January/February 2007 Issue of  "The Crucible"
"Perfect Alignment"

NFFScope

In my Annual Report letter to the members last year, I discussed a recent new report published by the American Society of Association Executives and the Center for Association Leadership entitled “7 Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do that Others Don’t.” In that letter, I suggested that what I found remarkable about the report wasn’t what factors it identified as making an association remarkable but how many of those factors directly applied to NFFS. 

That’s not just bragging or hubris.  It’s true.  To prove it, I plan to take a deeper look at some of those factors in my editorials this year, and to demonstrate exactly how each one applies and why what I said is true.  Let’s start at the beginning, with the first two characteristics of a remarkable association identified in the report. 

Ø          A Customer Service Culture – A “we’re here to serve you” approach permeates all individual encounters with members and is built into the organization’s structure and processes. 

Ø          Alignment of Products and Services with Mission – The depth and breadth of offerings are consistent with the organization’s mission, which remains central and unchanging even in the midst of changes in the external environment.

To understand how these two factors apply to NFFS you can start with its Board of Directors and staff.  At each of its meetings, the NFFS Board devotes part of its agenda to discussing Current Issues and Concerns - those things that cause foundry owners and managers the most sleepless nights and which present the greatest challenges to their businesses.  The focus of those discussions isn’t just to talk about the issues, but to try and figure out what the Society and its staff can and should do to help.  In fact, some of the Society’s best programs have come from those discussions. 

For at least the last three years, skyrocketing health insurance costs were cited as the #1 challenge facing smaller foundries.  And for almost that long, while other organizations were content to lobby Congress to pass legislation to allow the formation of association health plans, NFFS was actively pursuing a program that could offer member foundries – and especially smaller companies – an immediate way to pool their healthcare premiums to control their employee benefits cost.  At the Annual Meeting in October, NFFS announced an exclusive agreement with Trustmark Corporation, one of the leading national health insurance carriers, to offer a group health insurance program to the foundry industry.  Further details on the new NFFS/Trustmark program are in this issue. 

Over the past six months, the Society has added no less than four direct Value-Added services to the list of benefits that foundries receive from their NFFS membership.  In addition to the new health insurance program, in July NFFS signed a partnership with DHL Express to provide member foundries with savings of up to 25% on DHL parcel shipping services.  In August, the Society added a new Members Only discount program on solidification modeling services offered by Magma Foundry Technologies.  And in September, the Society’s Delivered Value Committee signed a Preferred Provider Agreement with UniFirst, a leading supplier of workwear and related products offering special members prices from their National Accounts Department - including those members who already had uniform rental agreements in place with UniFirst. 

It isn’t really remarkable that the breadth and depth of these programs align directly with the Society’s mission to provide members with information and services relevant to their current and future business needs.  For more than 20 years, that’s never really changed.

Controlling Employee Benefits Cost                                  

Finding and keeping good employees can be difficult for any small business, but it can be an enormous problem for manufacturers like most foundries still operating in the U.S. today.  Paying competitive wages are rapidly becoming a small part of an employee’s total compensation.  A recent study by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) concluded that the sharp rise in non-wage costs represents a significant and long-term problem for our nation’s manufacturers and America’s economy. 

Chief among the cost increases that manufacturers have faced in recent years is the skyrocketing cost of providing health insurance for employees.  In the last three years alone, many smaller manufacturers have reported that their insurance benefits costs have more than doubled, averaging annual increases between 20 and 30%.  Many even report that the cost of providing health insurance to their employees have more than tripled since 2000. 

Smaller manufacturers have limited options when it comes to trying to control their health benefits costs.  In a 2004 survey conducted by NFFS, more than half of the responding foundries (53%) reported that they had altered plan design components for more employee cost sharing by raising deductibles, co-payments and/or increasing coinsurance.  Many also reported altering their prescription drug plan design, implementing more restrictive plan.  Such cost reduction measures applied by companies are not often welcomed by employees, however, who fail to see the cost of benefits as a cost to their employer.  In fact, more often than not they consider the out-of-pocket increases they are being required to pay through higher employee contributions, deductibles and non-covered items as nothing more than thinly-disguised pay cuts...........................

(Regulatory) Change is Inevitable                                    by Jerrod Weaver, NFFS Director of Education & Training

Keeping informed of topics and issues that affect your business is a critical component of success. While many changes to government rules and regulations are fairly well publicized, occasionally not everyone will notice the changes. Therefore, to start the New Year, NFFS would like to ensure that you are well informed regarding several recent regulatory changes that may affect your business:

Revision of the OSHA Respiratory Protection Standard 

New Assigned Protection Factors (APFs) for respiratory protection programs have been incorporated into the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) respiratory protection standard (29CFR1910.134), effective November 22, 2006.

This APF final rule completes the revision of the reserve sections of OSHA's Respiratory Protection Standard as published in 1998. The Respiratory Protection Standard will now contain provisions necessary for a comprehensive respiratory protection program, including selection and use of respirators, training, medical evaluation, and fit testing.   

                                                                                 
"This standard helps employers and employees select the right respirator for the job," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. "And with the right respirator employees will have adequate protection to be safe and healthy at work."

APFs are numbers that indicate the level of workplace respiratory protection that a respirator or class of respirators is expected to provide to employees when used as part of an effective respiratory protection program. An APF table (See Table 1) has been included in the final standard to guide employers in the selection of air-purifying, powered air-purifying, supplied-air (or airline respirator), and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) respirators............

Finishing Room: Sometimes, Consolidation Investment Accounts Can Make Sense 

Over the years, many people have accumulated multiple IRA and 401k accounts as their résumé’s continued to expand.  Consolidating your accounts into your current plan can make sense to many people. 

Most people find it hard enough to choose their investments properly, let alone 3-5 or more accounts, each having many options.  Recent law changes now make it possible to consolidate all of your IRA’S, 403B’S, 401(K)’S, Simple IRA’S, Roth IRA’S, and more. 

While its hard to ever say any one investment is better than another, most current 401K plans offer many different investment options, with unlimited combinations available and no charges for changes.  Some of today’s 401k plans also offer you access to a certified financial planner to assist you in designing your portfolio, at no additional charge regardless of your account balance!!! 

Consolidating your accounts may also eliminate paying multiple account fees and in some cases may also reduce the internal management fees that are charged.  The more that participants reduce their fee structure, the better net returns in their 401k accounts. 

Are you in this situation? Call your plan contact to get help in consolidating your retirement accounts and start making your life easier!! 

If your firm has an existing 401K plan that does not offer the services mentioned above or if you would like to implement a new 401K plan for your firm, please contact: 

Darren Seward, CEO Benexx 401K at: 410-534-2214 or via email at: dseward@benexx.com 

Benexx is one of the largest 401k services organizations in the nation and has partnered with NFFS to offer economical 401K administration services to member foundries .  The Benexx turn-key 401k plan features:

-          Over 50 investment options from over 7 well-known fund companies

-          No set-up or annual administrative fees to NFFS member companies

-          Customized employee communications

-          24/7/365 on-line participant account access