Cast a slightly wider net.

More than 25 years ago, my mentor Ron Crawford, CEO of Southland Metals Inc., Maumelle, Ark., was offered what he considered a golden opportunity by a potential customer. But when he proposed the new work to his metalcasting facility, he was turned down repeatedly. The metalcaster was afraid of the thin sections of the proposed casting and declined to quote.

Crawford persevered, meeting with the metalcaster and working through the roadblocks in the facility's process. The casting size and weight fit the shop's molding capabilities well, but the metalcasting engineers were concerned that excessive--if not impossible--scrap losses would result due to breakage of the casting's thin sections during shakeout. The way Crawford tells the story, selling the idea to the guys in the casting plant proved to be harder than selling the part to the customer.

After much debate and some trial, the metalcaster finally considered the idea of manually removing the castings before shakeout to prevent or eliminate the damage that was sure to occur if they were allowed to flow through the normal process. This outside-the-box thinking and slight change to existing procedures won the company the job with the customer and set it apart from its competition for many years. That customer still purchases castings from the company more than a quarter of a century later.

As metalcasters, we should have a solid understanding of what fits our operations and what doesn't; that can be invaluable knowledge when seeking new customers and new work with existing customers. But sometimes, we also need to open our minds to the possibility of process flexibility and adaptation that can launch us into new markets we considered untouchable with our current equipment. We must challenge the model the customer has set before us and ask the questions that could produce a better product design for our customers and create new opportunities for ourselves.

Are there areas in your metalcasting facility where some out-of-the-box thinking could open the floodgates to new opportunities? Is there some slight change you could make to your process that could bring higher profitability and differentiate you from your competitors around the globe and at home? Is an additional value-added opportunity in machining or assembly preventing you from supplanting an alternative process like forging or plastics?

Answering these questions requires a thought-change within your organization that can help you see past the obvious. In addition to tweaking existing processes, like adding things in your molds or casting in features, you will have to accept some business process changes, as well. For example, you might have to be willing to outsource value-added services requested by a customer or consider putting an additional person in the front office to work with outside vendors and schedule them through the shop. Or your organization could put a new spin on just-in-time initiatives through consignment at your facility or your customer.

We can eliminate competition to our industry rather than between ourselves by using process flexibility to cast in features and do more for our customers. Some examples of this are brake rotors with cast-in stampings, electric appliances where the heating element is cast into the metal plate, and casting in threaded inserts to save machining time. These are just a few of the many ideas we can come up with when we reach just slightly outside the box that confines our thinking. It takes a willingness to look beyond the ordinary and listen to our customers.

Customers' low-hanging fruit often is already picked. By maintaining open conversation with your customers and truly listening to their needs, rather than thinking only about what you have to sell them, you will undoubtedly glean some opportunities the average vendor would overlook.

We have to stay in contact with potential customers long enough for their needs to shine through. It is highly possible that at times when you have called them, nothing was really considered a need, but upon inspection of a fabrication or assembly of components, the buyer or engineer realized a metal casting can satisfy their application and provide a potential for savings.

Altering your processes slightly (or having your facility do so through pleading and debate) can give you an invaluable leg-up on the competition and open your doors to work that on the surface seemed impossible. In metalcasting, we must force ourselves to consider slight alternatives to our normal process to support our long-term goals for profitability and growth.

Stephen Lane, Southland Metals Inc., Maumelle, Arkansas

Stephen M. Lane is regional sales manager for Southland Metals Inc., Maumelle, Ark.