How will things get done 10 years from now? And will those things even still be done here in North America? So much has changed in the last decade, and if the recent past is any indication, more will change in the next 10 years.

The manufacturing industry is facing many challenges. Some of the current threats have been created by external forces, but some of them are monsters we (the industry) have created ourselves. And most of these threats are nothing more, or less, than attitudes.

Some of our governments’ attitudes have led to the current weakened state of our manufacturing...

When my grandfather was a young boy, the roads were dirt, the primary mode of family transportation was the horse and buggy and most places he went he travelled on foot. By the time he died, the space shuttle routinely carried humans into space, the roads within earshot of his home were 12 lanes wide, and man setting foot on the moon was already old news. The rate at which changes occurred in his lifetime was unlike any experienced by any generation before — and it has only accelerated since.

Building or even just sustaining a business nowadays is not a matter of “survival of the...

People tend to fall into one of two camps when the topic of Lean manufacturing comes up. One camp gets really excited and can’t hear enough about it – or say enough about it. The other camp has heard all they want to hear and can’t bear to hear another word. Which camp do you fall into?
  I must admit that up until recently, I fell into the latter. It seemed to me that people (most notably consultants and industry observers) started talking enthusiastically about Lean right around the time the majority of manufacturing companies had completed their ISO or QS...

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty recently spoke at a luncheon in London about his new "five-point plan for recovery" for the province of Ontario. Like many present, I wanted to hear a message that would offer legitimate hope for an economic recovery – and a plan that I could really believe in.

On a spur of the moment whim, I invited a long term employee out for lunch — my treat, no reason in particular.

This individual has worked for me for nearly 20 years. He started with the company shortly after escaping from an Eastern European country with his young family. In a casual conversation earlier in the week, I told him I discovered a great little breakfast and lunch diner that specialized in preparing and serving meals with recipes from his homeland. That discussion resulted in the impromptu invitation to take him out to lunch. I thought I was doing something nice for him...

On a spur of the moment whim, I invited a long term employee out for lunch – my treat, no reason in particular.

This individual has worked for me for nearly 20 years. He started with the company shortly after escaping from an Eastern European country with his young family. In a casual conversation earlier in the week, I told him I discovered a great little breakfast and lunch diner that specialized in preparing and serving meals with recipes from his homeland. That discussion resulted in the impromptu invitation to take him out to lunch. I thought I was doing something nice for him, but...

I have heard it said many times that innovation is the key to our success – or even just they key to our survival. Another common belief is that Canada is a very innovative country or, to put it another way, that Canada is a country which strongly encourages innovation and innovative pursuits.
I strongly agree that innovation is critical to our future, but would argue that we are not really the innovation nation that we like to think we are. It all depends on your definition of innovation.
Last month, I attended a CME dinner in London which featured Jim McSheffrey, president and general...

Does it ever seem to you like there is a huge disconnect between "rights" and "responsibilities," and that the gap continues to grow? The nature of most things is to ebb and flow or wax and wane. The pendulum swings one way first, and then, when momentum stops, it starts to swing back in the opposite direction. This might be true for the natural systems in the universe, but I’m not too sure it holds true for some of our society’s systems.

Why is it that whenever we in industry hear those two words used, the word "rights" is associated with the word "workers" while the word...