W.E. Manufacture - Issue 2

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W.E. MANUFACTURE A DIVISION OF THE DRIVE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 2

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Select Tool The past is prologue

By Matt St. Amand | Photo by Trevor Booth

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Speaking with Dave Tomassi, Vice President and co-owner of Select Tool, a truism comes to mind: You never know when you will come face to face with your destiny. Don’t try and ready yourself for the encounter, just be open to it. Dave’s moment came in eighth grade.

“It was Career Day,” Dave remembers. “We had two graduating Grade Eight classes in my school. One class took a field trip to McDonald’s. My class went to Lamb.”

Dave is referring to the F. Joseph Lamb Company on Eugenie Street East. A few steps into the sprawling facility, and Dave’s mind was blown. He looked at the rows and rows of machinery, was nearly bowled-over by the cacophony of it all. Seeing the workers in their grimy factory greens, Dave knew instantly: “I want to be a part of this.”

That single field trip kindled a lifelong love of the industry.

“I was just amazed by the way things were made,” Dave explains. “You looked at those incredible lines of machinery in Lamb and realized ‘Somebody had to think all of this up.’ Those huge engine block machining lines. I didn’t even know what I was seeing... couldn’t differentiate it from mold making. It was amazing to me.”

After a career lifetime in the industry, Dave has gone from being inspired by the macro, and today heads Select Tool, which measures success in microns.

Dave didn’t end up on a shop floor, but entered the industry as a draftsman. He made the rounds, as so many in the industry do, putting in time with Valiant Powertrain and Omega, among other shops around the city.

He remembers them all as great experiences.

“I got to see what worked, what didn’t work,” Dave remembers. “I met a lot of great people. Eventually, I moved out of design and became a program manager. A few years of that and I thought, ‘I would actually really like to own my own shop’.”

His chance came in 1997 when Select Tool offered him the chance of a lifetime to buy-in.

Founded in 1996 by father-and-son team of Ken and Paul Hollister, Select Tool designed and built gauges and fixtures for checking the dimensional accuracy of automotive parts.

No one could accuse Select Tool of being an “overnight” success, but it certainly is a case study in the value of patience, the benefits of slow and steady growth, and the wisdom of reinvesting in the company – in both

people and equipment.

“Somebody walks in now,” Dave says, “and sees all this…” – “All this”, meaning three state-of-the-art facilities, standing in a line on North Talbot Road – “and may think that this is just how it’s always been. But there were lean years, there were very challenging years, but we’re still here.”

So, what is produced at Select Tool?

“We started as a fixture and gauge outfit, but now our product line has branchedout into three areas,” Dave says. “Gauges and fixtures, automation and specialty tooling. We provide a full turnkey service, building machines for customers to process their parts – whether for assembly or manufacturing – and we also produce the fixtures that check those parts dimensional accuracy. It comes full circle at Select Tool – customers don’t have to go elsewhere to get these pieces.

They are all here.”

Which explains Select Tool’s motto: Innovate, Automate, Integrate.

Pondering Dave’s life-changing afternoon at Lamb decades ago, I ask how one goes about imagining a process that is now daily life at Select Tool.

He laughs. “Growth isn’t always your decision. Sometimes you grow because you’re answering your customers’ needs,” he says. “The customer can always go somewhere else. They always want you to do something more. At Select, we’ve figured out that extra step.”

Following the 2008/9 economic downturn, some of Select Tool’s competition went away. Select weathered the storm and entered a period of rapid growth.

“I didn’t want to be a two-hundred person check fixture company,” Dave recalls.

“I wanted to diversify and become a full service supplier. We had staff with experience in automation, so we marketed in that segment. Pretty soon, our numbers in automation crept up to our fixture sales. Then, they surpassed them.”

By 2014, Dave and his team realized they needed more room for the company’s growth.

That year, they built their facilities on North Talbot Road. The first of those projects was completed in 2015.

“And a year after that,” Dave says, “we built a second machining building right next door.”

The facility more resembles a laboratory than a gauge/fixture/automation shop. First thing I notice as Dave takes me on a tour in mid-August is the temperature of the plant.

“Do you have air-conditioning running in here?” I ask him. “Yes,” he says, and then with a shrug: “Why not be comfortable?”

The machines being built look like something from a blockbuster science fiction movie: fenced-in robot cells, openings bracketed by light curtains, robotic end of arm grippers, sensors in every direction, vision

cameras for reading code stamps and serial numbers on parts. To just get everything moving without crashing into one another would be a feat of engineering. Getting these myriad moving parts to actually interact seems miraculous.

“Oh, we get them moving, all right,” Dave says. “Then we have to achieve cycle time” – the customer-defined production schedule, which could mean producing dozens of parts an hour.

At one point, I ask the boilerplate question: “What sets you apart from the competition?” Dave gestures around the 100,000 square foot shop. “Look at our equipment.”

Indeed, to my untrained eye, Select Tool appears outfitted to build the next generation of space shuttle.

“Not quite,” Dave smiles. “But we do have the capacity and experience to take on projects that many other outfits cannot. That’s why we’re shipping products to the United States, Mexico, South America, Europe, and Asia.” On various complex projects, Select Tool has developed proprietary technologies for certain equipment. It’s “black box stuff”, so Dave cannot go into detail. “Really, all I can say,” he adds cryptically, “is that we are the only ones allowed to do this work worldwide for ‘certain customers’.”

Then, there is the expansion into Mexico.

“We have a 30,000 square foot facility overseen by my partner, Paul,” Dave explains.

“It just made sense to have a presence there, seeing so many opportunities for our products and to also provide molding making services in that region.”

Time and again, he goes back to a familiar theme: Select Tool’s employees.

“The key to everything is the people who work here,” Dave explains. “We are lucky to have our team. There is no one better.”

To attract premium talent, Select Tool provides an excellent wage and benefits package, clean working conditions, the latest in high-tech equipment, as well as numerous employee appreciation events through the year, such as BBQs during the summer.

Near the end of our interview, I comment on Dave’s natural enthusiasm for his work.

“I like seeing the whole operation run,” Dave says. “It’s not the money that drives us.

We’re continuously reinvesting in the company. It makes me happy seeing the products being made, winning new projects. I’m still excited about what’s being produced here.”

He gestures in the air. “We have done all of this on our own,” he says. “We didn’t inherit it. We had to figure it out as we went along. It’s not about chasing the dollar. We’re doing what we love doing. I always go back to that natural enthusiasm I felt going into the Lamb plant for the first time.” www.selecttool.com/

W.E.

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Checker Industrial Going above and beyond

By Alley Biniarz | Photo by Trevor Booth

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Have you ever noticed the infamous checkered truck driving around Windsor-Essex and wondered about the business behind the brand?

Checker Industrial is an independently-owned company distributing multiple products to both the retail and industrial sectors throughout Southwestern Ontario.

For over 60 years, Checker Industrial has been one of the largest Canadian full-line distributors for leading industries such as Parker-Hannifin, Fenner, Gates, Enerpac, Lincoln, ACE, and Gray Tools.

The company has aligned themselves with leading manufacturers in North America to provide their customers in the automotive, mining, agricultural, construction, machine tool, automation, and mould making, with a fine selection of the best products out there.

Having evolved with the growing market to become a premier hydraulic and pneumatic industrial supply centre, Checker Industrial also provides rubber products, plastics, industrial hose and fittings, conveyor belting, industrial tools, and shop supplies.

Aside from their quality product, the company is known for going above and beyond for their customers to help them meet their goals. Checker Industrial believes a cutting-edge distributor should always offer a range of value add-on services, including installation, technical support, and timely response to their customers’ day-to-day needs. Between their two locations in Windsor and Oldcastle, customers can always expect a “stock what we sell” philosophy, where they are able to find a product, they’re in need of in real time, on time.

When choosing Checker Industrial, clients benefit from working with long-term employees, like Kenn Morris, who has extensive knowledge about the industry, its products, and has dealt with a variety of suppliers, customers, and clients over the course of his career.

His career began in 1969 while working in the warehouse driving the delivery truck.

From there, Kenn grew his career through the mentorship of Ron Atkinson. Evolving into a sales and management position, in 1999, Kenn was given the opportunity by Dave Mechanic to run the company. Kenn has now been steering the ship as Vice President and General Manager for over 20 years, and will be celebrating a 50-year career on September 28.

“Checker is a family of employees sharing many years of dedication, with more than half of our 42 employees having been with us with us over 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 years. When I was given this position, there were many dedicated staff who stood by me and made it all possible,” Kenn says.

His philosophy has always been to provide a quality product at a competitive price, and to always lead with a local focus.

“We work with companies through the highs and lows of the local industry’s climate, and follow the same strategy with our staff,” he says about servicing Windsor’s customers with honesty and integrity.

It’s not easy leading a top-producing industry, but through the staff’s willingness to go the distance, Checker Industrial has evolved into the company they are today. Kenn is confident that they will continue to grow as a family as he passes on the mentorship he received, along with his 50 years of experience, onto the next generation of management. Kenn will uphold his role as Vice President within the company as Nick Khoury assumes the title of General Manager.

Nick began working part-time for Checker Industrial in the year 2000, while completing his post-secondary education.

Nick quickly gained interest in the industry and through his mentorship with Bill Mechanic, Patrick Mayville, and Kenn Morris, Nick gained valuable information to be able to grow his career to where he is now.

Nick has built his way to this position by being the first one to arrive at work, and the last one out the door. He is constantly bettering himself in the name of putting product knowledge and customer service at the forefront of his career.

“I believe Kenn has created a legacy throughout his career, and our business philosophy is one in the same,” Nick says. “I will continue to see our company through industry highs and lows, and remain committed to providing cutting-edge technology, products and services to our clients.”

Nick’s mission will be made possible through their employees, as without them, they would only be a company that distributes products. What Checker Industrial has to offer is a complete family service.

Most families have a paternal figure as the beating heart, and President Bill Mechanic follows this trend. He devotes his time and knowledge to ensure that the company is always putting its best foot forward within the community.

“

I believe Kenn has created a legacy throughout his career, and our business philosophy is one in the same With Bill’s 30 years of design & engineering experience in hydraulic, electro-hydraulic and pneumatic systems, he is a true resource of practical industry knowledge that he will pass forward through Checker Industrial’s new training room.

These comprehensive training classes will provide in-depth understanding of Industrial hydraulic training, and cover Pneumatics/Automation technologies, maintenance and lubrication.

Checker’s courses are designed to be applicable for anyone working in the Southwestern Ontario market base of Automotive, OEM, MRO, Automation, Mold Shop Agricultural, Mining, Construction, Mobile and Marine.

“Post-secondary education is no longer teaching specific hydraulic and pneumatic programs. Classes are available through course study, but are not inclusive of industry knowledge. It is our goal to work with our customers, schools, and individuals to help keep this crucial education alive,” Bill says about seeing a gap in the industry that needed to be filled. His passion for hydraulics and pneumatics, and how it relates to the local industry, shines through with his hands-on approach to learning.

Checker Industrial will also offer maintenance-specific classes that concentrate on failures, their causes, troubleshooting, and safety. Schematic reading and symbols are covered with each of their classes, with custom one or two-day specialty classes that can be scheduled to a customer’s specific needs. Whatever your training needs may be, Checker Industrial will arrange a class or have one of their vendors provide support for your particular request.

Bill ensures that Checker Industrial is committed to offering students practical knowledge that is essential to their careers, and can be applied to their everyday working lives. W.E. 7

CenterLine Actions speak louder than words

By Matt St. Amand | Photo by Trevor Booth

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At CenterLine, actions speak louder than words.

It begins with the company’s name. Whereas many of their competitors outdid each other with deep dives into the thesaurus, depicting themselves as grand and mega and audacious, CenterLine’s moniker commemorates precision, simplicity and focus. With four plants spanning approximately 437,000 sq. ft of manufacturing space and employing nearly 850 employees in Windsor facilities (1,100 worldwide), no one would begrudge original founders, Fred Wigle and Donald Beneteau, if they named their company after a Greek god or a weapon of war. But that’s not how they rolled. Flashforward six decades and CenterLine is still true to its core values. It seems the old corporate truism is, actually, true: culture starts at the top.

CenterLine invited W.E. Manufacture Magazine to visit their facility and sit down with a cross-section of their team: Larry Koscielski, Vice President Process & Technology Development, Jim Komar, Vice President Human Resources, Karl Mroczkowski, Employee Development Training and Safety Coordinator, Kathleen Cvitkovic, Corporate Market-

ing Manager, and Lisa Mastronardi, Marketing Communication Coordinator.

“We have more than one hundred employees who have worked here for twenty years or more, and over 40 employees with 30-plus years. For many, this was their first real job,” Lisa Mastronardi says.

If there is one metric that tells a company’s story – this is it.

When asked about his tenure with the company, Larry Koscielski says, “I have been here for thirty-six years. This was my first job.” Eyes widen, eyebrows are raised.

That’s not a feat you hear about all that often, these days. “When it came to climbing the corporate ladder,” Larry continues, “I took the stairs.”

Larry’s experience encapsulates one of CenterLine’s many aspects that young people embarking on careers should sit up and take notice: longevity, yes, but more to the point – mobility. “There is room to grow at CenterLine,” Larry concludes.

Jim Komar builds on that idea: “A word that comes up a lot at CenterLine is ‘growth’ – we’re interested in our team’s personal growth, their career growth. We’ve experienced tremendous growth as a company, with the completion of our latest facility, the Mechatronics Division.”

And there are numerous avenues for growth across CenterLine’s five divisions: Machinery, Electrodes, Automation Components, Supersonic Spray Technologies and Mechatronics.

Much as CenterLine has been a fixture in the Windsor-LaSalle community, and the local manufacturing industry, the company has a sizable international footprint, with CenterLine Global Affiliates (CGAs) in the United States, Mexico, Germany, Romania, Brazil, India, and China.

“It’s worth noting,” Larry says, “that we have a presence in those locations in order to serve the local markets. We’re not shipping Canadian jobs to those locations. In fact, it’s the opposite – we have a dedicated team, here, whose sole job is to support our CGAs.” In cultivating the business, leadership understands there is more to life than market share. CenterLine embraces the philosophy that a happy and healthy workforce is also a productive workforce. For instance, when greater numbers of staff members were seen, outside, walking on the road in front of the facilities during breaks, a paved path around the entire campus (at no small expense) was put in, so they would have a safe place to walk. Also, to promote healthy

“

We focus on the health and wellbeing of our employees so they can enjoy their retirement. eating, four days a week employees have the option to order healthy lunches provided by a local vendor at a subsidized rate – delivered to their building – with the remaining cost simply payroll deducted.

“I remember a presentation where Michael was speaking,” Lisa recalls, “and he said, ‘We focus on the health and well-being of our employees for their current health today, but more importantly so they can enjoy their retirement years, after CenterLine’.”

There are no airs or top-of-the-food chain trappings at CenterLine – “Michael” is company CEO, Michael Beneteau.

CenterLine is not only interested in the growth of its employees, but in the growth of the community.

“We are heavily invested in the FIRST Robotics program,” Larry says, who is the program’s Windsor-Essex chair. FIRST Robotics has experienced explosive growth in the area. In 2012, there was one FIRST Robotics team in the high schools (grades 9 – 12), and one FLL (FIRST Lego League) in the grade schools (grades 4 – 8), with approximately 50 kids taking part. Fast forward to 2019: there are 20 high school teams in Windsor-Essex, 50 FLL teams. This year, over 1,400 kids participated in the program.

Developing the next generation of workers at the high school level is encouraging news for an industry that forecasts a severe talent shortfall as tens of thousands of skilled trades personnel will retire in the coming years.

“For this reason, we are committed to our apprenticeship program,” Jim explains.

“We currently have 60 active apprentices that work with mentors on the plant floor, attend classes at St. Clair College, and will eventually become CenterLine's next Certified Journeypersons.”

A steady stream of students from the Ontario Youth Apprentice Program (OYAP) also flows into CenterLine, along with Co-Op Students from the University of

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Windsor, Western and McMaster, as well as apprentices from St. Clair College.

“Many of our CNC operators are past OYAP student participants,” Karl notes.

“We took a senior employee and made him their mentor,” Jim says. “He is a former hockey coach and he knows what drives kids.”

It is an unfortunate fact that some parents still subscribe to the old stereotypes of machine shops being a dark and dismal dungeon-like workplaces. Today, operations like CenterLine more resemble laboratories, and require employees with computer skills and creativity.

When asked what they love most about their jobs at CenterLine, Kathleen replies: “The people. Everybody collaborates. You never hear ‘That’s not my job’.”

Karl says: “There is an open door policy.

People aren’t afraid to bring ideas to the table.”

Indeed, among other employee engagement programs, CenterLine has a robust Continuous Improvement (CI) Program.

“In the past year, roughly 2,000 ‘blue cards’ – idea cards – were submitted by employees,” Larry says. “And we’re on pace to implement 1,500 of those.”

“The CI Team meets weekly,” Karl explains. “When ideas are accepted, our target is to implement them within three weeks.”

Lisa adds: “CenterLine is genuinely interested in its employees’ well-being – whether that’s giving them training to do their jobs better, discounts to various health and wellness suppliers in the community, or even offering various topics of lunchand-learn sessions on how to improve mental, physical or financial health. They want their employees to have the best tools necessary to succeed at work and at home.”

Jim is gratified by CenterLine’s apprenticeship program. “Just the other day, Michael was asking about the progress of a certain group of apprentices.”

It is not often you hear of a company CEO making such inquiries, but from top to bottom, CenterLine does things differently. This is evident in the technology they innovate for their customers, from their high-speed fastener welding system, FlexFast™ welder, to their family of FlexGun™ welding guns and VeriFast™ LVDT and MicroView… but that is another article, entirely.

Visit www.cntrline.com and be sure to look at their “Media Resources – Video Portal” page for industrial cinema videos. W.E. 9

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The Lion at the Heart of Sherdil Precision An interview with Tarlok Kainth By Matt St. Amand | Photos by Trevor Booth

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There is a photograph – two photographs, actually – in the lobby of Sherdil Precision Inc., on Silver Creek Industrial Drive, that illustrates how experiences in the life of owner, Tarlok Kainth, have a way of recurring and coming full circle throughout his 50-year career.

The top photo is from 1977. It shows Tarlok in his late twenties, dark-haired and earnest, posing with a manual Cincinnati planer mill at Pathex International, his employer at the time. The bottom photo shows Tarlok posing with the same Cincinnati planer mill 40 years later. He is older and wiser, and looks like he’s loosened a little bit over the decades. That planer mill was the first machine he worked with at his first machining job after moving to Toronto in the mid-1970s. When Pathex went bankrupt in the 1980s – that planer mill was auctioned off. Tarlok gave his business card to a project manager at the time and said, “I would like to buy that machine.” Like a message in a bottle, that business card floated around, was lost for a time and was ultimately found. The planer mill had moved from Scarborough to Ohio during the intervening years. Tarlok had moved, as well – from Aurora, Ontario to Windsor.

And yet, after so many years, he one day received a telephone call, and as the chess pieces of Tarlok Kainth’s life have a way of moving, circumstances aligned so that he bought his old machine.

Now, half a century into his career, Tarlok comes into work seven days a week.

He’s one of the only owners you’ll run into who still, occasionally, works on his shop floor. “If someone doesn’t show up, and it’s a big project,” Tarlok says, “I change my clothes and get on one of the machines.”

If you’re unfamiliar with the world of industrial presses, you would be astonished by their size and the innumerable ways their work intersects with our daily lives: counter tops, furniture, plywood and particle board, just to name a few. And you wouldn’t believe the machines that press the “cake” that makes these products – sometimes six stories in height, comprised of more than a dozen plates. Sherdil Precision is currently working on a large project in Swan Valley, Manitoba: rebuilding a 30-year-old press that has 15 plates, each plate weighing 25 tonnes. Not only does the process require tremendous force, it also requires tremendous heat, which is provided by oil circulating through channels bored through the massive steel plates.

It sounds like one of the Top 5 items on a

list of “Things That Are Impossible To Do”.

For the team at Sherdil Precision, it’s just another day at the office.

“No project is too large or small,” says Sonya Cottrell, Director of Operations of Sherdil, and Tarlok’s second of three children.

“On average we do 100 heating platens per year,” Tarlok says. “Only a few companies can handle jobs of that size.”

To be sure, Sherdil is equipped with four cranes: 40 tonne, 30 tonne and two 10 tonne cranes.

“

If someone doesn’t show up, and it’s a big project, I change my clothes and get on one of the machines.

Tarlok Kainth was born in India in the early 1950s. When he was a young child, his family moved to England. Before leaving the country of his birth, however, his older brother had already nicknamed him “Sher”, meaning “lion” in his Indian dialect.

In England, Tarlok completed a four-year mechanical engineering degree in Leicester. In late 1960’s, his older brother moved to Canada and soon sent word that Canada was the Land of Opportunity.

By this time, Tarlok was married and had an infant son named Dil. Reality in Canada was slightly different than his brother led him to believe. Tarlok’s brother had landed in Vancouver, and there were scant few jobs in British Columbia for engineers, except, perhaps, for those designing hippie treehouses in the woods.

“By 1975, my brother and I realized the jobs we wanted were on the other side of the country,” Tarlok recalls. “So, we drove to Toronto. By that time, my second child, Sonya, had just been born.”

The cross-country drive was as harrowing as it sounds. Seven days on the road, delayed in B.C. by rockslides, hitting a deer at full speed in the middle of the night. By the time they reached the home of the CN Tower, neither ever wanted to see the TransCanada Highway again.

“A week after arriving in Toronto,” Tarlok recalls. “I went to work for Pathex International.”

Pathex was a press company and it was there that Tarlok met one of his many mentors – a man named Peter West. When West assigned Tarlok to a monster machine, he asked Tarlok if he thought he could handle it. Tarlok said: “Give me a couple of weeks.”

Tarlok took command of his machine and eight years later, he was plant manager in a shop of 50 people.

In the mid-1980s, a German company, Dieffenbacher, opened a division in Windsor. Tarlok was offered a management position – in Windsor.

“I knew nothing about Windsor, and I had just built my house in Aurora,” he remembers. “I was happy for the opportunity, but also unsure. I did not want to just sell my house.”

And so began a six-month stretch where Tarlok lived and worked in Windsor and commuted home on weekends.

“My third child was born that year,” Tarlok says. “Each time we had a new addition, everything in my work life changed.”

Tarlok established himself as a very capable manager in Windsor, which pleased his employer because all of the other bosses were back in Germany.

“I hired the whole crew, there,” Tarlok says. “Some of them are still there.”

After six months of commuting, Tarlok brought his family to Windsor.

He enjoyed the job at Dieffenbacher and his superiors were pleased with his work.

There were trips to the home office in Germany, where one owner, Albert Dieffenbacher, took Tarlok around, showing him the operation. Although Tarlok had fond feelings for his employer those tours of the Dieffenbacher plants aroused the part of his personality his brother named “Sher” back in India.

The time came where Tarlok wanted to strike out on his own.

Although it was not a quick process, by 1993, Tarlok realized his destiny and opened his own business, which he called “Sherdil”: which meant “Lion Heart” in his Indian dialect.

The respect the owners had for him was indisputable: Dieffenbacher management team was directed to support Sherdil and subcontract work to them.

Sherdil paved its own way from that point on.

“In 2004, we acquired Dieffenbacher’s rubber injection line,” Tarlok says. If the 13

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work of industrial presses intersects with people’s daily lives in countless ways, rubber injection lines fill-in nearly all the other blanks, used to make car components, such as muffler hangers and brake pads and numerous other items.

The growth of Sherdil has been steady over the past 26 years, with most of it coming by word-of-mouth.

“We have built specialty equipment for GM Research & Development,” Tarlok says.

“A heating oven for their aluminum forming division.”

For another high-profile customer Magna, Sherdil built two lines for two-meter-by-three-meter ovens that produce high-end auto parts in Ireland. Another Sherdil-built project is used to produce subway parts in England.

“We have supplied equipment to South Africa,” Tarlok explains. “We have jobs booked through to May next year.”

If there have been issues and obstacles along the way, they proved inconsequential to Tarlok’s vision for the company. As in any profession, the numbers don’t lie: “We have been working 20 hours a day, six days a week for the past 20 years,” Tarlok says.

In Sherdil Precision’s first year, with two-to-three employees, annual capacity was approximately 4,000 production hours. Now, annually, the shop has close to 40,000 production hours.

Tarlock Tarlok mentions another significant number: “Some of our employees have been for 25 years or close to it.”

One secret to their success is Sherdil’s diversified roster of jobs and customers.

“We’re not just machinists,” Tarlok explains. “We’re not just fabricators. We can go from one product to another, from industry to industry.”

This has meant a steady stream of work for Sherdil employees.

Add to this, the solid wage offered by Sherdil and a top-drawer benefits package, which includes an RRSP plan.

“We also have a very clean environment,” says Sonya Cottrell. “The shop is air-conditioned and newly refurbished.”

In fact, Sherdil Precision has just undergone its third major expansion.

“When I started out, I leased property off Central Avenue,” Tarlok recalls. However, when growth necessitated substantial investment in the facility, Tarlok decided he needed his own place. “Why spend money on someone else’s facility?”

So, he bought two acres in Silver Creek 14

in 1995. At that time, the area was just empty fields. Today, it is a bustling industrial estate.

The most recent update to the facility – which took place under Sonya’s direction – encompassed a 10,000 square foot expansion: 7,000 square foot expansion of the shop and 3,000 square feet for the office.

“We even refaced the front of the building,” Sonya says.

For all the remembrances of past triumphs, and stories of all Pathex and Dieffenbacher customers resurfacing as Sherdil Precision customers, Tarlok never loses sight that it is their exceptional team who produces the work that is at the core of Sherdil’s success.

To young entrepreneurs, Tarlok’s advice is simple: “Work hard and stick with what you like, what your passion is.”

“We joke that steel is in his blood,” Sonya says.

“You have to put in your hours,” Tarlok adds. “In order to make the company grow, there were times I was running two machines.” Also: there is no substitute for experience.

After decades in the industry, working in numerous capacities from the shop floor, to the executive suite, Tarlok developed the managerial skills, knowledge of book-keeping, estimating and costing-out jobs, that Sherdil has been able to operate on such an even keel. Tarlok still looks over the numbers for major projects, and goes on the road for upcoming jobs. One of his next trips is to Temple, Texas to inspect a press Sherdil received an order to rebuild. That has become a lucrative side of the business. With years of experience, customizing his own one-of-a-kind machines, Tarlok and his team became very proficient at refurbishment. The presses he works with are expensive old workhorses, not easily scrapped and cost-prohibitive to replace, so Sherdil often gets calls to restore them.

“Some of our presses have been running for 20 to 30 years,” he explains. “We are continuously refurbishing and customizing our machines to suit our jobs.”

On a tour of the facility, Tarlok comments: “For every dollar I’ve made, I have put two back into the company.”

If the shop, with all its diverse capabilities, is said to have a specialty, Tarlok says that it is “gun drilling”. He points to a machine that stands about twenty feet high and is still in the process of being built. It has the largest ball screw I have ever seen.

He says it will gun drill holes into steel and

“

Some of our presses have been running for 20 to 30 years.

We are continuously refurbishing and customizing our machines to suit our jobs also do the work of a boring mill, all in one place.

To give an idea of the scale of some jobs, Tarlok explains that his equipment is capable of gun drilling five to six feet deep into solid steel. “The foundation of the building is three feet deep and reinforced with rebar because of the weight of the machines,” he says.

For the ever-growing size and scope of Sherdil Precision, it has always been a family business. Tarlok’s wife, Surinder, retired. Of his three children, Tarlok’s two daughters – Sonya and Reena – have worked the company. Reena performs the function of Marketing and Communications Coordinator, while following her passion for yoga, running her own business, Rain Fitness Boutique. Sonya had a successful career with LaSalle Utilities before coming on board at Sherdil in 2000. She began on the accounting side, where her mother worked.

As Sonya’s role grew, her mother stepped back. Sonya now works as Director of Operations, having overseen the introduction of the ISO system at Sherdil, and monitoring health and safety throughout the company.

She also project managed the latest expansion of the shop and office.

The nickname Tarlok’s brother gave him a lifetime ago lives on and is known around the world. When I began our interview and told Tarlok that there is virtually no information about him to be found on the Internet, he smiled. “The people who need to know me, know me,” he said.

Learn more about Sherdil Precision by visiting their website: http://sherdil.com/ W.E.

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Goudreau Personnel Transforming business with flare Goudreau Personnel Services Ltd. officially opened their doors after the labour day weekend in 1994. Founded on the core principles of integrity, respect, and confidentiality for candidates and customers alike, their primary objective was to recruit qualified and “top notch” candidates for some of the best employers in Windsor-Essex and surrounding areas.

Now celebrating 25 years of business, the rebranded Goudreau Personnel by Swinton Ltd., is known as the Premier Recruitment & Executive Search Firm in the Windsor-Essex County area.

Sara Swinton and her husband Glenn incorporated their own flare when transforming the business in 2014. They took their newly purchased space at 3819 Walker Road from studs and cinderblocks, and transformed it into a second home.

From the layered brick boardroom to the warm colours throughout the open concept office, you’ll notice their passion handcrafted into every detail of the location.

In addition to providing a professional and warm first impression of their company, the feel of the physical space attributes to the personal relationships they hope to foster with arriving candidates and customers alike.

The physical & external aesthetics are not the only major company updates Sara and Glenn have achieved - they have also spent years shifting the company’s gears from the stigma of “a temporary agency” to specializing in Direct Hire recruitments.

This means their customers, (the hiring employer) will hire the candidate onto their payroll immediately, instead of the “temping” route. “Candidates come in here needing jobs to feed their families, and they don’t want the uncertainty that temporary work brings. My goal is always to secure full-time work for my candidates ” Sara explains their switch into recruitment, and the importance of making a lasting impact on people’s lives.

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By Alley Biniarz | Photo by Trevor Booth

As a Lead Recruiter and Account Manager – but also a mother, world-traveller, scuba diver and avid boater - Sara knows that a professional resume doesn’t define a person. Contrary to most agencies, Sara and her team of specialized recruiters take the time necessary to interview each and every potential candidate.

“We want to hear their motivations and understand where each candidate has been, so we know where they want to go in their careers,” Sara says. Watching the candidate’s personality develop over time in a comfortable setting allows the team to match “character people” with the right long-term career opportunities.

Sara and Glenn decided to capitalize on the acronym behind the name Goudreau Personnel by Swinton Ltd. - GPS - as being a one stop Recruitment and Staffing Firm navigating candidates’ careers while guiding customers through the staffing process. Sara interviews candidates from all walks of life, and ensures that every person leaves GPS with a takeaway lesson, even if it doesn’t benefit her business.

“We can’t help everybody find their dream job, but I can certainly help them with their resume and point them in the right direction for their careers,” Sara says. For GPS, it’s about noticing a candidate’s potential, giving them advice on switching employment gears, or opening the door to career opportunities they didn’t know existed.

GPS attracts candidates from across Ontario and beyond, based on three pillars: their Process, Service and Reputation.

Their reputation has been built on a solid foundation of confidentiality, which enables them to recruit and work closely with those candidates who are already employed, and simply keeping their options open. GPS offers the same confidentiality to their customers, who may require highly sensitive recruitment efforts on their behalf.

“When a customer calls us to initiate a confidential recruitment for lets say a Vice

President of Operations, they have complete confidence that we will be able to still attract the best of the best in the city, while maintaining discretion throughout” Sara says.

GPS’s expertise remains predominantly in the “automotive” Industrial Manufacturing sector, although they continue to successfully recruit for their customers in “non-automotive” sectors including Construction, Green & Solar Energy, Greenhouse and Food Processing, Transportation, Pharmaceutical, Legal, Medical, and IT Industries.

GPS has also been asked to navigate plant launches for new companies coming into Windsor and for existing companies launching sister branches. GPS has now assisted in the launching of three “greenfield” plants over the last three years, one in Windsor, one in Kitchener, and one in Arizona. Launching a plant includes recruiting for all capacities from Skilled Trades, Engineering, Logistics, and Purchasing right down to production on the plant floor.

No customer is out of Sara’s reach – she may be acting President, but she has always been a Recruiter first. “For 23 years, it’s what I know how to do best and what I consider to be my greatest gift; the ability to dig deep and get to know my customers and candidates intimately - to be a match maker of sorts ” she explains. She excels at recruiting for positions such as CEO, President, CFO, General Managers and Director-type roles, in family-owned operations right up to corporate and multi-national companies.

With that being said, Sara and the GPS team are very selective in which customers they will do business with. Afterall, it is both her married and maiden name on the building, and that means every person she assists in finding employment, and every customer she recruits for, has her personal signature on her work.

“I don’t just take on any customer. If I’m going to recruit a candidate from a fulltime position and place them in a new role

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with a new company, they’re trusting that I’ve done my research and that it’s a solid and reputable place to go long term.” Sara also emphasized the importance of placing candidates in a safe environment, where the culture is healthy and the management team is proactive and engaged.

This mandate includes understanding their customers’ needs from an organizational perspective, including growth, development, strategies, relationships and culture. GPS can then customize their approach and successfully recruit candidates that are like-minded, which increases employee retention and overall organizational success.

“I want to be an extension of their human resources team; I don’t want to just be a fly-by-day agency that they work with once or twice” Sara says about making lifelong commitments with the right customers, and not quitting when the going gets tough. “I have a few customers that I have been successfully recruiting for, in excess of two decades and one since the inception of our business 25 years ago.”

GPS has seen Windsor through the times of success and massive hiring, and through times of lay-off and uncertainty.

But Sara remains eternally optimistic and is a true believer that the city’s manufacturing culture is cyclical and that Windsor

will pull through any economic situation.

“Windsor is resilient and tough, and we make it our business to survive any storm ” With over 30 years of combined experience and knowledge in the Recruitment and Staffing Industry, the staff at Goudreau Personnel by Swinton Ltd. would be honoured to be your “off-site” Human Resources team.

Let them help you navigate your business or career in the right direction.

Sara Swinton can be contacted directly at her office 519.977.7300 or by e-mail sara@goudreaupersonnel.com W.E. 17

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SPM Automation

—We don’t use that word here

By Matt St. Amand | Photos by Trevor Booth

SPM Automation is where impossibilities go to die.

W.E. Manufacture Magazine was lucky enough to sit down with three mad scientists from SPM, Boris Novakovic, Zac Touesnard and Andrew Robertson, to talk about Ferraris, Alexander of Macedon, ideal whitebodies and solving scientific problems with throwaway comments from conversations and commercials.

“We are a scientific company,” Boris says. To start at the start, SPM Automation builds machinery that welds polymers.

Sounds simple. It isn’t.

“Customers give the cookie cutter projects to our competitors,” Boris continues.

“They bring the impossible to us.”

Inscrutable SPM Automation president, Chris Holtkamp, listens and nods. “The Magna job,” he says and Boris is off and running: “Magna came to us and said ‘Nobody will touch this. Everyone says it can’t be done. That’s why we’re calling SPM.’” SPM may be second only to Area 51 in its devotion to secrecy, so the details of the job are not mentioned. The story around it is more interesting, anyhow.

“They said, ‘You’re either really, really good… or, crazy.’ Then they explained what they needed. Next thing we knew, we were barreling down the highway through an ice storm with a piece of equipment in the back of the truck… We got the job and solved the customer challenge.”

In a place where the secrets are held so tightly, I can’t even get a straight answer as to what the initials “SPM” stand for. “’Son of Philip of Macedon’,” Zac offers.

Alexander the Great. Cool allusion, but not the answer.

Then a joke goes around the conference table: “Guess the meaning behind the letters and win a Ferrari!”

There are a lot of laughs amid the problem-solving, but one should never make the

error of believing these guys aren’t serious.

When it comes to solving problems, they go way outside of the box. In fact, to paraphrase the little bald spoon-bending Buddha boy in The Matrix: At SPM “there is no box.”

“When we were developing our non-contact welder,” Zac says, “we experimented with gold-plating the non-radiating shields.

Gold is close to an ‘ideal whitebody’.”

“At quite some expense,” Boris adds.

“But we didn’t do that just to spend our boss’ money. Gold has a very low emissivity value.”

This is met with a blank stare.

“Admiss-a-who-ity?”

“Emissivity,” Boris elucidates.

According to the Ultimate Source of Truth, Wikipedia: “The emissivity of the surface of a material is its effectiveness in emitting energy as thermal radiation.”

“But it didn’t work,” Zac finishes.

“Then we had to tell our boss that we destroyed his gold,” Boris says.

Creativity, spontaneity, and a willingness to learn are among the requirements to work at SPM Automation. New recruits go through a year-long seasoning process of working on the shop floor, which is seen as the best way to bridge theory and practicality.

“It makes them better designers,” Chris explains. “They learn the terminology we use, learn how things come together.”

What’s next for SPM Automation?

Well, that’s a secret.

“OK, OK, I can tell you this…” Boris says.

“Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. Our competitors are talking about these things.

We are doing them.”

To learn more about SPM Automation, schedule an appointment to hang-out, or try for a chance at winning a Ferrari by guessing what the letters stand for, visit www.spm-automation.com, they are, actually, very serious guys. Really. W.E. 19

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Windsor-Essex Automobility Innovation Cluster Interview with Stephen MacKenzie 20

By Matt St. Amand | Photos by Trevor Booth

There is a local dream team of academics, technologists, business leaders, marketers and economic development professionals who have taken on the mission to “future proof” the economy of the Windsor-Essex region. They operate under the name “WE (Windsor-Essex) Diversify”.

Their efforts received a substantial boost a few weeks ago, with the announcement that federal funding is coming to the area.

Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation (WE EDC) Chief Executive Officer, Stephen MacKenzie, sat down with W.E. Manufacture Magazine to discuss what this effort means in tangible terms.

Whereas Stephen conveys the competent air of someone who can reasonably explain “Coase theorem”, “Laffer Curve” and fiduciary responsibility, these days he speaks a whole new language: “Virtual Reality Cave”, “automobility innovation cluster”, “smart corridors”, “cyber security”, “digital twinning”.

A few other words came up in our interview that are guaranteed to catch the attention of Windsor residents: “Diversification”. “$5 million dollars”.

“This is very exciting news,” Stephen says. It all starts with a truism: the world is changing. The economy is changing. Stephen MacKenzie calls it “technological disruption”, but something in the way he says it makes the term seem more exciting than panic-inducing.

People outside of Windsor have taken notice: the Canadian federal government announced an investment of up to $5 million in the Windsor-Essex region to create an “automobility innovation cluster”. The funding will help the region “transition from reliance on traditional automotive manufacturing by leveraging new opportunity in next-generation mobility innovations, smart technologies and automation”, according to the media release.

The funding will be administered through FedDev Ontario.

“We have the Automotive DNA,” Stephen explains. “Since 1904, when Ford established an auto plant on this side of the Detroit River, we have been the Automotive Capital of Canada. But recent plant closures, announcements of reduced production are troubling signs the auto sector is at risk.”

So, the “automobility innovation cluster” is about getting Windsor away from auto production?

“Not at all,” Stephen says. “We have no plans of turning away from our main indus21

try in Windsor. We’re seeking build on it – preserve what we can, grow what we can.”

This means positioning Windsor-Essex as a development hub for technologies that will drive the next generation of cars: electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, cyber security to protect the computer systems that enable these new technologies.

“This is what we mean by ‘automobility’,” Stephen explains. “We want Windsor-Essex to develop commercially relevant technology for shared vehicles, for electric vehicles, virtual reality, smart corridors, cyber security, data mobility platforms.”

The message has been clear for years – and not just from Stephen – technological disruption is underway. The only question is: Will Windsor-Essex ride the wave or be crushed by it? Buggy whip makers did not heed the warning signs. Milkmen learned this tough lesson. Makers of 8-track tapes were washed away. Not even the Rock of Gibraltar of early 1980s video games, Atari, could stave off the changing demands of an evolving market.

So, how will the Windsor-Essex region ride the wave?

First, by working together. There is a renewed sense of collaboration in the region that has brought together key local organizations, such as the University of Windsor, St. Clair College, WEtech Alliance, Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Accelerator, Windsor-Essex Capital Angel Network, Workforce Windsor-Essex, the City of Windsor, the County of Essex and all of its municipalities. This prestigious group is known as “WE Diversify”, which works together to identify gaps, build on existing opportunities to support growth and sustainability of the Windsor-Essex economy.

“I’ll be honest,” Stephen says. “The announcement just came out. We’re still putting the pieces together, but the important thing for people to know is that our team is working very hard to bring the next generation of jobs to the area.”

What will these look like?

“Well, building on our automotive expertise,” Stephen explains, “we want this area to be a hub for software design. Look at what’s happening at the VR [Virtual Reality] Cave.”

According to a recent DRIVE Magazine article, the VR Cave three-dimensional space is based at Windsor’s Institute for Border Logistics and Security. Launched in May 2019, it is Canada’s largest virtual reality space for autonomous vehicles, making it possible to safely test product features without being on the road. It allows developers to test and validate new and innovative product designs.

“Simulations with digital environments that accurately reflect real life gives people the ability to try new things and test out products at a much lower risk than doing it on real roads” the article says.

Moreover, virtual reality is being used in the design of cars, and in the design of the machines that build cars.

“Our job at the WE EDC is putting the pieces together,” Stephen says.

“The $5 million FedDev funding compliments funding received form the Province of Ontario for the Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN) and we intend to apply for funding from NGen (Next Generation Manufacturing Canada).”

Another example is the trend developing in industry toward “digital twinning”. According to an article in Network World Magazine, “digital twins are virtual replicas of physical devices that data scientists and IT pros can use to run simulations before actual devices are built and deployed. They are also changing how technologies such as IoT [Internet of Things], AI [artificial intelligence] and analytics are optimized.” The variety of things that can be digitally twinned is almost limitless.

The article in Network World Magazine continued: “The technology behind digital twins has expanded to include large items such as buildings, factories and even cities... The idea first arose at NASA: full-scale mock-ups of early space capsules, used on the ground to mirror and diagnose problems 22

in orbit, eventually gave way to fully digital simulations”.

Industry is harnessing the power of this tool by digitally twinning manufacturing cells, robotic lines, among other scenarios. This allows for changes and upgrades can be tested, performance gauged, before actually implementing them.

“The challenge comes in converting CAD designs into data that can be used in Virtual Reality and digital twinning,” Stephen says. “This requires highly skilled developers and computer programmers. These are among the jobs and talent the WE Diversify is hoping to attract to the region.”

The broad strokes are very encouraging, but what are some of the tangible goals of this “automobility innovation cluster”?

“That which is measured is achieved,” Stephen says.

“This program will be metrics driven.”

According to a CBC news article: “The Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation (WEEDC) will help develop the cluster, and is expected to support approximately 165 companies, establish 20 new partnerships and attracted roughly $9 million in foreign investment to create and maintain 665 jobs in the region.”

“We are partnering with Detroit with a number of things,” he continues. “Our niche is the need for cross-border products and support, 5G, Auto, logistics, transportation, this border. We want the new bridge to be the smartest bridge in the world, collecting and disseminating data from every truck that travels on it.

“We are also working with the Epicenter at the University of Windsor,” Stephen says, “training students to be Chief Technology Officers, to understand technology.”

Another great asset to the area is its proximity to Detroit.

“Detroit is definitely a partner in all this,” Stephen explains. “We have a number of cross-border agreements and partnerships.”

So, how do Windsor residents become a part of all this?

“Contact the WE EDC and tell us what you’re doing,” Stephen says. “It’s not all about handing around money. We’re a great resource to local businesses. We’re here to offer advice, guidance, to answer questions. If a small business owner is having trouble setting up a certain aspect of their business, they should call us – we can connect them to information, to partners. We have programs available to entrepreneurs.

We want to hear from people.” This is a developing story, so people interested in what’s happening should visit the Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation website http://choosewindsoressex.com/ for news and to learn about the latest events. W.E.

Stephen MacKenzie Chief Executive Officer of the Windsor Economic Development Corporation 23

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Ontario Youth Apprentice Program OYAP Interview with Izzy

By Matt St. Amand | Photos by Trevor Booth

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Ontario Youth Apprentice Program (OYAP) Success Story: Interview with Izzy The Ontario Youth Apprentice Program (OYAP) has emerged, in recent years, as a bona fide success story in the Windsor/Essex County region.

The program is available to all secondary students, starting in Grade 11, exposing them to an array of careers available in skilled trades. It’s a rare confluence of “real world” and common sense – addressing, head-on, the paradoxical problem of high unemployment among youth during a period of severe skills shortage in industry. OYAP students not only learn in the classroom, but are placed on shop floors around the city where they learn skills that will provide them a lifetime of employment.

But work is a bummer. So, how are parents and administrators getting students interested? Well, for one, the age-old motivator: money. Students are paid for their work. Some earn up to $35,000 while in the program.

If it all sounds too good to be true, one need only speak to 19 year old Izzy, a former OYAP student, who has been an employee of REKO Automation and Machine Tool on Silver Creek Industrial Drive for the past two and a half years.

Izzy sat down with W.E. Manufacture Magazine to talk about her experience in OYAP. When asked how she came by her interest in hands-on work, Izzy replies: “When I was younger I wanted to be a garbage man.” She goes on to explain that her father is “a CNC guy.” He was the one who instilled in her a love of learning how things work and how repair machines.

“We would do little home projects,” Izzy remembers. “My dad and brother would bring home tractors and fix them up. We repaired the weed whipper when it stopped working. We built bird houses, too, and spice racks for my Mom.” These were no idle afternoon ventures, but serious endeavors that usually began with creating a blue print of the project.

“My dad wanted to show me how things went from ideas, to drawings, to actual assembled objects.”

In an age of social media, where many other girls her age were perfecting their selfie poses and text messaging shorthand, this held a tween girl’s interest?

“I am a county girl,” Izzy says with a shrug. “I wanted to know how to make my own things.”

So, when she entered Belle River District High School, Machine Shop was her go-to class.

“I wanted my whole day to be Machine Shop,” Izzy recalls, “but the course was called ‘Exploring Technology’, so students did all the shop classes: construction, auto, blue print and then machine shop.”

In Grade 10, students are allowed to focus on an area of interest, so Izzy headed straight for Machine Shop.

Her first project was a ball peen hammer. “It was tricky at first because there are different angles in it,” Izzy says. “It was hard to get the machine to cut those angles.” I’m confused. I thought CNC machines had the precision of Leonardo DaVinci.

“We didn’t use computers,” Izzy explains. “We did everything by hand on lathes and mills.”

Oh. The project in Grade 11 was making a cannon barrel and carriage. This, too, was created old-school. “You have to make sure you have the right cutting tools,” Izzy says, “the correct speeds and feeds. Feed the machine too fast and your part gets heat-treated. Feed it too slowly and you may chip the cutter, and dull it faster. We did all the math on paper, plotting the angles, using trigonometry and algebra.”

It was her Grade 10 shop teacher who suggested Izzy go to “Build a Dream” held at the Ciociaro Club, which “spotlights exciting career opportunities that fall under five pillars: skilled trades, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), emergency response, entrepreneurship, and advancing women in society” according to the event website.

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It was at Build a Dream that Izzy first heard about OYAP. What does OYAP actually involve?

“In Grade eleven, there are two machine shop classes, then there are Math and English classes,” Izzy says. “In the second semester of Grade eleven, you start at your placement. They put me at REKO, and I worked there through the summer and first semester of Grade twelve.”

What was her first impression of REKO? “It is huge!” Izzy laughs. “Everyone was friendly. I was the only girl on the shop floor.

Now, everybody is like my ‘work dads’.”

Her first job in the plant was working a 5-axis CNC machine.

“They also moved me around, doing some dirty jobs. I was sent over to Second Bay, the mold division, to deburr plates and tap holes. Then I was put in production for a while, working at one machine, loading engine blocks.”

How long did it take for her to feel comfortable in her new surroundings?

“A few weeks,” she says. “I just adapted.

Everyone got used to my sarcasm, so it worked out.”

And the cash I’ve heard students earning are for real?

“Yes,” Izzy says, who has already earned enough to own her own car.

It’s clear that money has not been Izzy’s only consideration on her career path. She was thinking long-term when she got into OYAP. What advice does she have for students considering OYAP as an option?

“Just try it,” she says. “It’s worth looking at it because there is so much variety.

Even at my shop, they have a whole bunch of departments: tool and die designer (prototyping molds). There’s welding, automation, robot programming, building the cells, engineering. Or, if you’re not interested in being on a shop floor, you can do a co-op at a hair salon. There are so many different directions.”

Now that Izzy has found her career path, what are her future plans?

“I want to learn every machine in the shop,” she says. “My boss knows how each machine works, so I want to work my way up to having that knowledge.”

Does Izzy still work on home projects with her father?

“I don’t have much time, but we now have a lot more to talk about. He gives fatherly advice about work. My mom just listens and nods.”

For more information about OYAP, visit https://oyap.com/ W.E.

ENHANCED OYAP WHAT IS ENHANCED OYAP?

A 2-year program with a focus on a particular trade.

BENEFITS OF THE ENHANCED OYAP PROGRAM

• Become a Registered Apprentice. Hours/competencies count towards apprenticeship requirements • Earn 8 Co-op credits • Graduate with an Ontario Secondary School Diploma • Begin a career, not a job • Possible tax/tool credits and rebates

THE OYAP 2-YEAR TIMETABLE GRADE 11

GRADE 12

In the 2019–2020 school year, 'Enhanced' OYAP programs are available in the following trades, at the following locations: AUTO SERVICE: Western SS, Kingsville DHS, Riverside SS AUTO BODY: Western SS COOK/ASSISTANT COOK: Western SS, Westview Freedom Academy, Leamington DHS HAIRSTYLING: Western SS, Herman Academy PRECISION METAL CUTTING: Belle River DHS, General Amherst HS, W.F. Herman Academy, Sandwich.

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Our OYAP and SHSM Manufacturing students

ARE GOING TO MEET YOUR SPECS! THESE STUDENTS ARE: Completing multiple Manufacturing Technology courses First aid / CPR certified Health and safety aware Learning in industry settings

MOST ARE TRAINED IN: Working at heights Hoisting and rigging Lockout/tagout Forklift CAD/CAM Other sector-relevant

We are eager to partner with you so that our graduates meet your industry needs.

CONTACT US TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW YOU CAN BE INVOLVED Angela Ciarlariello-Bondy

Krysta Brosseau

OYAP/Cooperative Education Consultant 519 255 3200 ext. 10367 Angela.ciarlariello-bondy@publicboard.ca

SHSM Teacher Consultant 519 255 3200 ext. 10333 Krysta.brosseau@publicboard.ca