It’s also the time of year when retail stores start to feature their “Back to School” specials in their print and TV advertising. I’ve got to admit that when I was a kid, I hated seeing those “Back to School” ads. What kid doesn’t? Who wants to think about September in July, especially not when you think that Summer vacation is too short (and the school year too long) already. I used to think that my parents just wanted to get me out of the house, and of course I was more than happy to oblige – as long as it was for something I enjoyed, and had nothing to do with thinking about school or homework.

When I got older, of course, summer vacations got even shorter. Instead of three months vacation, I got two weeks – per year – and was glad to be able to think about spending just one of them relaxing. Oft times, however, my “break” was just a “Honey-do” vacation. It seems there’s always something that needs doing, and a vacation is just a time when you can get them done without worrying about what else you should be doing.

These days, I find that a lot of my friends who own their own businesses (foundries, mostly) look at summer vacation as a time when they can work at their businesses a bit differently. Instead of worrying about production schedules and customer relations, they concentrate on plant maintenance and equipment upgrades. Instead of hading for the beach or the golf course, they head back into the plant. Maybe their work days are a bit shorter, or maybe they really aren’t. After all, there’s always a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it in.

Well, July is almost over, so here I am telling you it’s time to think about getting back to work, and NFFS is running it’s “Back to Work” ad section in this month’s issue of The Crucible. But it has nothing to do with school supplies, or new clothes, or even dorm room furnishings. No, our “Back to Work” special means inviting everyone in the non-ferrous foundry industry (not just members) to attend the 2007 NFFS Annual Meeting in early October.

You spend the rest of the year working in your business. The NFFS meeting is a time you can spend working “on” your business – stepping back from your normal day-to-day business pressures to take some time to think about ways to improve your productivity and profitability. Taking time away from pruning trees or fighting fires to see the forest as it could be.

Just like any other sale flyer, the program for the NFFS meeting at the Wigwam Resort in Phoenix is filled with great values that can easily be yours if you’re willing to take the time and make the investment. And you may just find that you’ll go back to your foundry relaxed, refreshed, and filled with new enthusiasm – but also with a fair amount of “homework” to do as soon as you get back.

You can use the enclosed form to register for the meeting, or do it online at www.nffs.org. But before you do, if you’ve never been to a NFFS Annual Meeting before you can call our office for a special one-time offer that can make the “deal” even sweeter.

Foundrymen from all around the globe – except the U.S. – were in attendance at GIFA 2007. You saw it in their faces, heard it in their voices. They came to learn how to compete, how to improve, how to increase their performance in the global market. Meanwhile, the Americans sat back at home – perhaps waiting for the global expansion of the casting  market to implode, for things to return to the golden days of the sixties and seventies, when U.S. manufacturing ruled the world, and when customers would grudgingly wait until a foundry’s backlog would allow it to fill their orders.

What have you done to make your products a better value for your customers today? Or, if you prefer: What has your competition done to make their products a better value for your customers today? We all know in today’s fast-paced global economy, the easy sales are over. Customers will switch vendors whenever they can find a better value for their money.