Bosch Rexroth free seminars series positions manufacturers for growth

Now in its second year, Bosch Rexroth Canada’s free seminar series offers Canadian manufacturers the knowledge they need to improve productivity, safety and innovation, helping them bounce back from the economic downturn.

Canadian manufacturers are becoming more optimistic about their outlook in the first quarter of 2010, according to a recent survey by Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. That means it’s time to take control of their businesses, discovering new technologies and techniques to improve their competitive positions on the global stage.

The survey found that 75 percent of manufacturers expect business to improve with new orders increasing over the next three months.

“We are slowly moving into the recovery phase,” said CME president and CEO Jayson Myers. “It appears as if we will start 2010 on a positive note and that’s encouraging, but manufacturers and exporters across Canada are facing a number of significant challenges that are constraining their ability to take advantage of the fledgling recovery.”

Canadian manufacturers need to capitalize on that optimism and create new and innovative ways of doing things to succeed on the international stage, Myers added.

“As the recovery does take hold, the challenge of change will be the new norm,” he said. “We need to be thinking about the future, now… we need to define our strengths; our weaknesses and what we need to do in order to take on the globe and win.”

That’s exactly what Bosch Rexroth Canada is doing with its successful free seminar series. Now in its second year, the series allows attendees to learn from Bosch Rexroth Canada’s industry leaders about some of the most important topics facing today’s manufacturers. The seminars, held at the company’s training facility in Burlington, Ont., focus around new technologies and techniques, improving manufacturers’ competitive position.

After all, it is only through investments in productive assets, new technology, skills and innovation that manufacturers will be able to succeed in the new economy. That’s what the CME’s Myers told attendees at Ryerson University’s Revitalizing Canadian Manufacturing conference in November.

“Instead of producing more of the same stuff, we need to be producing something of greater value,” Myers said at the event. Sharing knowledge is the best way to achieve that goal.

By investing just one day with the manufacturing and technology experts from Bosch Rexroth, Canadian manufacturers will reap years of benefits in improved safety, leaner and more flexible production systems and improved productivity to enhance the bottom line.

The seminars explore topics such as lean manufacturing, hydraulics press safety and drive-based safety technologies and regulations, hydraulics predictive maintenance, Tier 4 emissions standards and plastic machine upgrades, including:

• Plastic machine safety and optimization upgrades: This informative seminar will help manufacturers improve plastic machine safety, optimize plant performance and cost-effectively extend the operational life and value of existing plastic machines and production lines. Industry experts will be on hand to share proven plastic machine upgrade techniques and technologies.
• Safe Motion: This seminar examines applicable CSA industry safety regulations and workplace safety requirements in detail and demonstrates how drive-based safe motion technology can protect operators and improve productivity. The program includes live demonstration of drive-based safe motion systems.
• Hydraulic power press safety: Manufacturers, machine builders, and other users of hydraulic power presses will learn successful hydraulic press risk assessment and safety compliance methods, along with a thorough review of Canadian and EC power press safety regulations and standards.
• Lean manufacturing: This seminar teaches manufacturers techniques for eliminating waste – wasted time, motion and production – and the most effective ways to apply manual production and automation technology to lean manufacturing environments. Our lean experts will help attendees connect basic lean concepts – kanban, kaizen, 5S – with practices they can use in their own operations.
• Hydraulic maintenance unplugged: Manufacturers will learn how to improve the performance and value of their hydraulics systems through these proven predictive maintenance techniques, taught by experts from the leader in industrial hydraulics solutions. They’ll also get details on the factors affecting hydraulics performance, to minimize downtime and maximize revenues.
• Tier 4 emissions fundamentals: New 2010 EPA emissions requirements will have a direct impact on mobile hydraulic equipment system design. Bosch Rexroth hydraulics experts provide details on new hydraulics technologies that will harmonize with new engine designs, and help engineers create more efficient and effective hydraulic power solutions.

Through sharing knowledge in these informative seminars, Bosch Rexroth Canada is helping to strengthen Canada’s manufacturing industry and making a commitment to ensure everyone succeeds. This, Myers said, is the only way Canada can compete on the global stage.

“We are not alone – economies around the western industrialized world are facing the same challenges, but the barometer of success is how we transform these challenges into opportunities and create conditions that will enable Canadian companies to compete and win on not just in Canada or North America, but on the global stage,” Myers said.
www.boschrexroth.ca