Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, if you asked the average person if they knew what the “supply chain” was, you’d likely have received a bunch of vague answers.
It turns out it’s important enough that when it’s not working properly, it can cause global inflation.
That’s why Supply Chain Manitoba is working hard to get more small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to become more aware of the management of their own supply chains.
With a provincial economy that overwhelmingly relies on SMEs, sector councils in Manitoba play an outsized role in ensuring some semblance of ongoing stability and job creation continuity.
In 2012, New Media Manitoba, which supports the interactive digital media (IDM) industry in the province, hired a consulting firm with sector expertise to survey the local industry.
At the time, it was determined there were 680 full-time equivalent workers in that field, generating about $39 million towards the provincial GDP.
That hardly sounds like enough even to be characterized as its own commercial sector, but IDM — or, let’s just say video gaming — was already a major, growing, international industry.
The thinking at the time was such work can be done anywhere in the world — the only natural resource required is human resource — and Winnipeggers are no different than anyone anywhere else when it comes to an affinity for digital gaming.
Fast forward 10 years, and there are now 5,000 full-time jobs being filled by IDM workers in Manitoba, generating close to $400 million in GDP.
“The industry has shown impressive resilience through all of it. Companies in our latest survey include new entrants, but a lot of companies from the original base have scaled up. Some do work for hire and many also produce their own intellectual property. There’s quite an array of companies we have in the sector now. It’s quite exciting,” said New Media Manitoba executive director Louie Ghiz.
It is not hard to imagine that without NMM some of those creative techies with ambition and resolve might have wandered off to find the proverbial greener pastures. Now, Winnipeg is the only place in mid-western North America that is an authorized training centre for the powerful video game development platform Unreal Engine.
NMM has leveraged that status and expertise into the establishment of a $4.5-million virtual production studio in downtown Winnipeg.
Real-time filming of actors using virtual production technology with special effects already in place is a major trend in film and television production. There are plenty of other virtual production facilities around the world and the commercial facilities are typically much larger, but there will soon be a well-trained crew in Winnipeg.
NMM, along with On Screen Manitoba (NMM’s counterpart in the film/TV production industry), are co-presenting a virtual production training program that will bring together all the major players in the business early next year.
Ghiz said there are talks taking place that could lead to the construction of one of those larger commercial virtual production screens in Winnipeg.
Large, one-day conferences are also being held this week by two other sector councils, Manitoba Environmental Industries Association (MEIA) and the Manitoba Construction Sector Council (MCSC), focused on clean tech and women in trades, respectively.
Carol Paul, executive director of the MCSC, has long been an advocate for more women in the construction industry — a scenario that makes plenty of sense when you consider the sector’s chronic dearth of skilled workers. But it has taken concerted efforts to breech the cultural barrier.
Not so long ago, it was almost as if the MEIA was conceptual, as opposed to representing a real industrial sector. Now there are dozens of innovative companies engaged in developing technologies to fight climate change.
That kind of work is taking place all over the world and it could be argued Manitoba companies needed a supportive organization, if only to overcome the hubris we might have felt in this province owing to bountiful, cheap, clean hydroelectricity.
Last week, the province announced more than $800,000 to support specialized training programs delivered by sector council collaborations, including NMM/On Screen Manitoba’s high-level virtual production courses.
In addition, MEIA, MCSC, Manitoba Trucking Association and Supply Chain Manitoba are working together in a training and workforce development strategy for waste management facility workers. Rick Reid, executive director of Supply Chain Manitoba, said additional funding for specific and nuanced training — in this case, the logistics required to use material already in landfills and to divert materials from entering landfills — makes a big difference.
“It allows us to deliver training to people we wouldn’t otherwise be able to do because it would not have been financially viable for us to do,” said Reid. “It allows us to offer things where there would not have been a critical mass and help people who otherwise have been left to their own devices.”
By: Martin Cash | [email protected]
Posted: Winnipeg Free Press | 7:12 PM CST Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024
