For most people, when there’s a purchasing decision to be made, the more choices available, the better. In my house, however, choices must be carefully curtailed. One of the persons in my marriage who is not me has a difficult time with decisions when options are abundant. So, so whether it’s carpet, appliances, or even wine, I secretly work behind the scenes to ensure my beloved sees only a limited collection of choices.  

Casting buyers, on the other hand, may have a different perspective. 

For you, widening the list of prospects––without compromising your required supplier qualifications, process standards, or product specifications––can be a good thing. In fact, many buyers do seek to develop a healthy, evolving list of expert foundries from which to choose.

In a recent Gartner survey, manufacturing buyers were asked: “...How would you describe the initial list of vendors you evaluate when starting a typical purchase decision process?” About 5% said, “We only work with our current supplier/vendor and don’t evaluate other options.” Slightly over 30% said, “We evaluate a combination of our current supplier/vendor and suppliers/vendors we’ve worked with or evaluated in the past.” And then a whopping 64% said, “We evaluate current and previous suppliers/vendors and conduct research to identify new, potential suppliers/vendors.”

The report also showed, in order of preference, which resources the buyers use to research products and processes: Supplier/Vendor Website, Search Engine, Industry Website, Industry Event––Tradeshow/Conference, Peers/Peer Reviews, Industry Magazine, Separate, Single Supplier/Distributor Open House, Online Industry Directory, Industry Consultants, Industry Forum, Video Sharing Sites Industry E-newsletter, Industry Webinar, Social Media, Industry Influencers, Industry Podcast, Educators, Other, and Economists.

Casting buyers certainly have all these same abundant resources to help discover new qualified casting suppliers, but I want to inform and/or remind you about one of the very best resources available to you for free: It’s the one and only Casting Source Directory, and it’s located at www.castingsource.com. Thousands of casting buyers, specifiers, and designers rely on this tool that allows you to search by metal, process, weight, or location. 

As you seek to expand your list of superior casting sources, I can think of no better place to begin than here among the technically brilliant members of AFS. I encourage you to give them priority consideration. And as always, thanks for reading!