The Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium (EMC), founded in 1997, is a Canadian not-for-profit association of manufacturers of all sizes and sectors, which focuses on enabling competitiveness in industry. This goal is achieved through regular networking and sharing of best practices as well as programs and activities that help companies to be competitive, efficient, effective, and adaptive.

Prior to the pandemic, monthly events would take place in a plant and manufacturers were invited to network on a peer-to-peer basis; however, since the outbreak of COVID-19, they have successfully transitioned to an interactive virtual platform. Recently, BC Wood Member, Woodtone Industries, presented at an EMC virtual events sharing their best practices in relation to “Attraction and Retention Strategies”. This was a great presentation full of great ideas and generated considerable discussion after! For a full list of EMC Manufacturers Networking Events, please visit: https://www.emccanada.org/events

In addition to these great seminars and networking opportunities, EMC also offers supplementary programs and activities to enable competitiveness. For example, there is the Manufacturing Essentials Certification, which is an initiative designed to help manufacturers increase their workforce productivity and become more competitive in a growing global marketplace. This is accomplished through a regional training cluster, providing up to 40 hours of skills training, using industry validated learning programs, live workshops, facilitated online learning with on-going support and assistance with professional trainers, and a workplace action-based learning project. Other programs include the Harvard Supervisory Certificate Program, designed to help encourage the development of critical leadership and other management skills. These are just a couple of programs and EMC has much more to explore!

Want more information? Check them out at www.emccanada.org or contact Bren de Leeuw, Western Canada Operations, at 519-372-6009 / bdeleeuw@emccanada.org.