Industry-led initiative aids in smart manufacturing

Who:

Manufacturing and Export Enhancement (MEE) Cluster

What:

MEE Cluster is an industry-led initiative that supports growth and enhances global competitiveness of Western Canada’s manufacturing industry.

Where:

MEE Cluster—100 College Blvd., Box 5005, Red Deer, Alta. T4N 5H5.

When:

The MEE Cluster formed in early 2021.

How:

Manufacturers can reach out to the MEE Cluster at www.meecluster.ca.

The Manufacturing & Export Enhancement (MEE) Cluster, Red Deer, Alta., was established in 2021 to help bolster the growth and international competitiveness of the manufacturing industry in Western Canada. Its strategy is centred around fostering industry collaboration, mitigating innovation-related risks, and expediting technology adoption. Red Deer Polytechnic was a founding member and still works closely with the group.

The MEE Cluster is a collective of industry stakeholders and program partners who contribute to the planning and execution of projects through a steering committee and an advisory panel. It also leverages a large network of service providers from across North America to support its projects and initiatives.

The MEE Cluster team is led by Peter Krzesinski, executive director, who has a background in developing, growing, and leading industry support programs, conducting market research, and enhancing the engagement of underrepresented groups within the economy.

How To Start

“We always start with an assessment as part of our one-on-one support,” explained Krzesinski. “We call it a gemba walk or digital gemba walk where we do an on-the-ground, one-on-one assessment with the manufacturer to figure out what their most pressing challenges are, what are their barriers to growth, and then we provide them with a report that talks about the technologies and processes they should be implementing.”

The group then creates a road map for short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. Along with this, they suggest short-term, medium-term, and long-term investments in technology and processes. For the group at the MEE Cluster, it’s all about getting the process right.

“We don't compete with solution providers, and we don't compete with consultants,” said Krzesinski. “We are an ecosystem developer. We are here to educate industry on why they should be adopting new technologies and processes. But we're not the vendors of these technologies.”

One of the key services provided by the MEE Cluster is assisting manufacturers in Western Canada to tackle operational challenges by implementing manufacturing best practices and smart manufacturing technology.

The Lean Accelerator Program (LEAP) helps manufacturers understand their existing processes and identify opportunities for implementing best practices and digital tools to enhance productivity, reduce costs, and minimize dependence on manual and paper-based processes.

This is why Paul Hogendoorn, a digital transformation consultant with more than 40 years of experience in manufacturing and technology industries, is onboard.

“Everyone is talking about digital transformation, and everyone is struggling with it,” said Hogendoorn. “What I try to explain is that if you’re trying to implement digital transformation, it needs to check three boxes: easier, faster, better. If you look at a failed digitalization strategy, it usually didn’t do one of these three things.”

It typically starts by implementing easy-to-understand lean concepts from the Cluster’s Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt Bruce Ennis. Then, technology can start being implemented, such as dashboards and digital work instructions.

“Our LEAP program is a one-on-one talk with a manufacturer. And even though it's fundamentally a lean accelerator program, it's really both the lean side and the technology side, because to get more lean you have to implement the right digital tools to gather data,” said Krzesinski.

Connecting Manufacturers

Throughout the year, the MEE Cluster also organizes events to promote networking, learning, and collaboration within the manufacturing ecosystem in Western Canada. It also aids companies in enhancing their export capabilities by promoting best practices and helping companies devise export development strategies.

“We host a variety of workshops, webinars, and we have our Smart Manufacturing Technology Expo [SmartMTX],” said Krzesinski.

This year, the event will be held May 15-16 at Westerner Park in Red Deer.

“For 2024, we selected three key themes to focus on that were based on feedback from industry: overcoming the labour shortage, diversifying manufacturing, and sustainability in manufacturing,” said Krzesinski.

Three conferences will be part of the event. An additive manufacturing conference will be hosted by Red Deer Polytechnic, a lean manufacturing conference organized by the MEE Cluster’s Program Integration Director David Rist, and a Canadian sustainable concrete 3D printing conference from the SMART Lab at the University of Alberta.

In 2022, the MEE Cluster conducted a survey involving over 80 manufacturers across the four western provinces to understand the current state of smart manufacturing technology adoption and future plans for adoption in the industry.

The end result showed that most manufacturers are excited about digital technologies and that they'd like to adopt them. However, these manufacturers admitted that they don't necessarily understand how to apply specific digital technology to their business.

“We're working with manufacturers to help them understand how these technologies apply to their business,” said Krzesinski. “We explain how it can help deliver a product faster or help them overcome the labour shortage. We even help them understand the buzzwords by showing them some practical and relatable examples of those buzzwords.”

Editor Joe Thompson can be reached at jthompson@fmamfg.org.