November 2019 Volume 1

INDUSTRY NEWS & CALENDAR

FIA Fall Meeting of Members was a Great Success! By JimWarren

Nashville turned out to be a resounding success as the 2019 location for FIA’s Fall Meeting of Members. With 72 members and six speakers participating, attendees enjoyed a good turnout in a town known for its country music stars and honky tonks. The event drew 10 first-time attendees, and our most popular roundtable focused on Forging & Tooling Materials. Former Senator and CNN Political Commentator, Rick Santorum, did not disappoint bringing his brand of conservatism to the podium and fielding many questions about the future of Washington D.C. from the members. FIA thanks the EllwoodGroup for the sponsorship of Senator Santorum.

Karen’s services for the last 33 years. Congratulations to Karen! The FDMC board discussed the recently released Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) funding announcement from the Defense Logistics Agency R&D Division focused on ‘Innovative Forging Technologies.’ FIA is teaming with ATI who they’ve had a 20+year relationship with. The objectives of the Innovative Forming Technologies (IFT) program are 1) to structure, execute, and coordinate projects that develop innovative solutions that can reduce the disproportionate number of DLA backorders or unfilled orders for items that contain forgings, and 2) to improve the quality, productivity, technology, and business practices of the forging industry. The program seeks to demonstrate readiness improvements by developing and applying innovative methods of designing and manufacturing weapons systems spare parts and components through the use of advanced forging technologies. More details are available online (www.govtribe.com/opportunity/ federal-contract-opportunity/innovative-forgings-technologies baa000319) or contact the FDMCExecutive Director Polly Graham at polly.graham@ati.org. Keynote Presentations Prepare Forgers for What’s Next From my perspective forgers are in a cautious mood with business conditions generally trending on the slower side, unless a significant portion of a forgers business is in the aerospace segment. What follows here are brief bullet points sharing the general theme of a keynoter’s message. FIA staff has loaded versions of the presenters’ slides on the FIA website. The slides are open to all members for viewing with your FIA login and password. MARKETING • Success rate in picking up phone in first hour or receiving RFQ • Why you need to make marketing the strength of your business • Marketing readiness assessment • Do you know the main reasons your customers choose you over your competitors? • Do you know where your biggest source of untapped new business is and how to ultimately mine it? • Do you know your conversion rate of leads into customers? Example: out of X number of leads, you get Y number of customers or sales that deliver Z in profit

Kathy Saunders, Ellwood Group’s Director of Marketing and former Senator Rick Santorum Three Boards HaveTheir Meetings in Nashville On October 13th, just ahead of the conference, the FIA Board of Directors met in the morning, and the FIERF Board of Directors met in the afternoon. On Wednesday afternoon following the conference, the Forging Defense Manufacturing Consortium (FDMC) met. The major news from the FIA and FIERF boards was the retirement announcement of longtime FIERF Executive Director Karen Lewis effective December 31, 2019. The industry was fortunate to have

FIA MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2019 12