Quebec manufacturing show about 'change,' speaker says
Quebec’s manufacturing industry needs to boost its market share to survive, according to a French language newspaper columnist set to speak at next week’s Montreal Manufacturing Technology Show.
“In Quebec, we tend to have these dated images of people working behind rows of sewing machines in the textile industry, but the manufacturing sector must adapt to new realities in order to succeed,” said René Vézina, a Les Affaires columnist who scheduled to appear at 9 a.m.May 12. “Now is not the time for manufacturers to reinvent old ways of doing things, but rather, to adopt a whole new manufacturing world that is capable of generating wealth for the province by competing on a global scale.”
The show will take place May 12-14 at Place Bonaventure convention center in Montreal.
Conference participant and consultant Viwek Vaidya, a former senior international expert with Air Liquide Canada Inc., agreed the province’s manufacturers must change the way they do business.
“When you aim to introduce a new technology or new ways of doing things on the manufacturing floor, human engineering is just as important as technical engineering,” Vaidya said. “You need to find a champion for the change, the one person who can influence everyone else.”
The results can be great success, he pointed out.
“Sometimes one small step can save manufacturers a great deal of time or money, but fear of change stops them from moving forward,” he said, adding the goal of the show is to inspire change. “When you’re a consultant looking from the outside, it’s easy to see what manufacturers have to do. But if they want to successfully compete on the world stage, they need to take ownership of new directions themselves.”
The expo is produced by SME, the former Society for Manufacturing Engineers, in partnership with the Canadian Machine Tool Distributors Association, the Canadian Tooling and Machining Association and Manufacturiers et exporateurs du Québec.
For details, go to www.mmts.ca or call (888) 322-7333.
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