November 10, 2004 Val D'Amour, New Brunswick During a visit in Balmoral, Jean-Claude D'Amours, MP for Madawaska-Restigouche, today praised the Productivity Improvement training program and its two components Lean Manufacturing Initiative and Maintaining the Knowledge, both of which are offered by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA). He also took the opportunity to congratulate the region's entrepreneurs, saluting their determination to excel. "As MP for Madawaska-Restigouche, I am very pleased to learn that Restigouche is the first region in New Brunswick to implement the Maintaining the Knowledge program. We have very enterprising businesses with extraordinary growth potential," declared Mr. D'Amours. "We need initiatives such as those provided by ACOA to provide the right support to businesses to help them improve their productivity and continue growing. The economic health of our businesses is essential to our region's growth and prosperity." The training program, offered as part of ACOA's Innovation Skills Development Initiative (ISDI), allows participating businesses to improve their productivity by acquiring the skills they need to implement a lean manufacturing system. Five Restigouche-area businesses are taking part in the Maintaining the Knowledge program: Les Cèdres Balmoral Ltée, Johnson Enterprises Inc., Léon Chouinard et fils Cie Ltée, Kan-Go-Roo Playgrounds (1998) Ltd and Fenêtres Super Seal Windows Inc. "Les Cèdres Balmoral Ltée is a company that is always looking to improve its production to stay competitive," said Jacques Levasseur, President and CEO of Les Cèdres Balmoral Ltée. "Thanks to ACOA's Lean Manufacturing Program, we discovered that we need a second shingling machine. We've improved productivity at our manufacturing plant and we've ultimately increased our profitability. When ACOA proposed a second program for our foremen and managers, it seemed natural to sign on. Maintaining these new improvements in productivity requires the proper participation of all employees." The ISDI is designed to improve the innovation management and technical competencies of small -and medium-sized enterprises in Atlantic Canada. The training component of the ISDI Productivity Improvement includes the Lean Manufacturing and Maintaining the Knowledge programs. The first program, Lean Manufacturing, is offered to companies to help them improve the efficiency of their operations in such key areas as production, inventory control, waste reduction, administration and plant layout and design. The second training program, Maintaining the Knowledge, focuses on the vertical integration of knowledge and transmission of technical industrial engineering skills to foremen and managers. Over 50% of the training consists of practical work within the company. The personalized approach allows each foreman or team of foremen from the same company to apply the concepts learned to their daily work. The first training program is a prerequisite for participation in the second. Under the ISDI, ACOA has invested a total of $82,500 to help the five Restigouche-area businesses participate in the Maintaining the Knowledge program. Prior to that, the Agency provided $125,000 for these companies to participate in the Lean Manufacturing program. ACOA has also invested $13,950 in Johnson Enterprises for other training programs. Under the Business Development Program, ACOA provided a refundable contribution of $ 79,000 to acquire a shingling machine. ACOA's Business Development Program was created to provide repayable financial assistance to small- and medium-sized enterprises to establish, expand and modernize operations. For more information on ACOA's programs, please visit our Web site at www.acoa-apeca.gc.ca. - 30 - Valérie Poulin Director of Communications Office of the Honourable Joseph McGuire Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (613) 941-4227 Nadya Ladouceur Communications Officer ACOA NB (506) 451-2677 Jacques Levasseur Président Les Cèdres Balmoral Ltée (506) 826-2045
