Howdy from Texas,
Looking back on it all, I didn't start my "career" as a foundryman. Heck, I didn't even know what a foundry really was until 1994. I started out "life after college" as a computer programmer for insurance companies, chemical companies, cosmetic companies, and state government. Looking for a "change of pace and location" and the opportunity to get my MBA,, I stumbled into the foundry business. A foundry was hiring a computer programmer, I applied, and got hired and spent twelve years smelling burned sand, chemicals, and hearing and feeling the massive molding machines at work. I got "down and dirty" all of the time crawling in the rafters, working around the machines, etc.
I was very fortunate as a number of people at the foundry, Texas Foundries AKA Citation Lufkin, took me under their wing and taught me the foundry business. The Industrial Engineer, payroll, accounting, sales, order processing, shipping, metalurgical departments - heck, the whole facility taught me the foundry business. Most importantly, I wanted to learn the foundry business and I embraced it and found it exciting and fascinating. After my stint at the foundry was done, I fortunately made the leap over to Synchro ERP. That in itself is an interesting story that I will have to share someday. The story goes a long ways as to explaining "who I am and what type of person I am".
When I see a fire hydrant or a man hole cover, I see foundries at work. When I see new products, I wonder, what kind of application could this be used for in a foundry. Case Point example, I stumbled across a new product called NeverWet and my first thoughts were, wow, this is neat and then how could this be used in a foundry environment? At the foundry, ductile iron and steel, we were constantly battling rust on castings in stock. Castings were treated with oil, placed in special containers with absorbent materials, etc. Unless you are a foundryman, you might not even realize that rust and corrosion are issues in a foundry, especially on finished castings out of the shot blast tumbler.
It would be good to hear from you to see how you got the foundry industry in your blood! Drop me a line and let me know!
At the end of the day, Synchro ERP is all about metalcasting, our people know metalcasting, and we can assist your metalcasting operations.
Well, tis the season here and I want to wish you all the very best and have a very safe season.
I'll catch up with you on down the road next year!
Shane Allen
Head of Synchro ERP North American Operations
