THE ROAD AHEAD
Windsor region poised to be leader in automotive innovation
The Windsor region is at a crossroads of remaining a passenger in a legacy industry or becoming a leader helping to define a newage auto industry from the driver’s seat.
“We need to be part of the discussion at the front end rather than at the back end,” said Susan Anzolin, executive director of the Institute for Border Logistics and Security.
“We’re starting to see a lot of (automakers) subcontract some of their research and development to smaller companies. That’s where we think we need to do a better job here in Windsor Essex.
“Innovation is in our DNA. Don’t wait until an OEM tells you what they want to do.”
Shelley Fellows, chair of Automate Canada, feels the area’s future is bright knowing what automakers are demanding of suppliers. “The automakers have made it incumbent that their suppliers embrace Industry 4.0 technology everywhere in their operations,” Fellows said.
“If they don’t, the automakers have told them don’t expect to do business with us. That’s exactly what most of us in Automate are supplying — the software, robotics, technology and equipment on which Industry 4.0 is built.
“Many of our members are in Windsor and Essex. That cluster gives me a very warm and fuzzy feeling about our area’s future.”
Founded just over a year ago, Automate Canada is the national voice representing automation-related companies.
With nearly 300 automation firms in the Windsor region, the area was the natural home for the organization.
Fellows said southern Ontario boasts a unique advantage in North America when you look at a mapping of where the clusters for automotive and the new technologies represented by automation, IT and software are located.
“The only place those two clusters overlap in North America is Windsor and southern Ontario,” Fellows said. “That bodes well for our future.”
Plugging the North American Industry Classification codes into the Canada Cluster Mapping Tool reveals Windsor Essex has a rating of 12.0 for its collection of traditional automotive firms. A region is deemed to have a cluster if it scores 1.0 or higher.
“Windsor Essex has the highest concentration of any cluster (of any kind) in Canada,” Anzolin said.
However, the automotive industry is like a black hole sucking previously unrelated sectors into its sphere as it transforms itself.
Now defined as automotive or tech mobility, it includes everything related to electrification, connectedness, ride sharing, automation and autonomous vehicles.
“When we recalculated the cluster value using the mobility definition we’re 2.0,” Anzolin said. “That’s still 50 per cent higher than any other Canadian city.
“Everybody knows us as the auto capital of Canada, but the stats show we also have real assets in terms of automotive technologies.”
According to Statistics Canada, in 2018 the Windsor area accounted for nearly $36 billion in total trade. It ranked only behind Canada’s urban giants in Toronto, Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver despite having a fraction of those region’s populations.
With Kitchener-waterloo-cambridge’s tech sector ($33.7 billion in total trade) next in the rankings, it provides a real-dollar evaluation of southern Ontario’s overlapping clusters.
Anzolin said the Windsor region has sold itself short in sharing that story and leveraging its advantages. She said it’s vital that we display a more entrepreneurial spirit in building on our foundation.
“We have the lowest entrepreneurship rate in southern Ontario and the lowest rate amongst women in Ontario,” said Anzolin, former director general for Innovation and Economic Development for southern Ontario for the federal government. “If you don’t have a dynamic culture of entrepreneurship you kind of stagnate your economy.”
However, Anzolin said she’s encouraged by what’s she seeing from local industry. “I’ve never seen more of an appetite for new technology,” Anzolin said. “Local companies are really open-minded to trying new things.”
Doug Sartori, founder of Parallel 42 Systems and a member of the board of directors of Workforce Windsor Essex, is working with several automotive related clients and sees opportunities in improving the manufacturing process but also in adding value to the product.
“Where we’re doing well in technology is in the manufacturing processes,” Sartori said. “Think of Radix, AIS, Brave Controls, Data Realm, these are companies, tech companies, focused on the manufacturing process.
“It may be that some of our hightech companies are more invested in software than they think they are.”
Many local firms have made the transition to operations that are more advanced in some instances than even those used by the automakers. One such area is in the use and creation of collaborative robots designed to work alongside employees. Currently their use is restricted by some OEMS because they’re still developing their own protocols on their deployment.
In addition, some of the industry’s newest and most sophisticated vehicles have either had parts tested here or have Windsor-manufactured bones in their bodies.
Vehicles such as Ford’s new electric Mustang Mach-e, Tesla products and GM’S new Corvette all share some local DNA.
Sartori said where the region can expand into new territory is in advancing the technologies expected to be commonplace over the next decade. “We as a community should be looking at technologies that are emerging in the next five to 10 years rather than technologies that are becoming more mature now,” said Sartori, singling out the development of 5G networks as an area where Windsor can get some “skin in the game.”
“The reason for that, we need to have some growth in our (tech) industry and we need to become a little more mature.”
Sartori said the region’s challenge is its talent pipeline and retention. Local post-secondary institutions are producing talented people, but too many leave for better and higher-paying opportunities. “There’s over 1,000 technology workers who cross the border every day to work in Detroit,” Sartori said. “The trick is to get some of that back.”
Sartori said he’s encouraged that he’s seeing experienced tech talent, the people this region needs, arriving in town in the past two years. “There are folks who want to invest in town,” Sartori said. “Five years ago you didn’t see that, but you are seeing that today. The ingredients are coming together.”
The other ingredients that bode well for area’s automotive future are location, Canada’s immigration policy, education, affordability, near-shoring opportunities and the depth of automotive experience already here.
Wetech Alliance Ceo/president Yvonne Pilon said U.S. organizations are recognizing our inherent
That’s exactly what most of us in Automate are supplying — the software, robotics, technology and equipment on which Industry 4.0 is built.
SHELLEY FELLOWS, Chair of Automate Canada, on technology demanded by automakers
advantages and reaching out to include us in their efforts to find solutions — for traditional automotive problems and more.
For example, the city of Windsor was asked by Detroit and Ann Arbor to join a World Economic Forum pilot project on mobility solutions focusing on the health care sector.
General Motors reached out to Wetech Alliance to encourage Canadian participation in a Fintech Challenge focused on block chain in the area of payments.
“We have to build out and mirror what’s happening in the U.S.” said Pilon, also on the board of directors of the Technology Councils of North America. “They (U.S. organizations) want to work with us.”
Pilon said our education system and ability to draw international students is a natural place to start building that platform.
With Ontario’s Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network designating Windsor as one of its six regional technology development sites, with a focus on cybersecurity and cross-border technologies, Pilon sees opportunity.
“We’re building out an uniqueness,” Pilon said. “What does Windsor want its brand to be?”
Sartori believes the region should take it a step further in marketing the area as a near-shoring destination. While the obvious focus is to target U.S. firms struggling to get the talent they need, local economic agencies are also selling the city’s near-shoring potential for the U.S. market to European and Asian manufacturers.
“I’d like to see the city with feet on the street marketing ourselves in Detroit.”