JAYSON MYERS WARNS CANADA MISSING INDUSTRY 4.0 BOAT

A new Industrial Revolution is sweeping through the manufacturing world, and a leading advocate for Canada's manufacturers warns the country is missing its chance to be a leader in the new order.

Jayson Myers, president of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, told a McMaster University forum Thursday that the movement dubbed Industry 4.0 is about more than using new technology to boost production efficiency.

Industry 4.0 is about embracing new methods, such as using the Internet to connect machines that give managers the ability to monitor what's happening on their shop floors.

"This isn't just about new products and processes, it's about thinking about new ways of manufacturing," Myers said. "The smart companies see this impact coming. They see intense competition that's not going away."

Canada's failure, he said in an interview, is in not developing a national strategy for the future of manufacturing that incorporates new ideas.

"It's about much more than just the technology, much more than the sensors and actuators and software and Internet connections," he said. "In my mind it's all about: how do you create value in manufacturing? We're doing lots of things in Canada, but we just don't have a co-ordinated approach."

Much of the new technology driving Industry 4.0 has come from Germany.

Detlef Zuhlke, director of Germany's Centre for Artificial Intelligence, said the push for new manufacturing technology is driven by factors such as shorter product life spans and the demand for shorter delivery and production times. Many of those problems can be overcome, he said, through new ways of using technology.

Within 10 years, Zuhlke said production machines that "talk" directly to customers and suppliers will be available, giving forward-thinking companies a previously unknown flexibility.

"In the future, our industrial world is going to be a much more connected world," he told his audience of engineers and business owners.

In an interview, Zuhlke said researchers are close to solving some of the technical issues slowing the arrival of the New World. What isn't getting enough attention, however, is finding answers to security questions.

"What remains is what is good for the business model and who can make money from all this," he said. "I think you will see practical uses of this in two to three years but in a broader sense, I would say in about 10 years companies will integrate it in a factory."

Myers and Zuhlke both said security is going to be a critical piece of new Internet-based systems.

"We have to solve questions of security and business models," Zuhlke said. "Those are the more crucial questions to me."

Failing to adequately secure new systems leaves them open to attacks such as the famous 2009 Stuxnet invasion that crippled Iran's growing nuclear program.

It has also been an issue in the more recent dispute between Apple Inc. and the FBI in the U.S.

The law enforcement bureau wanted Apple to create a "back door" that would allow it open a terrorist cellphone.

The company refused on the fear such a way in could be used by criminals to steal personal information.

sarnold@thespec.com

905-526-3496 | @arnoldatTheSpec

CME’s Jayson Myers resigns as president and CEO

Plans to finalize association's Industrie 2030 campaign before departure in September.

March 24, 2016 by Matt Powell, Associate Editor

http://www.plant.ca/general/cmes-myers-leave-post-president-ceo-report-157215/

OTTAWA — Jayson Myers, the president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME), is leaving his post after nine years leading Canada’s largest manufacturing association.

According to a note released March 24, Myers intends to leave CME in September, ending a 25-year career with the organization. He is also the chairman of the Canadian Manufacturing Coalition, an alliance of 50 major industry associations that works to address priority issues affecting Canada’s manufacturing sector.

“I have had an incredible 25 years with CME. I am hugely proud of CME’s accomplishments and of the great team of people whom I have led, who have achieved so much and who have made CME the best, most powerful, and most influential business association in Canada,” Myers said in the note.

He added that he will focus on successfully concluding the association’s Industrie 2030 campaign, which the CME is developing as a national advanced manufacturing strategy.

“Over the next six months, the idea is to engage manufacturers and governments at all levels, as well as key stakeholders including schools and services companies to bring everybody together to determine where manufacturing is going and develop some strategies to come up with some recommendations as to what we can be doing going forward,” he said.

CME will also use the exercise to examine how it services its more than 10,000 members.

“[Myers] has been our best advocate in my history at the CME,” said Rob Hattin, CEO of ProVantage Automation in Grimsby, Ont. and past CME chair of the national board of directors. “He’s been able to articulate policy that’s not only good for manufacturers, but also the Canadian economy. He has the royal jelly, and his successor will have huge shoes to fill.”

Hattin added that the CME board has struck a transition board and will work over the next six months to find a replacement.

“He’s given us ample opportunity to give the CME time to find a proper replacement and provide us with the guidance we need.”

Myers is a well-known economic commentator, with expertise in Canadian and international economics, and technological and industrial change.

“It’s important for me to pass the torch to someone who can come into a leadership role and work over the next decade to implement some of those priorities,” he added in an interview with PLANT. “I love the manufacturing and exporting sectors, and the next stage of my career will certainly be tied closely to them.”