Archive for April, 2009

We all know that there are times when life at the office can get extremely busy and hectic. Especially right now when times are tough – people are working harder to keep their companies going. And a lot of time, this means that we don’t focus on ourselves at all, which can be dangerous. If we don’t take ourselves, there is the possibility that we will get sick or burnt out and won’t be able to take care of our company down the road.

So what are some quick and easy things that you can do to maintain your health?

1. Get enough sleep. The average adult requires 8-10 hours of sleep per night. If you don’t get enough sleep, your performance will reflect this during the day. Your reaction time goes down, you will feel sluggish, and will have a hard time remembering things. As well, losing sleep on a regular basis will lower you immune system.
2. Snack Smartly. I don’t know about you, but I am personally a stress eater. When I get stressed, the first thing I do is reach for the junk food. There are, however, healthier alternatives: fruits and vegetables, cheese and crackers… if you must grab some junk food, there are chocolate bars and other snack foods that boast less calories.
3. Eat a Well-Balanced Lunch. Packing your own lunch can help with this point. A well-balanced diet will give you the nutrients you need to work your best and to keep illness at bay. Plus, eating fast food can leave you feeling very tired and lethargic afterwards.
4. Drink a lot of Water. Making sure that you are properly hydrated will do wonders for your health – there have been studies done that say drinking a lot of water lowers your chances of a heart attack. It can also get rid of headaches, and will cleanse your system of unwanted toxins.
5. Exercise Regularly. Even if it’s just taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or taking a walk at lunch, exercising will help you stay healthy.
6. Build a Support System. A support system of friends and family away from work can help you out if you’re ever finding that work is getting really stressful.
7. Get the Proper Office Equipment. Ergonomically designed chairs and office equipment will help you avoid body stress and will actually increase your productivity.
8. Keep your Office Clean. Telephones are one of the biggest carrier of germs that could cause you to get ill. It’s easy to imagine where else germs may be hiding in your office. By keeping it clean, you’ll be reducing the risk of getting sick.
9. Wash your Hands. Again, this has to do with germs and keeping yourself from getting sick. Especially when your co-workers are ill – washing your hands will help prevent the spread of germs and disease.
10. Go Outside When Possible. Sitting inside all day isn’t good for your body. The light indoors isn’t proper, and you probably don’t move around as much as you should. Even if it’s just to stand outside for a portion of your lunch break – the vitamin E that you absorb from the sun can help you maintain your health.

Continuous improvement in manufacturing is vital to help our businesses continue to grow and stay competitive in the global market. Have you thought about implementing changes to make your manufacturing process more lean? Are you working towards improving the quality of the product you manufacture? What about reducing a negative impact you may have on our environment? While these are great projects to implement, sometimes we don’t always have the funds available to actually do so.

That’s where the CME SMART Funding Program comes in.

The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters group (CME) created the CME SMART Program with funding provided by the government of Ontario. This program was created to help small to medium sized manufacturers in Ontario improve efficiency and productivity to better compete in the global market.

How do they do this? They help fund projects that implement changes to improve your operational efficiency. These projects could include lean manufacturing and/or design, environmental impact reduction, IT best practices, quality improvement and energy efficiency. These projects should hopefully not just increase your efficiency but would change the way you do business, as well as reduce or eliminate waste (both wasted time and wasted materials) and phase out mistakes and non-value-added activities.

After getting approval from CME for the funding, these projects must be started within 2 months of your notification of selection from the CME, and should not take longer than 6 months to implement.

How much do they fund? The best projects proposed to the CME SMART Program get selected for funding, and you can receive either 50% of your project costs, or $50,000 – whichever is less.

Who is eligible? Companies with 10-500 employees that have their manufacturing operations in Ontario are eligible for the CME SMART Program. These companies would have to have been in operation in Ontario for at least two years.

Northbridge Consultants is a service provider for the CME SMART Program. We can provide you with SMART Assessments and help you implement these programs.

Have you ever wondered how much you would be eligible to claim for the SR&ED program? You may think that you wouldn’t get enough back to justify making the claim in the first place – after all, claiming on your own could take a lot of time just to put the claim together. But you may be surprised by how much you would be eligible for claiming.

We’ve put together a handy SR&ED calculator that will calculate how much you could get back with this program. After filling out a few questions in the SRED calculator, the range that your claim would most likely fall in is e-mailed immediately to you.

Our SR&ED calculator takes into account how many employees work for you, the hours that were spent on SR&ED and the amount that you spent on R&D materials to help calculate your range.

If you’ve ever wondered how much you could qualify for claiming, now is the best time to find out – just head on over to our SR&ED calculator!