Building Manitoba Together: How Bockstael Construction is building up Manitoba’s economy one project at a time. 

Within every organization, there are always people who have managed to find some new and creative way to challenge the status quo. The old processes become something of the past, and everyone benefits from the new ideas that these innovators bring to the table. For years, the North Forge Fabrication Lab has acted as an extension of the workplace for members in the field of carpentry and construction, allowing them to create customized work without having to purchase the expensive equipment themselves. This allows for continuous improvement of processes, creativity, and innovation, in the fields of carpentry and construction. Access to expensive tools and equipment allows these intrapreneurs to take their new ideas back to their employers, where they can focus on improving their job sites. Such was the case with Morgan Fiks, a carpenter at Bockstael Construction.

After hearing of Morgan’s involvement at the North Forge Fabrication Lab, Bockstael took an immediate interest in the North Forge Fabrication Lab as it promoted two of the company’s core values; focusing on continuous improvement to help businesses create a lean culture, and building strong community ties between the construction industry and the entrepreneurial community. 

Lean culture is a management philosophy that is tough on processes and easy on people. It puts innovation and continuous improvement as a top priority and ripples those changes throughout the organization to save time, resources, and energy. For over 100 years, Bockstael has been using this very philosophy to take on large, complex projects while maintaining stellar customer service. This client-first lean management approach allows the company to take on complex problems and complete them both on time and on budget. “Our partnership with North Forge helps us keep continuous improvement in focus and gives our employees a space to work on innovative projects with current tools and technology,” says Alain MacNair, Construction Manager at Bockstael. 

Bockstael took this innovative approach to their project management and brought it back to the North Forge Fabrication Lab, where their employees were submerged in a creative environment which encouraged them to think up new solutions to typical worksite problems. This new addition infused a culture of continuous improvement at the Fabrication Lab, which encouraged members to improve their own production processes as well. 

“We’re very happy to support an organization like North Forge that encourages entrepreneurs and makers to innovate and improve their worksites and manufacturing processes,” says Sarah Anderson, Business Development Manager at Bockstael. “It’s ingenuity and hard work that our company was founded on, and we want to continue to support that for other entrepreneurs in Manitoba.”

Bockstael Construction’s dedication to refining its processes is cultivating a strong culture of innovation and continuous improvement in Manitoba that is bound to boost the province’s economy in the coming years!

To learn more about Bockstael Construction, click here.