Manufacturers urge feds to adopt digital manufacturing strategy

HAMILTON (May 25, 2016) – Digital manufacturing is reshaping manufacturing in Canada and around the world; Canada needs a national strategy to accelerate ‎adoption and creation.

‎Today Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) hosted an Industrie 2030 roundtable at Mohawk College with Greg Fergus, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Filomena Tassi, MP, Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas, alongside industry leaders on innovation, digital manufacturing (additive manufacturing, robotics, 3D printing, and the Internet of Things), and the future of manufacturing in Canada.

“Today’s roundtable discussion on digital manufacturing and innovation reinforced the need for a national strategy on the future of manufacturing in Canada,” stated Jayson Myers, CME President & CEO. “Canadian companies are creating and have access to world leading technologies, but the mainstream of Canadian industry are not leveraging these technologies to their fullest capabilities to drive their businesses forward.”

Industrie 2030 roundtables are being held across the country to listen to Canadian manufacturers; input received from the roundtables will provide the foundation for a national strategy to double manufacturing and value added exports.

Today we heard many great examples and suggestions on how to accomplish these objectives, including:

• Critical need to improve linkages and collaboration on research and commercialization between post-secondary institutions, large OEMs, and ‎SMEs;
• Government support programs need to ‎better align to modern manufacturing and business realities, including modernizing the SR&ED program and investment supports, both of which are currently ‎based on outdated business realities; and,
• Canadian companies must be better educated and increase adoption rates on advanced manufacturing technologies, especially the game changing abilities of digital technologies, to increase innovation and global competitiveness.

CME and its partners will continue to hold Industrie 2030 consultations on ‎the future of manufacturing in Canada until September 2016; the action report will be released at the first Manufacturing Summit on October 18-19, 2016 in Ottawa.

About Industry 2030 – Industrie 2030 aims to double manufacturing output and value added exports by 2030. Through a series of cross-country consultations, we will create a roadmap and implementation strategy to help us achieve this goal. The roadmap and implementation plan will be released at CME’s National Summit in Ottawa in October. www.industrie2030.ca.