ont. This FREE half day peer-to-peer executive roundtable discussion will highlight:

• How do winners go about getting the knowledge they need in an unfamiliar territory?

Manufacturing organizations are seeing both competition and opportunities from around the world. The competitive global challenges are great and yet we're still persevering. Among the key to success factors are productivity breakthroughs and a culture of innovation. What are the key challenges Canadian manufacturers face?

Plastics Industry launches national certification program

Canada's plastics sector launched its new Certified Plastics Practitioner (Cert.PP) program, which will help make the industry even more competitive. The program was announced by the Canadian Plastics Sector Council (CPSC) as part of Plast-Ex 2007, Canada's largest plastics industry trade show.

The certification program is the first of its kind in Canada to establish national occupational standards that recognize the unique skills and competencies of practitioners in the plastics processing industry. It is designed to ensure an adequate supply of highly trained employees in the plastics industry.

"Plastics play a crucial role within a wide cross section of other key industries and growth in this sector has outpaced all other manufacturing sectors in Canada for more than a decade. The result is tremendous employment and advancement opportunities for people with the appropriate skills," says Charles Brimley, CPSC's Executive Director.

"This new, Internet-based certification program will enable employees to certify their skills sets to standards recognized nationally by the industry," Brimley says, "and it will help employers enhance their competitiveness by giving them the human resources tools to grow their businesses.

Paul Waller, President, Plastics Touchpoint Group, Toronto, was presented with the first-ever Certified Plastics Practitioner (Cert.PP) certificate. He is now certified as a Level 3 Film Extrusion Operator.

Today's e-newsletter is sponsored by:

3. INDUSTRY NEWS: PLM Software

Tecnomatix Version 8 from UGS is now available.

UGS launches latest version of Tecnomatix

UGS announced Tecnomatix Version 8 software, the latest release of its industry-leading suite of digital manufacturing software. Tecnomatix 8 includes several significant enhancements focused on helping companies improve manufacturing predictability and quality by better anticipating potential shop floor issues originating in product and/or process design.

Tecnomatix 8 enhancements fall into two major categories – strengthening its industry leading PLM integration and the introduction of a next generation process planning and simulation capability. The result is enhanced predictability from product development to the shop floor, enabling companies to improve the manufacturability of product designs and to design robust, reliable and optimized manufacturing processes.

''The release of Tecnomatix 8.0 provides new levels of integration with Teamcenter and the entire UGS PLM product set, continuing UGS' strategy of helping companies establish a single source of manufacturing knowledge,'' says Dick Slansky, Senior Analyst for PLM, ARC Advisory Group. ''The enhanced features and PLM integration of Tecnomatix 8.0 will enable manufacturers to shorten dramatically the product launch cycle while providing an advanced production systems platform for shop floor to enterprise integration. The result for manufacturers will be their ability to accelerate substantially their product time to market while implementing agile and flexible production systems.''

In an effort to expand research and development (R&D) in the auto parts industry, and promote a culture of innovation and collaboration, Ottawa-based Precarn Incorporated and the Toronto-based Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association (APMA) announced a partnership to support the R&D efforts of automotive parts manufacturers in Canada.

Under the joint program — which will be administered and funded by Precarn, a not-for-profit company representing a national network of corporations, universities, colleges, research institutes and government partners engaged in the development of intelligent systems enabled solution — a minimum of $3 million is earmarked to fund automotive parts companies that are committed to R&D and innovation.

"With Precarn's expertise in the management of leading-edge technology projects and APMA's extensive knowledge of the auto parts industry, this partnership will make important contributions towards the development of a culture of innovation and collaboration within the Canadian auto parts industry, as well as increase the number of technology-based, supply-chain collaborations in Canada," says Paul Johnston, President and CEO of Precarn.

In view of the increasing economic challenges within the automotive industry, innovation is more important than ever, emphasized Gerald B. Fedchun, APMA President. "We are very pleased to be collaborating with Precarn on this initiative in order to bring highly-needed R&D funding to our members," he said. "The funds will help to encourage innovation in the automotive parts industry in Canada and ensure it continues to be globally competitive."

Today's e-newsletter is sponsored by:

Want to connect with companies looking for the exact services you provide?

At this very moment, buyers are requesting quotes for the manufacturing services you provide. MFG.com takes the hassle out of finding the right customers for your business and provides you a cost effective way to meet new customers and grow your business.

MFG.com uses its proprietary technology to intelligently connect buyers with suppliers of manufacturing services while facilitating the collaboration, quoting, due diligence and analysis processes.

Click to visit our website, and sign up for a FREE Supplier Test Drive: http://am.mfg.com

Machine tool builder Mazak Corporation Canada recently celebrated the Grand Opening of its new $4 million Canada Headquarters and Technology Centre in Cambridge, Ont.

The new Canada Headquarters and Technology Centre covers 2,044 square meters on a 1.53-hectare site next to Ontario’s Highway 401 and will be home to Mazak Corporation Canada’s 30-person sales and service support operation (12 in the office, 18 factory-trained service technicians in the field across Canada). It is also a vital connection to Mazak’s exclusive distributors throughout Canada: A.W. Miller Technical Sales Inc. in Mississuaga, Ontario; A.W. Miller Equipement Technique in St. Laurent, Quebec; and Machine Toolworks in Edmonton, Alberta.

It is also home to Mazak’s Canada Technology Centre, the eighth in North America and the 29th worldwide. With knowledgeable personnel close and accessible to Canadian manufacturers, Mazak can provide manufacturers such things as turnkey systems and process development expertise.

“This Technology Centre is proof of Mazak’s commitment to helping our Canadian customers improve productivity and profitability with machine tool technology solutions specifically developed for their particular needs,” says Mazak Corporation President Brian Papke.

“Mazak has brought to the machine shop business a very close partnership relationship,” says Mazak customer Peter J. Harry, Managing Director of Eldorado Tool & Manufacturing Company Ltd., in Waterloo, Ont. “By putting a Technology Centre here, Mazak is acknowledging the importance of Canadian manufacturers. It’s like they put us on the map.”

Making demand-driven manufacturing a reality
By Predrag Jakovljevic, CPIM, CIRM

When moving from a push to a pull system, manufacturers need to look for alternative software products to work alongside existing ERP systems, such as cover-time planning to prioritize their production planning.

In traditional manufacturing, the time and cost of changeover to produce different products is high, as are the costs of inventory, planning and expediting. Thus, goods are pushed through production at levels determined by often inaccurate scheduling and forecasting tools common in MRP (material resource planning) and ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems. These levels often exceed demand, resulting in building excess finished inventory, while in a flow/lean/just in time (JIT) environment orders are conversely “pulled” through the process, based on actual demand.

Autodesk ''Experience the Possibilities Tour''
Showcase of the 2008 release of the Autodesk family of products in eight cities in Canada: May 8 (Montreal), May 9 (Toronto), June 7 (Vancouver), June 13 (Winnipeg), June 14 (Edmonton), June 15 (Calgary), June 19 (Halifax), June 21 (Ottawa).
Registration Information: http://www.autodesk.com/live or 800-234-0074.

2007 Canadian RFID Conference
RFID Canada
May 8-9, Markham, Ont.
Canada's leading showcase of new developments, breakthroughs and applications in Radio Frequency Identification devices, electronic tagging and tracking technologies, featuring high-profile speakers, technology displays and workshops.
Visit: www.rmoroz.com/Registering_2007.asp

Advanced Manufacturing Expo Quebec
May 15-17, Montreal, Que.
Advanced Manufacturing (AM) Expo - Quebec is the major event for assembly and electronics manufacturing professionals in Quebec. In this export-driven marketplace, buyers are looking for innovative ideas and technology to help them operate faster, better, and cheaper.
Visit: www.sme.org

Montreal Plant Maintenance & Design Engineering Show
May 15-17, Montreal, Que.
Since 1987, the Montreal Plant Maintenance & Design Engineering Show (PMDS) has maintained its position as Quebec's largest marketplace for Plant Maintenance and Design Engineering equipment, supplies and services.
Visit: www.pmds.ca

Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium (EMC) Lean & Human Capital Conference
May 29-30, Burlington, Ont.
'Advantage Through Excellence' is two-day event exploring the competitive advantages, opportunities an successes that can be achieved by manufacturers through peer-to-peer networking and sharing of best practices.
Visit: www.emccanada.org

Western Manufacturing Technology Show
June 19-21, Edmonton, Alta.
The Western Manufacturing Technology Show (WMTS) is a major forum for manufacturing professionals from throughout Alberta and neighboring provinces to source products ranging from machine tools, welding equipment, design engineering, and plant maintenance to process control and automation.
Visit: www.wmts.ca

Advanced Manufacturing magazine formed an alliance with GlobalSpec (www.globalspec.com), a leading specialized search engine and information resource for the engineering, technical and industrial communities.

Through this alliance, visitors to Advanced Manufacturing magazine's website (www.advancedmanufacturing.com) will benefit from GlobalSpec's powerful search capabilities, including SpecSearchÂ®, GlobalSpec's trademarked search technology. SpecSearch offers the capability to search by specification 120 million parts in 1,600,000 product families from more than 18,500 supplier catalogs. This relationship also allows visitors to easily find engineering-specific content via The Engineering WebÂ®, more than 250 million pages of relevant technical information powered by GlobalSpec.

If you are having any technical problems, please send an email to websupport@clbmedia.ca with "AM newsletter Technical Problems" in the subject line.

Your email address will not be sold or passed on to any third party. It is only used for magazine-related purposes, such as renewing your subscription and this e-Newsletter. Please see our Privacy Policy for more details.

CLB Media Inc. disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the contents of this e-Newsletter and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reliance upon information in this e-Newsletter.