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."

Looking for a way to benchmark your company’s performance, progress and opportunities for improvement? Look no further. Advanced Manufacturing, in conjunction with the Manufacturing Performance Institute (MPI), will publish the results of the second annual Canada Manufacturing Study in our October 2007 issue.

The 2007 Canada Manufacturing Study will provide detailed insights into the manufacturing strategies, methods and technology in use in Canadian manufacturing along with results from a similar study conducted by MPI for IndustryWeek magazine in the U.S.

We’ve made it very easy for you to take part. All your answers are strictly anonymous. All you need to do is:

After you complete the survey, please also fill out the business reply card included inside the May/June issue and mail it back to us. Then we’ll be able to provide you with information about how to access a powerful online benchmarking tool that you can use to analyze the results from the survey once they are available.

As an added incentive, when you return the card included in this issue, you’ll also be eligible to win one of four prizes of an iPod Shuffle. If the business card is missing from your issue, you can email your contact information to the editor at: jtenpenny@clbmedia.ca. (For a complete list of rules, please visit: www.advancedmanufacturing.com/rules.htm.)

Ottawa responds to report outlining manufacturing challenges

The federal government responded to a recent House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU) report entitled Manufacturing: Moving Forward — Rising to the Challenge, that outlined the challenges facing Canada’s manufacturing sector and included 22 recommendations on how the government could help manufacturers.

“The government response details the significant actions this government has taken in addressing the INDU recommendations, and in creating a positive climate for Canadian manufacturers,” says Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry. “The key role for the Government of Canada is to set the overall conditions for a strong and successful manufacturing sector. Our goal is to create a supportive environment that promotes innovation, investment and success — securing manufacturing jobs for Canadians. Our comprehensive response to the INDU report shows that we are doing exactly that.”

The government responded to all 22 recommendations in the INDU report, covering taxation, energy, labour, trade, intellectual property rights protection, and regulatory, infrastructure, research, development and commercialization policies. The response highlighted measures in Advantage Canada and Budget 2007, including an accelerated capital cost allowance for investments in new machinery and equipment, initiatives to cut red tape, investments in critical infrastructure, and efforts to create the best educated, most skilled, and most flexible labour force in the world.

“The government’s response to the recommendations, and its measures in Budget 2007, show that it is listening to Canadian manufacturers, and delivering for them at a time when manufacturers need it most,” says Perrin Beatty, President of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. “The response reinforces the good news for Canada’s manufacturers and exporters, as well as for the economy as a whole.”

INDU Chair James Rajotte was also pleased with the government’s response to his committee’s recommendations. “I was very pleased to see that Minister Bernier and the government provided such a thorough response to our report,” says Rajotte. “Our recommendations were the result of the input of manufacturers, associations and other organizations from across the country. And it’s great to see that the government is listening to them, and to the committee members.”

For a copy of the government’s response to the INDU report, visit www.ic.gc.ca/specialreports.

3. INDUSTRY NEWS: Education

Students put the finishing touches on their
design at the seventh Canadian Fluid Power Challenge.

Canadian Fluid Power Challenge

Judges at the seventh Canadian Fluid Power Challenge (formerly the Hilltop Tech Skills Challenge), held in Etobicoke, Ont. were pleasantly surprised by the wide variety of designs students used to solve this year’s problem.

The 2007 competition, attended by teams from 15 west Toronto middle schools, was won by the team of grade eight students from Fern Avenue Public School. Students were asked to design and build fluid-power mechanisms to pick up a squash ball, place it into a hopper and remove it from a chute. They were evaluated on a number of criteria including how many times they could repeat the cycle within a two-minute demonstration period and on how little material they used to build their devices. The different designs included some innovative gripping mechanisms and some elaborate chutes for getting the ball into the top of the hopper.

“When we set the problem, we think we know what most of the solutions will look like,” says Steve Rogers of Kidder-Technology Teaching Systems who acts as facilitator for the Challenge. “But it never ceases to amaze me how many other solutions these bright young minds come up with. And this year’s students were a particularly creative group.”

This year’s teacher tour, which took place while the students were building their machines, went to Canada’s Wonderland to see the hydraulics systems behind a number of the rides at the theme park.

IBM and Dassault Systèmes, providers of 3D and product lifecycle management (PLM) products, opened the COE 2007 annual conference in Las Vegas by hosting PLM Summit, a full day of presentations from some of the world’s most prestigious manufacturers.

Bentley Motors, Goodrich Aerostructures, Faurecia auto parts, Johnson Controls, Bath Iron Works, Lockheed Martin, and the engineering team competing for the world land speed record were among the customers that talked about PLM technology’s role in promoting innovation, reducing time to market, raising quality and increasing profits.

Dassault Systèmes CEO Bernard Charlès’ keynote presentation focused on Dassault’s PLM strategy, vision and product portfolio, including the recent acquisition of Class-A surfacing software maker ICEM, as well as current market and business trends driving the PLM market growth.

“PLM Summit and COE are all about Dassault Systèmes, IBM and our customers sharing different ways of achieving PLM value, demonstrating new technology breakthroughs, like 3DLive, and talking about the vision of PLM,” says Philippe Forestier, Dassault Systèmes’ executive vice president, Network Selling, and the company’s senior Americas executive.

“The rich variety of PLM implementations our customers described today demonstrate what a versatile, adaptable technology it is for increasing profits through 3D design, collaboration, simulation, and business process management,” says IBM’s Mark Lefebvre director of Marketing and Strategy, IBM PLM Solutions.

IBM and Dassault also announced the availability of 3DLive that, according to the company, leverages the full power of real-time 3D through an intuitive user interface to search, navigate and collaborate online. This puts product intellectual property at the fingertips of everybody involved in PLM activities, wherever they are.

“With 3DLive, Dassault Systèmes is introducing its next generation of online 3D applications, which will use 3D as a powerful online media to expand collaborative product innovation communities,” says Dominique Florack, senior VP, product R&D, Dassault Systèmes.

“3DLive is a truly revolutionary product that offers benefits never before envisioned in product development and team collaboration,” explains Al Bunshaft, vice president, IBM PLM Solutions. “The power to conceptualize, develop and deliver products in a shared environment over the Web presents enormous possibilities for customers seeking an advantage in the fast-paced and ultra-competitive markets where they do business.”

COE (CATIA Operators Exchange) annual conference is an international gathering of designers and engineers who use Dassault Systèmes’ software including, CATIA, ENOVIA, and DELMIA. The conference featured more than 100 breakout sessions on current topics in PLM as well as Technifair, an exhibition of PLM-related hardware, software and services.

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An art critic will tell you that to truly appreciate a great piece of artwork, you need to stand at a proper distance so that each individual brushstroke and swath of colour and form can take shape.

But to truly grasp the big picture of manufacturing in Canada, you also need to spend some time with the individual artists running our leading firms to see how they are adding life to their companies by masterfully applying the right brushstrokes.

I recently had the privilege of doing just that, when I moderated a roundtable discussion featuring a hand-picked group of leading CEOs and leaders we gathered together for a spirited discussion about innovation.

Over the years, and in countless articles and editorials, I’ve often written about what Canadian manufacturers think, how they react, what they ought to do, and what they are like as a group.

It’s helpful, for the purposes of making a point when you are writing, to lump all manufacturers together, and assume they act — or ought to act — in similar ways, like a giant school of robotic fish changing direction each time a new predator approaches.

The threats and predators change — Mexico, a rising dollar, a slumping auto sector, an aging work force, the emergence of China and India — but the basic premise I’ve adopted is that manufacturers in Canada ought to react in certain ways when these global threats and opportunities arise.

But listening to these leaders engage in a wide-ranging three-hour discussion, I was taken aback by the diversity of views and approaches expressed in the room. It was clear that their worldviews, approaches to their markets, and their basic mindsets are worlds apart.

The companies they represented were from different industries, and the size and scope of their operations were different, so of course I expected differences of opinions. But it was more than that.

There were widely different views about the key challenges Canada even faces, the best approaches to move forward, and how to react to new opportunities. I was struggling to come with an apt description for this that wasn’t value-laden and judgmental, like “old school” vs. “new school” or “progressive” vs. “traditional” or even “advanced” vs. “antiquated.”

None of those labels really fit. Most of these leaders have simply adapted their approach and philosophies to fit the market they serve, the region they are located within, and their strategies often reflect the resources they have to work with. We are, it seems, a pragmatic bunch.

But as I listened to this group debate issues, I realized they are really just a microcosm of Canada’s manufacturing sector. There is no one sure path to follow and no simple truth or magic pill. Of course companies need to embrace lean, be more innovative, empower their workforce, tighten their operations, integrate their supply chain, embrace advanced technologies and be masters of customer service and delivery. But is it enough to thrive? Is it enough to even survive?

These answers do exist, in Canada, and elsewhere. The answer you need right now might be in the shop next door or in the next province. There could be a government-funded research lab that just solved a technical problem that could propel your company’s product line well ahead of your global competitors.

But we all need to do a better job of exchanging the best ideas, so that all of our manufacturers can leap, and not crawl or stumble forward. We don’t want to be a nation of people wasting time and energy reinventing wheels.

One of the participants then threw the challenge back to us, as the publishers of the magazine that covers their industry, to become the collaborative forum where the best ideas are collected and then shared.

It was a daunting challenge, but one that Advanced Manufacturing’s editor John Tenpenny says he’s ready to accept and embrace. If you have insights to share, don’t keep them to yourself. Drop John a note, send him an email, or invite him to tour your facility. That way, your best practices might well become Canada’s best practices. That’s a picture we will all sit back and admire for years to come.

Todd Phillips is the Founding Editor of Advanced Manufacturing and a longtime observer of Canada's manufacturing industry. You can reach him at: tphillips@clbmedia.ca.

Machine Safety Conference
June 4-5, Mississauga, Ont.
Presented by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and Industrial Accident Prevention Association (IAPA), the conference is designed to provide attendees with information about legal liabilities in terms of worker safety; risk assessment methodologies; machine guarding; lockout procedures and more.
Visit: www.shopcsa.ca

AMT 2007
June 4-6, London, Ont.
Organized by the National Research Council's Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Institute, the conference will focus on advanced manufacturing technologies in virtual manufacturing, precision micro-fabrication, flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing, and precision and freeform fabrication.
Visit: www.amtcanada.ca

International RobotsVision Show
June 12-14, Rosemont, Illinois
Co-sponsored by the Automated Imaging Association and the Motion Control Association, the show will feature global suppliers of industrial robots, machine vision systems, motion control products, accessory equipment, engineering services and turnkey systems. This year, the show will be co-located with the Sensors Expo.
Visit: www.robots-vision-show.info

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

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

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