How your manufacturing business can turn operational challenges into an advantage
How your manufacturing business can turn operational challenges into an advantage
These days, Canadian manufacturers face mounting pressure — but also opportunity. With labour shortages, lagging tech adoption, and productivity challenges reshaping the industry, it’s time for businesses to turn their operational hurdles into strategic advantages through targeted process improvements, smarter resource planning, and enhanced visibility tools.
Keep reading to find out how.
In times of uncertainty, your greatest strength often lies in focusing on what you can control.
Canada’s manufacturing sector is navigating a turbulent landscape shaped by political and economic tensions with global trading partners. The steel industry, alongside other critical metals like aluminum, has been especially impacted. What’s more, these challenges compound the disruptions already facing the industry in 2025, prompting leaders to consider and make pivotal decisions about their future.
According to the MNP Advanced Manufacturing Outlook Report 2025, four major challenges are reshaping the industry:
- Labour shortages and workforce strategies
- Lagging technology adoption and cyber security
- Declining productivity
- Limited future planning around sustainability
Notably, 69 percent of the surveyed respondents reported taking a wait-and-see approach. But this only delays investments in key areas of their operations.
Let’s talk about how your manufacturing business can surmount these challenges.
Strategic actions to drive efficiency and profitability
Overcoming margin erosion and delivery delays requires a tailored approach grounded in operational reality. Here are five ways that manufacturers, like you, can systematically improve performance:
- Labour and machine utilization studies
Conduct day-in-the-life assessments to pinpoint bottlenecks, idle time, and underused equipment. These studies also support visibility tools like red-green zone analysis and work-in-progress tracking.
- Procurement and supplier optimization
Review your raw material costs and supplier terms. From there, you can align purchases with quoted prices, monitor scrap rates, and adjust order frequency to reduce waste — especially when customers prepay for materials.
- Multi-level scheduling
Develop layered schedules that span long-term project timelines and weekly shop-floor plans. Remember to include buffers for drawing approvals and change orders to minimize rework and delays.
- Quoted versus actual labour tracking
Track actual labour hours against estimates across welding, cutting, and painting. You can use this data to refine quoting accuracy and improve your profitability.
- Change management and communication integration
Establish protocols to manage any late-stage changes and drawing revisions. Strengthen communication and system integration across planning, procurement, and production to keep your business aligned and responsive.
Going deeper: Operational visibility tools
Beyond the strategic actions, effective improvements can often come by tracking and acting on the right data. By integrating operational visibility tools into your daily processes, you can gain clear insights into actual performance, more easily spot inefficiencies, and set yourself up to make more informed decisions.
Here are three tools your organization may want to consider:
Daily operating reports (DORs): Track uptime, downtime, and overall equipment effectiveness across shifts
Inventory turnover and waste analysis: Identify slow-moving stock and scrap rates
Project lifecycle mapping: Visualize dependencies and milestones to improve forecasting and resource allocation
Process improvement could be the key to sustainable growth
Now more than ever, embracing a process improvement strategy is essential to unlocking your business’s full potential. It enhances efficiency, improves quality, supports better decision-making, and delivers a competitive edge.
With industry leaders hesitant to invest, your opportunity to lead the way is clear: Focus on what you can control — like your operations.
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