Over 50 people across 3 events had the privilege of touring and sharing best practices at Spartech Color in Stratford.  They are working on their Continuous Improvement (CI) journey and used the CI group to help them create their CI strategic plan?  During this event we looked at considerations including support from various areas of the organization; scepticism; 'seen it before' or flavor of the month mentality and resource constraints (time and money). The Plant Manager, Dale McCormick talked…

Over 60 individuals across 4 events enjoyed the tours, networking and best practice sharing at Centra Industries.  Centra provided great tours for all the groups and was very open in their successes, future goals and challenges.

Senior Managers:

We had guests from Waterloo North Hydro; Cambridge Hydro and Kitchener Hydro talk to us about incentives and programs for manufacturers - for more information on these programs visit www.saveonenergy.ca

Following this presentation we heard about…

Taylor & Grant in Waterloo was recently bought out by Nassau Inn in New York State.  As a result they are closing their manufacturing facility in Waterloo, ON.  There are many great workers there and I thought this forum would be a good opportunity to mention the skill set and knowledge of these workers in hopes that you might have a job opportunity for them.

 According to their website and in my experience with many Taylor and Grant employees they live by the mission of  creates lasting,…

Over 40 people attended 2 great events at AirBoss in Kitchener!  AirBoss Rubber Compounding in Kitchener operates 4 mixers, de-centralized into business units - operating 24/7 and employing continental shifts

During our Continuous Improvement SIG we discussed the challenge of mixer # 6 which operates with the most variety of recipes, i.e. low volume high mix. A particular challenge besetting mixer #6, is when we have to run strips, i.e. typically  4 strips of 2"- 4" width rubber  manually…

Our May SIG event was hosted by Conestoga Meat Packers.  Conestoga Meat Packers is a vertically integrated processor of premium quality, fresh pork. Based in Southwestern Ontario Canada, they supply the Canadian market with wholesome, delicious pork since 1982. They are owned and supplied by a co-operative of 150 Southern Ontario family farmers who got into the processing business because they wanted to supply the Canadian market with the same wholesome, delicious pork their own families were…

Our host for our April event was Ontario Drive & Gear (Vehicle Division).  They produce the ARGO ATV which is sold worldwide and has proven capabilities as a reliable off-road vehicle in some of the world's most remote regions.  ODG has developed a wide range of options offering greater comfort, protection and convenience. 

Senior Managers

During this SIG Joerg Stieber, President of ODG shared the history of ODG with us and where they are headed for the future.  It was amazing to see the…