FMA Annual Meeting: Sharing ideas to build a better business

A metal fabrication shop can be quite the chameleon, a fact made abundantly clear at a roundtable discussion I participated in a few weeks ago. Shop managers sitting next to me told stories of how their companies were shifting markets, bringing in new technologies, and changing entire business models.

This was part of The FABRICATOR’s Leadership Summit, held in San Diego in late February. This event, co-located with the Toll Processing Conference, was part of the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association’s Annual Meeting.

The summit had insightful speakers, from the CEO of one of the largest custom fabricators in the U.S. to industry economists. All of this and more will be covered in the April FABRICATOR magazine.

What makes the meeting stand out is the idea sharing that comes from networking and conversation. This included several roundtable discussions, and the one I participated in involved finding new revenue streams, a hot topic for many these days.

Thing was, the participants at my table didn’t talk about what you’d expect: How to diversify beyond oil and gas, agriculture equipment, mining, and other weak markets. Instead, many talked (on background) about how they were reinventing their businesses.

Two roundtable participants came from shops that were shifting from product-focused manufacturing to contract fabrication. One company had a product line with a shrinking end market, while another had a machine building business that focused on the food sector, a brand that it had just sold to a competitor. Now the company was ramping up its sales efforts and trying to identify where its strengths and weaknesses truly were.

Another participant described how volume from one major customer dropped dramatically. He was looking for insight not only about entering new markets but how to restructure the company’s sales efforts. How technical did a salesperson need to be?

An attendee sitting next to him had an answer. This person worked at a custom fab shop that was tackling new markets with new technology. It recently purchased a large-diameter-capacity tube laser. How did it sell this technology? In this case, the salesperson spent part of his time actually operating the tube laser system. In doing so, he learned what the machine could and couldn’t do.

This in turn meant the salesperson could communicate with engineers on new designs that would take advantage of the tube laser’s strengths. With this knowledge, he could then call on prospects and offer some true insights and unique solutions.

Shop leaders around the table followed up with questions and took notes. It was a great thing to witness: Ideas were being shared to build a better business. That really was what The FABRICATOR’s Leadership Summit was all about.

The next FMA Annual Meeting occurs March 8-10, 2017, in New Orleans. For more information and updates,click here.