Mary Ingman joins Impact Dakota a Senior Business Advisor with a focus on Supply Chain Optimization.

Mary has held roles as process engineer, quality manager and program manager as a supplier to aerospace companies to include commercial aircraft and military.  In addition, she has served as Quality Improvement Manager and Manager of Supplier Development for steel fabrication facilities. She's certified in Lean and has vast experience in helping companies on their continuous improvement journeys. 

The Greater North Dakota Chamber (GNDC) and Impact Dakota are excited to announce their inaugural list of FACES OF MANUFACTURING in North Dakota. Impact Dakota and GNDC partnered to showcase a workforce in an industry that continues to evolve with technology advances and demand.

The Faces of Manufacturing list of 10 individuals – including two honorable mentions, features workforce engaged in every level of manufacturing. Additionally, honorees span different parts of the state and come from various backgrounds.

Lean Enterprise High Performance Manufacturing Training

The Impact Dakota LEHPM training helps businesses achieve higher profitability by building internal capability and capacity to improve QUALITY, COST, and DELIVERY. This training is based on the Lean Enterprise Certification (LECP) body of knowledge and uses standards developed and judged by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) in partnership with Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) and the Shingo Institute. 

Next Course begins September 19th in Dickinson! 

Lean 101 Workshops

During this one-day Lean overview, you will learn about the Top 10 Lean Tools, C4/A3 Idea Generation, Problem Solving, and participate in a Lego simulation. 

Upcoming Sessions: September 27 (Dickinson), November 16

BASICS OF HACCP

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) training is required by USDA-FSIS for it’s inspected facilities and many food manufacturers and wholesalers require their suppliers and vendors to have a working and audited HACCP plan.

August 10-11 • Fargo

In these training sessions, participants will gain the knowledge and skills needed to audit your company’s quality system to the ISO9001 and/or AS9100 standards, the requirements, auditing principles, how to establish an audit program, gather objective evidence, and prepare audit conclusions. In addition to the lecture, participants will get to do experiential activities and gain hands-on auditing practice. There will be ample time throughout the training for questions and answers.

September 20-21 • ISO9001:2015 is 1-1/2 days | AS9100D is 2 days

At your production facility, does it sometimes feel like you are going against the current, being pushed downstream out of control, or up a creek without a paddle? You are not alone!

Where are the workers? Is a common question I hear from many manufacturers. I say ‘many North Dakota Manufacturers’ because not all manufacturers are in the same camp on this!!

Click Here to read this article written by Impact Dakota CEO/President, Jodie Mjoen. 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is conducting a survey related to Automation in Manufacturing for its Measurement Science for Manufacturing Robotics (MSMR) program. The NIST MSMR program regularly reaches out to US industry stakeholders to ensure the program goals are aligned with industry needs, and the research outputs are appropriately targeted to benefit US manufacturers.

We invite you to participate in a short (5-10 minute) survey that attempts to capture how your company uses manufacturing technologies, and the opportunities and challenges faced during normal operations. The survey consists of several multiple-choice questions, and has fields at the end for written responses. Results of the survey will be collated, and NIST will issue a publicly available report.

Participation in this survey is completely voluntary, and there is no obligation to answer all questions.  No personal- or business-identifiable information will be collected. The survey will be closed on August 31, 2023, or after we have received 2,000 responses.

We thank you for your participation. If you have any questions, please contact us at SMEAutomationSurvey@nist.gov.

“We eliminated that source of variation.” It was a simple and almost nonchalant statement from our Senior Quality Leader here at KMM in a meeting a few weeks ago, but a statement that conveyed a powerful message: we completely removed one source of opportunity for defect. This was a small but important step towards Quality Excellence.

The term, “Quality Excellence” is going to have a different meaning for every industry and every company. For us at KMM in the aerospace electronics industry, Quality Excellence means the pursuit and sustainment of zero defects to our external customers. Walking this back, it really means zero defects in all internal materials and processes. 

Click Here to read this article written by Impact Dakota Board of Directors member Erika Bauer, President of Operations, Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing, Inc.

Think of your business as a vehicle. You need to care for and maintain the different components to keep it reliably running. The business optimization program will tune your business engine. Our focus is on the following 6 areas, or cylinders:

Please contact Gordon if you have any questions, or if you would like to take action on the Business Excellence Optimization offering. Click here to schedule your no-cost assessment. 

Impact Dakota is partnering with NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP) and our nationwide network of 50 other MEP Centers across the U.S. and Puerto Rico to help solve supply chain gaps encountered by manufacturers, government entities, and critical service providers. 

DO YOU HAVE A GAP? ARE YOU ABLE TO FILL A GAP?

— Open Opportunities —