A lot of effort is spent by our staff to show the benefits of the casting process to casting purchasers and designers. Castings are often behind the scenes, and part of our job is to connect the behind-the-scenes part with the end-result. Metalcasting facilities do the same with their customers and prospective customers.

But how often do you market your casting process to your employees? They are the ones making the part. Do they know what it’s for? Do they know why it is being cast rather than produced in another manufacturing process? Maybe that elevator part isn’t seen by office workers going to the 10th floor, but the molder in the casting facility will know it was partly due to his effort that the elevator car has the ability to stop safely at the correct floor.

In the past couple of weeks, the editors here have visited metalcasting facilities in Ohio, Ontario and Arizona. Each facility communicates with its employees in various ways, whether it is through weekly meetings or television feeds in the break rooms with company announcements. These avenues are prime opportunities to show your employees how a casting will be used in the real world.

The metalcasting business is full of fire, smoke and sparks, which makes for good pictures but doesn’t necessarily paint the industry in a good light, particularly when it is covered in the media. However, many metalcasting facilities do a good job of using their local newspapers to show a different side of what they do.

Pennsylvanian metalcaster John Wright Co., part of Donsco Inc., is a prime example. The company is the top business story today on Lancaster Online,an online news source from several newspapers in the Lancaster, Pa., area. The article extols Wright Co.’s efforts to be environmentally-friendly, focusing on sand and metal recycling, the company’s conversion to electric furnaces, and the valuable products produced on its shop floor.

Going green is a sexy article topic right now, and metalcasters have been recycling from the beginning. Now’s a great time to lift the dark and smoky veil on the industry to reveal a lean, modern business producing complex, engineered parts.

The word innovation gets tossed around a lot in business, but keeping innovation in focus is difficult when you’re in the day-to-day grind of meeting customer orders. The result is that a majority of a company’s innovation comes from its suppliers, but if you’re relying on your suppliers to provide your only source of innovation, you’re missing the pearl in a bag of marbles.

A press release that came across our desks earlier this week reminded the editorial staff that many of the best innovations come from people within an organization. In the release, L A Aluminum Co. recognized one of its employees, Scott Solomon, for originating, creating and implementing a device that allows a molding operator to install multiple threaded steel inserts into a mold simultaneously. Previously, each insert was place in the mold one at a time, forcing the operator to expose himself to an 800F mold for several minutes while placing between 5 and 36 inserts. The line produces castings on fuel cells for military and commercial use, accounting for 15-20% of the company’s annual sales. The new device improved the efficiency of that line by 30%.

L A Aluminum awarded its employee with $500 and proudly sent the word out about the accomplishment.

How are you encouraging your employees to innovate?

Actor John Ratzenberger, best known as the mailman from Cheers, has made American manufacturing his cause. He tours the nation promoting American manufacturing and started a foundation for kids encouraging them to consider careers in building and inventing things. What sparked his passion for saving this sector of the nation’s economy? He visited its backbone. As host of Discovery Channel’s How It’s Made , Ratzenberger has toured machine shops, metalcasting facilities, fabricators, plastic molders, and assembly plants. Through discussions with their owners, he’s learned the capabilities of the facilities and the issues that many of them face to keep afloat.

We often stress the importance of opening your doors to your representatives in Congress. But as Ratzenberger shows, it really is a powerful way to make public officials understand the position of the American metalcasting industry. Invite them to your facility. Explain the main challenges you face. Showcase the quality of your product and the steps you’re making to improve your process. Explain how the castings will be used in their applications. Tell them where you’re investing into the facility—new equipment, EPA and OSHA compliance, employee training, etc. Introduce them to the workers on the shop floor and the engineers in the lab. And partner with nearby metalcasting facilities to give your local representatives access to a facility at regular intervals, so you can drive your message home.