Towards Continuous Improvement: Bay of Quinte Manufacturers’ Industry Outreach Report Findings

November 24, 2023

From the height of the pandemic in 2021 to 2023, the Quinte Economic Development Commission (QEDC) conducted a series of outreach interviews with 64 local manufacturing companies. The Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development provided funding for these outreach activities, as well as awareness initiatives in the community. QEDC engaged a consultant with a background in supporting manufacturers and this outreach resulted in:

  • direct line-of-sight feedback from Bay of Quinte manufacturers
  • immediate opportunities for follow-up support by QEDC
  • identification of future strategies for individual companies
  • identification of overall trends in the manufacturing sector

These findings and more can be found in the “Bay of Quinte Economic Development Industry Outreach 2021-2023: Findings from Outreach Interviews With Bay of Quinte Region Manufacturers”.

The Major Takeaways
Despite any challenges and barriers identified, especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, overwhelmingly, QEDC identified opportunities for growth, including new technology and automation implementation, new products and product lines, building expansion, and immediate action items to support companies and related projects to assist manufacturers and job seekers like:

QEDC will leverage the findings of the report to work toward continuous improvement, for future technology adoption, workforce development support.

Pride for Bay of Quinte Manufacturing and Other Best Practices
On the whole, manufacturers in the Bay of Quinte exhibit “tremendous pride” in their work. Because of this pride, QEDC undertook best practices to ensure manufacturers could get the most out of the interviews.

Manufacturing Outreach Best Practices
Best Practice #1:
The survey tool, designed by the QEDC project team, was used to guide conversations with manufacturers. Through this tool, QEDC focused on company-specific strategic decisions, opportunities, and growth barriers and challenges as one of the outreach project’s best practices.

Best Practice #2: Outreach did not end upon completion of the survey. After-action debrief meetings and response plans were adopted as another project best practice. The project team reviewed the responses after each visit, delivered timely responses to contributors with information, assistance, resources, and referrals. QEDC found that each interview resulted in about 3 to 4 follow-up action items.

Best Practice #3: The QEDC team prioritized the time of each participant, planning surveys to last about 45 to 50 minutes. However, because manufacturers were eager to participate, sharing stories, pride of work, and even plant tours, interviews often ran longer. While individual company survey results are confidential, all these results informed the trends included in the report.

Bay of Quinte Manufacturing Always Works Towards Continuous Improvement
The two year undertaking allowed QEDC to provide local manufacturers with immediate assistance in the form of:

  • connection to resources
  • access to training
  • awareness through marketing social media
  • funding from local, provincial, and federal governments

Most importantly, survey responses demonstrated the many growth opportunities for the sector that can lead to:

  • increased sales
  • expanded markets
  • new product lines
  • new technologies
  • facility expansions

Through the outreach initiative, QEDC will continue to assist manufacturers to capitalize on these opportunities, address identified barriers, and leverage the sector’s strengths. Most importantly, QEDC and the Bay of Quinte community as a whole continues to celebrate the contributions manufacturers bring to the region, since the sector:

  • provides 10,500 jobs to the region
  • employs almost 16% of the region’s workforce
  • accounts for 19% or $500 million of total wages paid in the region with some of the highest local private-sector wages

The Bay of Quinte manufacturing sector also accounts for “50% of the region’s economic output and manufacturers contribute $6.9 billion to the region’s $13.6 billion GDP economy”.

These findings can be found in, “Bay of Quinte Economic Development Industry Outreach 2021-2023: Findings from Outreach Interviews With Bay of Quinte Manufacturers”. The Quinte Economic Development Commission (QEDC) provides information, connections, and resources for manufacturers in the Bay of Quinte. QEDC supports the region’s businesses and entrepreneurs as well as the local workforce.

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