When I began working in the foundry industry, it never occurred to me that I might one day be President of an association such as the Casting Industry Suppliers Association. Of course, neither did I ever imagine I would be its President twice over. One reason that I have been glad to return to this post is that I realize how important professional and technical societies are to our industry. Being president of CISA has given me the opportunity to witness, first-hand, how associations such as CISA have fostered important personal relationships and enabled an exceptional camaraderie to develop among my peers. In fact, the relationships I have formed are truly a feeling of family.
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This feeling of family perfectly describes how foundry suppliers relate to their customers. Just as successful metalcasting companies make it their business to understand their customers’ needs, and fulfill those needs with quality castings, those of us who supply those foundries and diecasters treat our customers no differently.
CISA members’ companies prefer to partner with customers and work together with them to enhance their competitiveness.
As foundry suppliers, facing the needs of our customers, we certainly have been able to adopt changes and breakthrough innovations that have come as the result of being a supplier base. Many of these improvements and innovations have come from CISA companies. To understand why this is so, one must simply read the CISA mission statement: To support member companies in order to facilitate growth and prosperity by providing information, education and business opportunities, and by interfacing with other industry associations around the world to benefit the Casting Industry while fostering rewarding professional and business relationships. One may interpret this to mean that CISA members can serve themselves best by serving their customers first.
It is true that CISA members range from suppliers of machinery, consumable products, foundry engineering, raw metals, and a vast array of metalcasting products. However, the reason our association exist is to serve you, the metalcasting customers.
To close, on behalf of all CISA member companies, I want to thank our customers for their business and support throughout the past few years of turmoil in our great industry. If you are reading this as a supplier to the metalcasting industry and are not a CISA member we urge you to join our exceptional group.
George W. Whitehead
President, Casting Industry Suppliers Assn.