On Friday January 4th, MPP Jane McKenna (Burlington) visited MTechHub for a tour to learn more about our centre and community.
It was a pleasure to tour the Manufacturing Tech Hub and to hear how Mark, Lisa, and Brian help create jobs in #Ontario. They support small & medium sized businesses with digital and technological innovations. #BurlON is fortunate to have their expertise. #HometownInnovators https://t.co/V2csu3xCK3
— Jane McKenna (@janemckennapc) January 7, 2019
We welcome leaders from the public and private sector to visit us to discuss how we can work together and realize the potential of Industry 4.0 technologies and concepts cost effectively for our members.
Ms. McKenna is the Parliamentary Assistant (PA) to the Minister of Labour, the Honourable Laurie Scott, helping on key projects and programs within her file. We had a great conversation with Ms. McKenna and here are some of the highlights.
The Importance of Contacts & Connecting
Some of us still have a rolodex or binder full of business cards while others make connections on LinkedIn and other social networks.
Ms. McKenna, relies on her network of contacts, to help citizens get answers and problems solved. In fact she’s on Wikipedia, Twitter and LinkedIn. Creating new contacts and building a network still matters, in fact it matters today more than ever.
We’ve made MTechHub available to Ms. McKenna to meet and connect with our members at upcoming member engagement events at the Industry 4.0 centre and online. MTechHub is well positioned to have small and engaging conversations and get togethers with key stakeholders in the manufacturing sector.
MTechHub members can look forward to these types of opportunities to connect with key people and organizations in the coming months.
Can These Issues Facing Canadian Manufacturers Be Solved?
Our presentation to Ms. McKenna outlined some of the obstacles to growth facing manufacturers, many of which are external factors which are difficult for individual organizations to fix.
The macro issues above are industry wide and systemic. It will take months, if not years to fix them. But, what can and should be fixed in Canadian manufacturers organizations is labour productivity.
Labour Productivity is measured by comparing the amount of goods and services produced with the inputs which were used in production. Labor productivity is the ratio of the output of goods and services to the labor hours devoted to the production of that output (source).
Productivity is being able to do something efficiently (easy and quickly) and effective (right way, best outcome). In some cases, technology and “digitization” offer tools and processes that improve productivity. And, bringing organizations together to discuss problems and possibilities and then work together to develop and pilot solutions. For example:
- Health and Safety Compliance – most companies have paper based tracking systems to record and prove compliance. Standardization and digitization will improve productivity.
- Group projects – bring companies and experts together to discuss problems and possibilities. Commit to pilots and wide scale group adoption of solutions.
- Standardization – introduce and support the standardization of technology solutions.
Below is the full presentation.
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What’s Next?
We’ll continue to invite leaders and members to events, tours and to engage with us and each other in the coming months. The best way to keep in touch is to subscribe for updates.
