Changing environment demands that manufacturers reinvent themselves

Although a variety of external forces including continually growing global competition are putting pressure on manufacturers to reinvent themselves to serve the new, emerging global marketplace, it also presents critical opportunities for forward-thinking manufacturers.

That was the key finding in a recent report entitled, “Customer Line Integration: New Opportunities for Experienced Manufacturers,” which was authored by John R. Brandt and George Taninecz, both of the Manufacturing Performance Institute. The report was sponsored by the Italian Trade Commission, Toronto, ON.

“A combination of heightened global competition, shortened product development cycle times and increased demand for customized products means that manufacturing executives now face a far more complex supply chain and production environment. Managers must now optimize their production, assembly, test, and packaging lines to coordinate precisely with fluctuating customer demand,” the report states.

According to the report, another trend driving line integration is that manufacturers have realized that customer value no longer resides solely in the product itself. Other factors containing customer value include quality, reliability, and timeliness of delivery and service; total cost of ownership, procurement, and business relationship; provision of solution bundles, of which the core product or service may be a small part; transparent access to information that serves the end-customer and supports the product or service; and the provision of valuable business expertise that might not necessarily be related to the core product or service.

“As supply-chain manufacturing has taken hold, a vendor community is developing to provide the products and services that manufacturers still need, but find unprofitable to maintain in-house. Manufacturers are becoming these suppliers’ customers, and like their own customers, they demand total solutions instead of products.

“Together, these structural changes, accelerated by new technology and globalization, have forced manufacturers to reinvent the production process,” the authors of the report state. However, as manufacturers have divested more and more of the services they still need to outside vendors, their own in-house capabilities, in such areas as engineering and automation services, have been diminished to very low levels.

Nevertheless, outsourcing such work as line integration activities and upgrades demands that the manufacturer carefully consider the choice of integrator, the report says, adding that integrators should be evaluated on five factors including experience with similar projects; product variety and partner preference; project team type; integration process plan; and due diligence.

But the selection of integrator is only the beginning of the process, the report cautions. Once the manufacturer and integrator have joined in the partnership, manufacturers still need to manage several critical areas on a continuing basis including clarity of roles, end-user focus, trust, shared goals, flexibility, and win-win thinking.

“The common theme throughout any industry’s restructuring is the imperative to shift specific process responsibility to that link in the supply chain that can most effectively meet it in terms of cost, quality, speed and expertise. Savvy manufacturers will recognize that line integration and upgrades are the next logical processes that require the specialization that outsourcing can bring,” the report says.

The manufacturers who identify the need for change sooner rather than later will be the ones who capitalize the most on these new opportunities.

For further information or to obtain a copy of the report contact the Italian Trade Commission at 1-888-ITALTRADE or visit www.machinesitalia.org.

Jerry Cook
Editor, MPP
jcook@clbmedia.ca 

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Skills Canada-Ontario event recognizes hall of fame nominees

Proceeds raised from the “Building Futures-One Dream at a Time” fundraising event will assist students from across Ontario to advance from the Ontario Skills Canada competition shown here to the Canadian Skills Competition taking place in Saskatoon, SK in June, 2007.

Skills Canada-Ontario recently held a special event to recognize this year’s nominees for the Klaus Woerner Skilled Trades Hall of Fame.

The “Building Futures-One Dream at a Time” fundraising dinner was held to recognize a number of individuals from industry and educational for their significant contributions to the advancement of skilled trades and technologies.

Woerner, the late founder of ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc., Cambridge, ON was instrumental in promoting and advancing skilled trades and technologies. Skills Canada-Ontario presents the Klaus Woerner Skilled Trades Hall of Fame annually to recognize individuals who made significant contributions for skilled trades in the invention, innovation or advocacy in education/training, entrepreneurship, industry or leadership.

This year’s nominees include: Laverne Brubacher, president, Menno S. Martin Contractor Ltd., St. Jacobs, ON; Rod Eastman, coach/team leader, human resource development and trades training and apprenticeship, Dofasco Inc., Hamilton, ON; Tom Franks, professor, Conestoga College of Applied Arts and Technology, Kitchener, ON; Jim Gerrard, professor, Conestoga College of Applied Arts and Technology, Kitchener, ON; Tony Kattenhorn, Professor, Conestoga College of Applied Arts and Technology, Kitchener, ON; Jack Slothouber, manager apprentices and lean manufacturing, ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc., Cambridge, ON; and Volker Thomsen, president and CEO, St. Lawrence College of Applied Arts and Technology, Kingston, ON.

Proceeds raised from the “Building Futures-One Dream at a Time” fundraising event will assist students from across Ontario to advance from Ontario to the Canadian Skills Competition taking place in Saskatoon, SK in June, 2007.

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