Are you looking to boost your business’s efficiency and output?
A call to Kevin Erickson might be in order.
Erickson is technical director of operational excellence with Productivity Alberta — a private, not-for-profit corporation that helps small-to-medium-sized enterprises become more productive, competitive and profitable. He’s also one of the first Productivity Alberta staff members to be based outside of Edmonton.
With a resume of improvement projects in the downstream petroleum industry, the Red Deer resident applied for a position with Productivity Alberta, expecting to land a job in Edmonton. Instead, he was allowed to work in Central Alberta.
“The corridor is where most of our demand comes from,” he explained, adding that Productivity Alberta now also has a staff member in Calgary.
“Central Alberta is not only the heart of our province; it’s also at the heart of Alberta’s manufacturing and construction industries.”
Founded in 2008 as a Government of Alberta service for small-to-medium-sized enterprises, Productivity Alberta was privatized two years ago.
It’s now governed by a board comprised of industry leaders, and operates on a fee-for-service basis with some funding from the province and Western Economic Diversification Canada.
Its programming includes custom projects, group or customized workshops, one-on-one training and coaching, web tools and assessments, and other training.
In addition to operational productivity improvement, these focus on such areas as supply-chain management and IT adoption, said Erickson.
In the case of Central Alberta, these services were previously delivered from Edmonton, he said.
Now Erickson conducts much of the training, although resources from Edmonton are still available when needed.
“There’s no particular industry that we target specifically, but having said that, manufacturing is an industry that often finds a really good fit,” he said of Productivity Alberta’s services.
“I’ve applied that same improvement methodology to back-office functions just the same as manufacturing,” added Erickson.
Productivity Alberta perform free site assessments, which can provide prospective clients with an idea of where the productivity of their operation might be improved.
Erickson has an MBA in executive management and been trained in Six Sigma and business process improvement.
Productivity Alberta’s website is www.productivityalberta.ca. Erickson can be contacted at kevin@productivityalberta.ca or 587-877-1072.
hrichards@www.reddeeradvocate.com