HUGH KIND President — Casting Industry Suppliers Assn. and Vice President Marketing and Technology, Foseco Metallurgical Inc.
It is my privilege and pleasure to communicate with you as the current president of the Casting Industry Suppliers Association (CISA). For more than 10 years, the member companies of CISA have worked with the staff of FOUNDRY Management & Technology to be the exclusive sponsors of one issue every year. It is an effective and invaluable way in which CISA's member companies can communicate with you, our customers.
Thirty-one years ago, when I entered this industry, it never occurred to me that I might one day be president of an organization like CISA. Yet, as my career progressed, I noticed how important professional and technical societies are to this industry. I have had the opportunity to witness first-hand how these societies led to important personal relationships and enabled a unique camaraderie to develop among industry participants. To many people in the foundry industry, the relationships and camaraderie engender the feeling of "family."
This notion of family, in which each member looks out for the others, is a perfect metaphor to describe how foundry suppliers relate to their customers. It would not surprise anyone to know that successful foundries make it their business to understand what their customers need and to fulfill those needs with quality, value-added products delivered in a timely manner. We who supply those foundries approach our customers no differently.
CISA-member companies work with their customers in a collaborative relationship that yields benefits to all who participate. Although we seek to run successful businesses, we are not in business simply to fill our order pads, build our backlogs and collect on our invoices. Rather, we prefer to partner with our customers, working together with them to enhance their competitiveness, or to improve their production processes and business systems.
During the last 50 years, technology has come of age in the foundry industry, which traditionally has had the reputation of being slow to adopt technological change. As foundry suppliers, we suffer no delusions about being the sole agents of technological advancement, but we are nonetheless proud that many of the breakthrough innovations that affected this industry on a broad scale have come from its supplier base.
I am proud to say that many of these innovations have come from CISA companies. This is no accident, since CISA keeps its member companies up to date on business conditions, and its customers, and supports personal and professional development.
Here I'd like to borrow a few lines from Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Smith wrote, "consumption is the sole end and purpose of production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer." Freely interpreted, this means that CISA members can serve themselves best by serving their customers first.
This is exactly what we strive to do, and where many professional organizations exist as a group of similar companies serving diverse markets, CISA is a collection of diverse companies serving the same market. Though CISA members range from suppliers of machinery, controls, consumables and even software, the reason our Association exists is to serve you – its metal casting customers.
In closing, I'd like to thank our customers, on behalf of all CISA member companies, for their business and support during the many years of CISA's existence. Through partnership, understanding, and the highest of business principles, we hope to earn your favor and good will for many decades to come.
Casting Industry Suppliers Association
Since 1919, CISA has represented suppliers of equipment, materials, and services to the metal-casting industry, and provides information, education, and business opportunities to benefit the entire casting industry.
Contact CISA at:
14175 W. Indian School Road, Suite B4-504
Goodyear, AZ 85395
Tel. 623-547-0920
Fax 623-536-1486
E-mail: [email protected]