Manufacturing Services – Northern Initiatives

Looking to improve product quality, shorten lead times and boost customer satisfaction?

Look into Lean and the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center – Upper Peninsula!

Northern Initiatives as an affiliate of the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center offers direct services to small and medium sized manufacturers to connect them with the best manufacturing practices and technologies available.

At Northern Initiatives our focus is to help you:

Be more responsive to your customer needs
Improve your product quality
Reduce inventory and the costs that go along with it
Shorten lead times
Eliminate and prevent waste
Improve customer responsiveness and satisfaction levels

Industry 4.0 Assessments and Transformation Planning

Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC), Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and Automation Alley are offering a free Industry 4.0 assessment for U.P. Manufacturers as part of its Industry 4.0 Signature Initiative.

The goal is to generate awareness of Industry 4.0 opportunities for manufacturers and connect them with services and resources to prepare for successful technology implementations.

The free Industry 4.0 assessment is a 40-question qualitative and quantitative survey covering:

voice of customer/business

documented processes or standard of work

existing automation applications

The data captured from the survey is input into a matrix that ranks your current environment and your Industry 4.0 readiness. We provide a summary report that highlights areas for improvement and increased efficiency.

Based on your results, MMTC is available to provide a customized transformation plan to help guide your business through Industry 4.0 application implementation.

For more information or to schedule your assessment, contact Kristin Smith.

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Lean Manufacturing

Ready to begin or continue your Lean journey and focus your resources on:

Reduction/Elimination of the 8 common manufacturing wastes.
Process improvement.
Work flow improvement.
5S – Workplace organization
Kaizen Events

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Quality Systems

We leverage expert resources to provide you with a practical, proven approach to the implementation of the ISO 9001. Put our experience in interpreting and applying the standards to work for you.

Whether you need a comprehensive training program, customized on-site consulting, or action plan development we have the resources to help you reach your quality standards.

We can advance your certification objectives and assist you with:

ISO 9001: 2015 Transition
ISO 9001 Management Overview
Quality Auditing to ISO 9001
Employee Awareness of ISO 9001
ISO 9001 Implementation
ISO 9001 Documentation
Implementing ISO 13485

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Training

Northern Initiatives offers professional development training and coaching for leaders and teams focusing on improving workplace performance through improved interaction among your workforce.

Training Topics:

Leadership/ Supervisory Skills
Team Skills
Train-the-Trainer
Facilitator Skills
Company specific training

Contact Kristin Smith at ksmith@northerninitiatives.org or (715) 889-0182

For over 20 years, MMTC- Upper Peninsula has delivered high quality manufacturing and technical support to small / medium-sized manufacturers across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.