Over 40 people attended 2 great events at AirBoss in Kitchener! AirBoss Rubber Compounding in Kitchener operates 4 mixers, de-centralized into business units – operating 24/7 and employing continental shifts
During our Continuous Improvement SIG we discussed the challenge of mixer # 6 which operates with the most variety of recipes, i.e. low volume high mix. A particular challenge besetting mixer #6, is when we have to run strips, i.e. typically 4 strips of 2″- 4″ width rubber manually piled in returnable crates. We watched this process for several minutes and were able to see that the current piling process is tedious and usually requires 4 associates to accomplish the task. AirBoss has tried unsuccessfully to use automation to solve this problem. In the end the group provided some great suggestions as well as comparibly operations that might be worth looking at. The team at AirBoss loved the breadth and thought put into the suggestions and will keep us posted on the outcome. It was interesting to note that some of the best suggestions related to how a similar continuous process operation would work in a bakery operation.
Our Human Resources Topic this month was a Legal update. Mike Hamilton from Hicks Morley, Mike Hamilton spoke with the group on some recent cases including: Oosterbosch v. FAG Aerospace and Serbanecu v. Span Manufacturing; he finished off with a quick overview of the upcoming AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability act).
We switched things up a bit and had the Sr. Manager’s meeting as part of a joint event with Ernst & Young and the Greater Waterloo Chamber of Commerce on June 14, 2011. The topic was on how to leverage social media and a variety of great tips were provided by the 3 insightful speakers including the following:
- Way we get information has changed so way we’re doing business has to change
- Social media is not just a marketing tool
- There’s more to social media than just facebook and twitter
- You have the power to influence but not control your brand online
- Think of your website as an influential and interactive conversation
- Remember as consumers we just want someone to listen to us
- Be authentic in your use of media
For more information on the KW/Cambridge Consortium and events in the area, please contact Laura Gibson at 226-388-3894 or via blackberry at lgibson@emccanada.org.
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