'Enterprise Resource Planning for Small to Medium Sized Foundries' and the audience although small in comparison to some exhibitions, listened and took the most important message that specific systems designed for your industry far outweigh any of the available generic systems.
The generic systems ie SAP for example are exstremely large by comparison. These systems are designed for the massive general market not for specifics or for the nuturing of relationships.
The opposite is true for totally specific systems, Synchro32 is designed entirely for the casts metal industry, our company is set up to create strong supportive relationships between customer and provider...
In fact how other manufacturers manage with arms length, weak provider relationships is quite difficult for us to comprehend. As the relationship is a key factor in our success...
The second part of our presentation was given by Tom Renk of United Machine...he detailed the benefits they have taken from using Synchro32, the competitive edge and the importance and reliance of the relationship. It was a real pleasure for me to listen to his presentation as we had no idea what he would have to say!
We also exhibited and I have to be honest the attendance was terrible...quite literally there must have been no more than 30 attendees with approx 70 exhibitors. That is worse than poor!
In my talk I praised the AFS (America Foundy Society) it is sad that the industry perhaps do not recognize the value of this very active society. Support is necessary, the AFS bring companies together, enable like minds to meet, discuss share knowledge and experience...
We took a great deal away from the meeting. We had a few people attend our booth and several healthy leads...We are happy with this, could it have been better, indeed yes but benefits are not always obvious immediately. We support the industry and as such we show example with our presence.
As a first our two main competitors Guardian and B&L in the US all got together and we had dinner. Steve Hope of Guradian was kind enough to show us around his home town, detailing some general history and new development. I found this most interesting and his passion for his home town was infectious. We talked over dinner and as we share so much common ground and passion for our industry, why should we not be civil and share?...if countries and aggressors would do the same we would all live in a more caring world. I had a very pleasant evening and I thank them for their time.
My thanks to Tom Renk United Machine and Shane Allen (Synchro) for their hard work and commitment to excellence...
Thanks Guys
Chris Collins
