Manufacturing in Manitoba

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS - THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2018 5 APPRENTICESHIP A Smart Investment. AMBITION, WILLINGNESS TO LEARN AND HARD WORK got you where you are today. Now, you can build on these qualities – and build your business – by hiring and training apprentices. A motivated and skilled workforce goes a long way towards ensuring your competitive advantage and maintaining a healthy bottom line. Apprentices' knowledge and skills – coupled with the on-the-job training – make for a profitable and smart investment for your business. For more information on apprenticeship in Manitoba visit our website at: manitoba.ca/tradecareers or call 1-877-97-TRADE INNOVATION DRIVES CHANGE NEW FLYER INDUSTRIES LEADS ELECTRIC CHARGE By Bob Armstrong for the Free Press The future of commuting is being built, one vehicle at a time, at a Winnipeg-based company that has been getting people from point A to point B for more than 80 years. New Flyer Industries employs roughly 3,000 people in Winnipeg, producing transit buses and highway coaches and developing new products to meet demands for energy efficiency, comfort and convenience. When it comes to innovation, most people focus on the end product — such as an electric bus or a new-style more accessible coach, but there's more to innovation than the product. "Innovation is what you build," notes CEO Paul Soubry, "but it's also how you build." The company has been aggressive in adopting LEAN manufacturing, including changing its production lines, reducing parts inventories and optimizing its facilities. "That takes a back seat when people think about innovation, but it has a huge impact on your efficiency." NFI grew out of a Winnipeg bus-making company founded in 1930. In 2015, it bought Motor Coach Industries, founded in 1933, and made it a subsidiary. Today, both are redefining their industry. NFI is the largest supplier of electric transit buses in North America. It currently has five electric buses in a pilot program in Manhattan in which the buses receive an electric charge every one to two hours. In Winnipeg, the 20 (Academy/Watt) Winnipeg Transit route has electric buses from NFI that are topped up with chargers located at the end of the route near the James Richardson Airport. Last fall, MCI unveiled a new version of its industry- leading commuter coach designed to be more accessible for people with mobility challenges. The new coach features a low-level vestibule so a passenger using a wheelchair or walker can enter and exit easily. The company is also now producing an electric version of the commuter coach. Commuter coaches are increasingly popular with large employers that offer their own transportation for employees. Soubry says the San Francisco area has some 680 commuter coaches running each day to major employers. Electric commuter coaches and transit buses make a lot of sense, he notes. Since they have fixed routes and are parked every night, battery charging can be incorporated in daily schedules. As with other kinds of electrical vehicles, progress in battery life and cost is expected to accelerate adoption of electric propulsion. Some of New Flyer's past innovations are now the everyday standard in the industry. The company was the first to introduce low-floor buses that allow riders with walkers, wheelchairs and baby strollers to board easily. Now, notes Soubry, "there are no makers of high- floor buses left in North America." The company also works to integrate a large number of technologies, building buses that run on diesel, natural gas, hybrid technology and electricity all on the same platform. That allows transit departments to move toward greener technology without needing to retool all of their maintenance operations at once. The move to zero emission buses in North America is occurring gradually. Last year, bus builders delivered 6,000 transit buses to customers (of which NFI built 43 per cent). Of those 6,000, 350 were zero-emission vehicles. That proportion will grow over time, but an entire infrastructure of charging stations will need to be built before transit operators can get close to 100 per cent electric vehicles. Plus, the size of transit fleets and the lifespan of buses mean that no operator is going to convert its entire fleet at once. "Imagine if you have two garages and 500 buses," Soubry says. "The money it would take to electrify the whole system would be huge." Currently, an electric bus costs about $325,000 more than a diesel bus, but results in lifetime fuel and maintenance savings of about $400,000. With 84,000 transit buses on the road in North America, and an average lifespan of 12 years per bus, meeting goals for reducing carbon footprints in transit will be gradual. Many cities are setting a goal of having a fully electric transit fleet by 2040. "It's really easy to say, 'Let's do this tomorrow,' but there's an economics reality and a standards reality." A key step in encouraging more electric buses will be standardizing charging systems so that they will work with all kinds of buses. NFI is working with other players in the industry and hopes that such a standard will be in place by next year. Despite its deep roots and large workforce in Winnipeg, NFI has organized its operations to meet Buy American rules for selling to U.S. transit entities. With most of its 32 facilities in the U.S. and 51 per cent of its 6,000 employees in that country, the company currently meets the standard that 65 per cent (70 per cent by 2020) of content on buses sold in the U.S. must originate there. Given the size of the U.S. market, it's no surprise that the bulk of the company's revenue — some 90 per cent — comes from the U.S. Although the company has a great deal of production south of the border, it is a major force in Manitoba's economy. Not only are the shop floors at the Transcona bus and Fort Garry motor coach plants busy, much of the engineering and design work that guides development of the company is based here, Soubry says. "If you walk into our New Product Development offices you're going to see a lot of U of M and Red River graduates with their sleeves rolled up." ❙ NEW FLYER INDUSTRIES IS THE LARGEST SUPPLIER OF ELECTRIC TRANSIT BUSES IN NORTH AMERICA. The company is a leader in North America, developing products like New Flyer's Xcelsior electric transit bus (left) and MCI's accessible commuter coach.

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