Great Lakes Manufacturing: Driven by Collaborative Innovation

To those who say manufacturing is dead, we say: “AU CONTRAIRE!” Read on, and join in the discussion.

Collaborative Innovation was in full view on November 1 and 2 as the Great Lakes Manufacturing Council convened its 2010 Great Lakes Manufacturing Forum in Montreal in partnership with the Quebec Industrial Research Association (ADRIQ).

Innovation is the heartbeat of Quebec, and for those who were able to stay beyond the closing session, four tours underscored that point:
 Pratt & Whitney Canada
 CTA, Centre Technologique en aerospatiale, an applied aerospace research and technology transfer center
 IMI – Industrial Materials Institute, and NRC - National Research Council –lightweight materials and advanced technologies for automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing industries
 CEPROCQ, Centre d’etudes des procedes chimiques du Quebec, technology innovative practices in chemical processes

The conference itself produced a rich network of connections. “The right people are in this room,” noted one of the keynote speakers. The presentations and panels produced an abundance of practical insight on the importance of manufacturing and its collaborative, innovative future.

Session by session, here are my important take-aways. If you were there, please chime in with yours. If you weren’t, give us your take on the following points.

First session: Clement Gignac, Quebec Minister of Economic Development, Innovation, and Export Trade:
 Quebec is open for business and is pursuing trade agreements that open up markets
 Quebec is offering opportunities for all types of firms to work together in its key sectors – aerospace, automotive, bio-materials, chemicals, composites, energy, life sciences, and more
 Innovation is the emphasis

Second session: William Testa, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Jayson Myers, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters; Stefane Marion, National Bank Financial Group:
 We need to work together across the border. Collaboration holds great promise
 Manufacturing won’t go the way of production agriculture, because manufacturing companies have the inherent drive to replenish themselves through R&D, innovation, and soaring productivity
 The U.S. Midwest and Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec are the bastions of manufacturing R&D. We need to nurture this sector
 Job growth in all other sectors depends on successful manufacturing
 Manufacturers must focus on solutions for their customers, not just products. To do that, manufacturers need to be in collaborations
 The opportunities from an emerging middle class in the developingcountries are going to be good for Canada and the U.S., if we can avoid trade wars
 Our level of integration across the border needs to be higher. We need to achieve greater scale and scope

Third Session: Three pairs of innovators, all of whom were guilty of abundant collaboration, in what several attendees said was the Council’s most intriguing panel, ever:
 Magna and NRC - Will Harney and Martin Bureau - working on converting good ideas into good dollars along a broad front of projects, focusing on creating automotive composites technologies at manufacturing scale
 Nova Bus and BAE Systems – Jacques Bergeron and Vincent Natale - taking aerospace/defense technologies into transit bus hybrid propulsion
 Pratt& Whitney and CRIAQ (Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Quebec) – Alain Bouthillier and Clement Fortin - leveraging teams of companies, students, faculty and government researchers on more than 100 projects in its short 7-year life
 Moderator Rick Jarman of NCMS called out three elements in these successful partnerships:
o Vision
o Trust
o Contractual and financial infrastructure
 This session was a great how-to

Fourth Session: Laurent Rouaud, chief marketing officer, GE Aviation:
 GE’s customers want three things: efficiency, reliability and safety
 GE has a stable of 95 eco products and growing
 They are looking for collaborators to help commercialize BIG IDEAS, like
o Robotics and automation operations
o Self-repairing metals
 GE is prepared to invest in Open Innovation and intellectual capital

Fifth Session: Rick Jarman, president & CEO, National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS):
 The elements of a successful collaboration are Developers, Integrators, and End Users. Success for these players lies at the intersection of Talent, Investment and Infrastructure. We should get a diagram of this
 Everyone has to have skin in the game
 Collaboration reduces the risks associated with Innovation
 There is a dramatic shift in R&D spending. Smaller companies are picking up the baton from the bigs
 NCMS is working hard to bring High Performance Computing and its modeling and simulating capability to the tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers to OEMs. This will require sharing super-computing infrastructure by those who already have it
 “Water is the next Oil”


Sixth Session: The Work Groups went to work – Image, Innovation, Workforce/Talent, Logistics/Borders, and Manufacturing Policy. You’ll read more about their output in coming blogs.

Final Session: Gilles Godbout, general manager, Information Technology, Hydro- Quebec:
 Its own 526-employee research center is the driver of a wide range of products and technologies and 124 partnerships
 Focal points include:
o The Smart Grid
o Automotive electric motors….think Tata’s Indica Vista EV
 Hydro-Quebec routinely puts out feelers, RFIs, or “calls for tenders”. They are open to partnerships with companies outside Quebec and from other countries
 The downside of innovative collaborations can be the complexity. The upside is enormous leverage from outside resources, and it far outweighs the downside. What a great thought to end the forum!

So we say: “Vive la manufacturing!” Let us hear your thoughts on these comments and other ideas that come to mind.