Excellence as a Competitive Advantage

Join us this Fall for Excellence as a Competitive Advantage—a high-impact manufacturing excellence forum focused on unlocking the power of workforce wellbeing, frontline leadership, and productivity improvement. Discover practical strategies that turn operational excellence into a true competitive edge. We’ll kick things off with an industry panel discussion where manufacturing leaders share their perspectives on what they believe it takes to compete—and win—in today’s environment.

Agenda:

8:00am – Networking Breakfast 

8:45am – Opening Remarks and Welcome

9:00am – What Makes a Manufacturer Competitive Today?  Panel facilitation by JP Giroux
In this facilitated panel, senior manufacturing leaders will share candid insights on how their organizations are staying competitive amid rising costs, shifting markets, and evolving workforce expectations. From strategic investments and innovation to leadership practices and culture, this discussion will explore the real-world decisions that drive resilience and growth. Expect a dynamic, peer-driven exchange of ideas, grounded in current challenges and forward-thinking strategies.

10:00am  – Psychological Injuries at Work: The Hidden Threat to Excellence and Productivity, by Elizabeth Eldridge
This session explores the realities of toxic workplace environments and the psychological injuries that often result from them. Drawing on real-world examples and current best practices, participants will learn how seemingly small issues like gossip, micromanagement, or chronic incivility can escalate into larger cultural problems that harm employee well-being and organizational performance. We’ll unpack how psychological injuries differ from everyday stress, and how repeated exposure to toxic behaviours can lead to long-term mental health challenges, including anxiety, burnout and disengagement.

One key truth will anchor our discussion: leaders have a greater impact on the mental health of their team members than their doctor or therapist does. With that level of influence comes serious responsibility. This session will help participants — especially those in leadership roles — understand the weight of their actions (and inactions) and how they shape workplace culture. We’ll explore how to identify signs of a psychologically unsafe environment, the ripple effects it can have across teams and how to intervene meaningfully. From fostering respectful communication to setting boundaries and modelling healthy behaviour, this session offers practical tools for turning awareness into action. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how psychological injuries happen and, more importantly, how to prevent them by leading with empathy, consistency and intention.

11:00am- From Worker to Leader: ” The Business Case for Supervisor Development”, by Stewart Pollard:

Don’t ask what supervisor development will cost you – ask what a lack of supervisor development will cost your business.  Every dollar invested in Supervisory leadership development is a dollar invested in every employee that works for them.

Supervisors are the wardens of your employees’ experiences.  They directly lead 70-80% of most organizations, therefore they impact 70-80% of your business results, engagement, turnover, and brand.

If we want our employees to be happy, motivated, and productive – this begins and ends with the relationship they have with their supervisor, and that supervisor’s capability to do the job entrusted to them.

How many of us would hire an accountant with an accounting education, a maintenance technician without technical development, an engineer with engineering education? But we will take our best workers and put them in a position of leading our workforce – with no development other than to figure it out on the fly, or to learn from someone else without development.

This session will look at the Cost and Impact that supervision has on our business and is a preview of upcoming focus. How a small investment (and they are investments) in supervisor development can increase retention, engagement, trust, psychological safety, brand, and profitability.

We will examine what a structured supervisor development program looks like, how it is supported by HR and Executive Leadership, and what results you can expect.

LUNCH

12:45pm – How Smart Manufacturers Boost Productivity in a Chaotic Economy
Join Ted Lau, CEO of award-winning lead generation agency Ballistic Arts, as he shares real-world stories and practical insights tailored for today’s manufacturers. In a time of economic uncertainty, AI disruption, and global trade instability, Ted will show how leading manufacturers are improving productivity—not just on the shop floor, but across their sales, marketing, and decision-making systems.

This fast-paced, engaging session will cover:

• How to shift your team’s productivity mindset
• Where most manufacturing businesses lose operational efficiency
• What top-performing firms do to generate consistent, high-quality leads

1:45pm: Networking Activities and Interactive Participant chat

2:15pm – On our way

Stay Tuned for further details!