nCoded Solutions at the Metal Casting Conference

From the 'Five-year strategy plan for China's foundry industry' to 'The impact of the foundry industry on manufacturing in South Africa', the topics generated engagement and discussion, especially during the panel discussions.

nCoded Solutions attended the conference and also had an exhibition stand. The purpose was to establish itself and also gain an understanding of the foundry space. This gave nCoded Solutions an opportunity to see what works and what doesn't work in this market, and most importantly, the company was able to showcase its services to the conferees.

There were 30 exhibitors in the conference, with most of them offering consumable products and parts for the foundry industry. Out of those 30 exhibitors, only two, including nCoded Solutions, were offering business IT solutions.

nCoded Solutions interacted with many attendees, where the company demonstrated how its Production Scheduling and Production Tracking Software can be applied within their industries.

In addition to nCoded Solutions showcasing its software, it also did a bit of informal research, where nCoded Solutions asked about 40 people who came to its stand a few questions about the conference.

nCoded Solutions' overall impression of the Metal Casting Conference was that it was well organised and represented a broad spectrum of the South African foundry industry and specialists. Although a conference of diverse groups, it enabled nCoded Solutions to gauge the position of foundry companies in the country.

nCoded Solutions saw the foundry business in SA is dominated by white "old-generation" males who seem to be operating in a space where all of them pretty much know one another's businesses.

nCoded Solutions got a sense that these businesses were still happy with the production methodologies and technologies their companies adopted many years ago. Notwithstanding the evidence that most or some of them do require new technology and change, the attendees the company spoke to are still locked in their "old ways".

This observation made it clear to nCoded Solutions that the foundry industry in SA requires massive support and education on concepts such as lean manufacturing, productivity improvement, automation, systems engineering, etc, especially because most of the guys the company spoke to want to implement cost-cutting measures.

It was refreshing to see some government-affiliated organisations and some universities saying they have started to address some of the challenges experienced by the South African foundries around these areas.

nCoded Solutions, on the other hand, has identified a need to partner with the University of Johannesburg in the implementation of productivity improvement programmes.