Written by: Paul Hogendoorn, MEE Cluster Digital Transformation Consultant How can technology help address the labour shortage issue, or improve your company’s productivity? It can in many ways, but the first answer I offer to those two questions is often not the...
Written by: Paul Hogendoorn, MEE Cluster Digital Transformation Consultant I’ve been working with Western Canadian manufacturers through the MEE Cluster for just under a year now, and most of the manufacturers I’ve engaged with are ‘project based’ manufacturers, and...
Written by: Paul Hogendoorn, MEE Cluster Digital Transformation Consultant There are many elements to “digital transformation”, and digital work instructions and checklists are certainly a key piece. In some cases, it could be a good first step for companies that have...
By: Stefan Rutkowski, Director, Operations, CAREERS Despite rising costs and supply chain challenges, Alberta’s economy remains robust, with the manufacturing sector a key driver of innovation and economic growth. Yet a significant challenge persists—there is a...
By: Bruce Ennis, MEE Cluster Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt Have you heard of Lean? Lean is a business methodology developed by Toyota. It is enormously successful. Today, many of the most successful businesses in the world practice Lean – Boeing, Caterpillar,...
By: Bruce Ennis, MEE Cluster Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt In 2008 Toyota surpassed General Motors as the largest and most successful car company in the world. GM had a 35-year head start on Toyota. Toyota passed them - on productivity AND quality. There are many...
Written by: Paul Hogendoorn, MEE Cluster Digital Transformation Consultant Many manufacturers are overwhelmed by new three and four-letter acronyms that describe things they are said to need to be adopting into their companies to have any chance of surviving in the...
We are pleased to report that the inaugural SmartMTX was a success! Some 500 plus participants descended on Westerner Park in Red Deer April 4 and 5 to connect over Smart Manufacturing, to network, and to learn about Industry 4.0 applications in manufacturing. The...
Written by: Paul Hogendoorn, MEE Cluster Digital Transformation Consultant We’ve all heard it oft said that people don’t like change and because of that, resist change. But that’s not always as true as we think it is. For instance, we sometimes elect new governments...
Written by: Paul Hogendoorn, MEE Cluster Digital Transformation Consultant In the first column in this “tips for digitization” series, the focus was on making sure the company leadership was on board with the digitization initiative, and that the company’s business...