The deadline is this Friday, June 30th! Make sure to get your nominations in before it's too late. 

Thank you to our Premier Sponsor:

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 July 11th in Fargo! 

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: July 26th - Devils Lake

PREVENTIVE CONTROLS FOR HUMAN FOOD - PCQI

One of the most significant new FDA rules is the Preventive Controls for Human Food rule. This rule states that every human food manufacturer, except for the very smallest who will have modified requirements, must have somebody on staff who has completed a Preventive Controls for Human Food class.

July 17-19 • Minot

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

Launched annually on the first Friday in October, MFG Day helps show the reality of modern manufacturing careers by encouraging manufacturing companies to open their doors to students, parents, teachers and community leaders. 

Impact Dakota has limited funds available to organizations to assist with Manufacturing Day activities in North Dakota. Organizations may apply for funds up to $1,500. The funds will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. Application deadline is September 15th

Small businesses are the backbone of the North Dakota economy representing 98.8% of the organizations in our state. That’s 75,427 small businesses employing 196,368 North Dakotans, or 56.7% of our work force.

And by small, I mean small. We have 423 North Dakota manufacturers employing between 1 and 19 people. Just because they are small does not mean they don’t add value. They are often the specialized vendors in the supply chain of a larger manufacturer.

Click Here to read this article written by Impact Dakota Board of Directors member Michael Gallagher.

Workforce was a key topic of discussion this legislative session as several solutions to workforce shortages were examined. One area of focus related to apprenticeships.  Apprenticeships allow an employer to partner with a training provider and customize their training programming to meet their specific needs.

There were two bills this session relating to apprenticeships that GNDC was excited to see passed.

Click Here to read full article. 

Update provided by Andrea Pfennig, Director of Government Affairs

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 —