Roy HardySuppliers + Manufacturers = Industry Success
January 1, 2018Comments
This past November, more than 45,000 people clicked the turnstiles at FABTECH 2017, witnessing what represents the latest and greatest in the world of sheetmetal forming and fabricating. FABTECH echoed both the strength and the promise of our industry. As an event co-sponsor, the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) helps lead the charge in communicating between those that supply the industry—press and other equipment builders, software and service providers, etc., and those who propel it through the parts, components, assemblies and end-use products they manufacture.
It truly is a symbiotic relationship, that of the suppliers and manufacturers. Recognizing this vital link, PMA strives to ensure a strong bond between manufacturers and suppliers, and best position its members to succeed in the North American $137-billion metalforming industry, and worldwide. Our member companies, suppliers of equipment, materials and services, and the manufacturers that use them, benefit equally through PMA-led advocacy and networking initiatives, and through so much more. For example, the association compiles and disseminates statistics, and identifies trends to help manufacturers and suppliers analyze their markets and develop successful business plans. And, PMA’s reports provide valuable data to enable benchmarking against world-class performance.
Page through this issue of MetalForming, published through PMA, to see how metalformers and fabricators leverage various technologies to stay on the leading edge in our globally competitive markets. From the articles appearing in these pages, it becomes apparent that the most successful metalformers and fabricators have learned to best employ the dizzying array of technologies that our industry suppliers provide.
As president of PMA, it is my intention to lead an organization that delivers value to its membership and to the industry as a whole. Just as with our manufacturing members, we welcome our associate-member suppliers with open arms, recognizing the valuable contributions that they have made, and will continue to make. As the inventors and keepers of technologies that enable success, and without which manufacturers cannot do their jobs, suppliers occupy a unique and all-important place in our industry and in our association. We want to make PMA as valuable as possible for associate members, and seek to develop services and programs to meet associates’ needs.
Associate members provide the backbone for our technical offerings well beyond sponsorships—supplying valuable content and speakers that ensure worthwhile events and training aids for attendees. Now more than ever, PMA and our industry must ensure a trained workforce of the future. Associate members bring the expertise for doing just that, and PMA wants to tap that expertise for seminars, conferences, courses and more.
Supplier associates, manufacturers and PMA…we are all in this together. Working as a team, I’m confident that, just as we have for more than 75 years, we will continue to serve North American forming and fabricating—the most productive and efficient on earth. Toward that end, I’d like to hear from you, our industry suppliers, on how PMA can provide maximum benefit to you and provide maximum benefit to the industry on which we all rely. So please e-mail me at rhardy@pma.org.
Thank you for all that you have done, and I’m looking forward to working with you and for you, both our associate suppliers and manufacturers, in 2018 and beyond.
Technologies: Bending, Management
