Advanced Manufacturing: Ganong Bros.

Описание: Text:

Advanced Manufacturing in Atlantic Canada
Evolving one step at a time
Staying competitive

Narrator:

Ganong Bros. in St. Stephen is the oldest chocolate and candy company in Canada.

This is a company that still takes great pride in its hand-dipped chocolates and original candy Chicken Bones, but also recognizes the need for more automated processes in order to stay on top of its game in a competitive market.

Bryana Ganong, President & CEO:

The company has evolved and adapted a lot over the generations, over its 145 years and changed a lot.

The products we make, some of them are the same and some of them are very different and we've evolved from a manufacturing perspective as well from being all handmade to being much more automated.

My brother likes to say that it's kind of like walking through confectionary history.

Narrator:

It's not easy to change a mindset that has been close to 150 years in the making.

Text on screen:

1883, Ganong candy makers
Five generations of Ganongs

Narrator:

As Ganong changes its processes, its people are adapting as well.

Bryana Ganong, President & CEO:

Because we're challenged from being able to attract and retain enough employees to support our growth, so our goal right now is to really assess our business, reduce the complexity of it and really evolve the business from being less manual and labour-intensive to being more automated over time.

Last year, we installed a new piece of equipment and it was really nice to see how excited the employees were about this because they saw the benefit and they saw how it was helping the business.

It's really about working with our employees to try to transition them in their career path from less skilled work, to more skilled work.

It's not about reducing positions; it's really about supporting our business to grow so that we can have the scale to continue to be able to compete.

Narrator:

Ganong’s approach is to continue to build on the lessons they've learned and move at a pace that's comfortable for both them and their employees.

Bryana Ganong, President & CEO:

For us, it's been really important just to try to take one step at a time, as opposed to trying to do everything all at once.

Because we're a 145 year-old business the mindset of adaptability and continuously changing has been one that we've had for many generations and we need to continue to look at that and we need to continue to challenge ourselves and make sure that we're looking at ways to modernize and adapt to ensure that we can continue to be competitive and be here for another 145 years.