In response to the challenges faced by businesses and local economies during the pandemic, and a pressing need to scale-up and re-tool manufacturing capabilities to respond to global supply chain issues, the BC Tech Association, City of Surrey, City of Richmond, and Township of Langley partnered to deliver the Supply Chain Resiliency Program (SCRP) to improve the resilience of BC manufacturers and allow for more rapid responses to both future supply chain disruptions as well as new and emerging opportunities. Utilizing provincial funding, the program was able to inventory manufacturing capabilities of 15% of the region's manufacturers. This was completed using an intake form which allowed businesses to select up to 5,100 different combinations of capabilities to describe their processes within minutes. The data collected from these manufacturers was then used to identify unique strengths and opportunities within the sector. The SCRP engaged with over 350 manufacturers to collect such data and increase awareness among manufacturers about processes that are being developed and employed by leaders in each manufacturing subsector. This data collection effort resulted in the development of a live dashboard to synthesize and allow municipalities to identify potential capability strengths and weaknesses as well as manufacturing clusters. Then, to better support manufacturers to be able to quickly assess opportunities, the De-risking Emerging Market Opportunities ('DEMO') Toolkit was developed to assist manufacturers in the region in de-risking investments in new technologies, materials, processes, and capabilities needed to capitalize on emerging market opportunities.
In summary, the program had three major components, including:
- Identify existing industrial capabilities that could be retooled by conducting an inventory intake process that was distributed among manufacturers in the region to collect data about existing manufacturing capabilities and equipment;
- Diversify manufacturing through a series of technology adoption workshops that could be used to identify opportunities for investment and innovation in the region's manufacturing sector, and;
- Increase Canada's domestic capacity by developing a De-risking Emerging Market Opportunities (DEMO) toolkit designed to guide manufacturers through the process of identifying and evaluating new market opportunities.
After a successful campaign launched in response to the growing demand for made-in-Canada PPE, resulting in $14M in sales, the SCRP standardized that methodology so more companies can scale-up and re-tool their processes and capabilities. The program first completed the research to design the industrial capabilities intake form and processes, collected data from manufacturers in the three partnering municipalities, and then completed data analysis. The intake form inventoried 823 unique industrial capabilities and allowed businesses to select up to 5,100 different combinations of capabilities to describe their processes within minutes and was able to collect over 360 unique manufacturing capabilities, as well as key supply chain issues faced by manufacturers. This information was fed into a front-facing dashboard that is used by the partnering municipalities in current and future economic development efforts in Surrey, Richmond, and Langley communities.
In addition to the manufacturing capabilities inventory, a series of four connection day consultation workshops were facilitated to increase awareness and understanding of what technology opportunities and best practices exist in the manufacturing space, and to make connections between SMEs and manufacturing companies within the City of Surrey, City of Richmond, and Township of Langley. Each of these education workshops had a different theme in addressing pressing technology adoption needs within the manufacturing sector. These workshops had an average of 70 attendees from manufacturers in the region and were able to engage more than 200 manufacturers in total.
Lastly, the De-risking Emerging Market Opportunities ('DEMO') Toolkit was designed as part of the SCRP for manufacturers to be able to quickly identify, evaluate, and respond to new market opportunities when making investment decisions. A group of manufacturers were engaged in developing, testing, and refining the toolkit with us. This toolkit includes a de-risking cheat sheet, allowing users to consider and manage market risks, transition risks and operational risks by answering sets of questions. The toolkit also includes a market assessment canvas which helps users find their position in the market with respect to distribution/retail access, competitive access, and customer access. Additionally, the toolkit includes a gaps analysis canvas, allowing manufacturers to identify impacted areas in various functional areas (HR management, administration, technology and process, and procurement) within their business. Lastly, manufacturers can access a profitability dashboard where they can see projected cash flow and their overall outlook related to certain market opportunities. This is a comprehensive tool which allows businesses to assess risks and clearly define and evaluate the opportunity they are looking to pursue. It is available for all BC manufacturers to access through the BC Tech Association's website at no-cost.
The SCRP generated primary data through the manufacturing inventory and capabilities intake process, engaged with manufacturers to increase awareness about new technology in a series of "What Works Industry Innovation Series" workshops, developed and deployed the De-risking Emerging Opportunities toolkit for manufacturers, and continued efforts to increase intermunicipal collaboration and data sharing. These outcomes are intended to continue to inform government support, encourage economic development efforts in the manufacturing sector, and identify opportunities for investment and innovation in BC's manufacturing space.
The SCRP creates the opportunity for the BC Government as well as communities across BC to adopt this uniquely designed methodology and to build on the manufacturing capabilities inventory that were created as part of this program. The methodology designed in this program can be utilized to create a central industrial capabilities system which could be used as an industry industrial capabilities system for BC, and for Canada in the long term.