Besides the crises of an economic shutdown that is being both applauded and derided, depending on who is talking, and which will pass, what things have profound influence on your company’s manufacturing and sales? What helps or hinders continuously improving production and supply chain resilience? 

Answer: Relationships up and down the supply chain. 

When Casting Source magazine relaunched 8 months ago, our focus broadened from an emphasis on selling castings to a more inclusive approach for the metalcasting supply chain. With the COVID-19 event, a time when relationship cultivation is perhaps more essential than ever before, we look prescient with our new perspective. 

Casting Source can be a toolbox for suppliers (foundries) and OEMs (customers) helping establish and nurture the relationships foundry customers need to identify the right source for metalcastings. One of the most versatile tools in the box is the Casting Source Directory. 

The directory has hundreds of foundry listings. You can search for a casting supplier by specifications, like alloys you require, casting processes recommended by your design engineers, and specified casting weight, all of which is handy. However, considering the pressure on overseas supply chains, there are two other factors that should prove extremely useful: searching by country and state for a casting source. 

The Casting Source Directory can support your effort to take more control of your supply chain, manage risk more efficiently, and source your casting to foundries much closer to home. 

From following trends in the news, and using forward looking analyses, many have contended the current disruption in supply chains began the COVID-19 lockdown. That included relocating supply chains that have been in China. The virus only accelerated the trend to remove supply chains from China, but that’s only half the equation. The other part is relocating. 

Mark Mobius, founder of Mobius Capital Partners, told CNBC, “A lot of buyers and a lot of the people depending on the supply chain in China are now having second thoughts, and are beginning to diversify their supply chain as much as possible to be closer to home.” 

That makes it sound easy. In early March, before the lockdown, the Wall Street Journal trumpeted, “Companies That Got Out of China Before Coronavirus Are Still Tangled in Its Supply Chains,” with the drop head, “The epidemic has laid bare a central problem for manufacturers: China’s tight grip on supply networks.” That’s no excuse for not taking steps to loosen that grip. 

If you’re in the supply chains for specifying, designing, or procuring cast parts, would it be ridiculous to ask you to check out the Casting Source Directory at www.castingsource.com/metalcaster-directory? 

The advantages to a more secure supply chain with decreased risk are, well, obvious. You recall that bargain basement price that enticed you to join the exodus to Asia? If you can’t rely on dependable delivery of castings from overseas supply chains, that cut-rate price suddenly gets exorbitantly expensive. 

Here at AFS, we contributed to foundries being classed as essential businesses so you could continue sourcing the castings you need. Part of our job at Casting Source is telling the world foundries in the U.S. and North America are operating to a great extent and are open for business.  

Barry Nalebuff, Milton Steinback Professor of Management at Yale School of Management, says the supply chain has become aware that suppliers are as important as customers. We encourage you to use the Casting Source Directory to find the castings you need. Check it out: www.castingsource.com/metalcaster-directory. 

Click here to see this story as it appears in the May/June 2020 issue of Casting Source.