What Foundries can learn from Winemakers

Last weekend, I took a scenic carriage tour through the vineyards of the vinery Bauer in Heilbronn, Germany, where this photo was taken. Besides a vine tasting on the hill with a colourful outlook, we learned a lot about winemaking and the industry’s trends.

As you can imagine, there is a strong downtrend. The average consumption in Germany was 25 litres of vine per person per year. Today, it sits at 19 litres, but 10 litres are foreign. So you have a decline of 64% from 25 to 9 litres. This decline is drastic, and it is clear why leasing rates for vineyards are zero Euros. It takes 11 months of work with the vines to collect grapes you turn into wine you cannot sell. That doesn´t sound like a viable business model.

But what do passionate winemakers do to combat the crisis, and what can the foundry industry learn from that? There are two things:

1. Deliver the best quality and be consistent

Wine is a product highly impacted by the whims of nature compared to the HPDC industry. However, the goal of the cellar master is to deliver the best quality and consistent taste. The most essential tool is constant improvements in the process. The effect of the climate change is omnipresent. For example, the grapes rest with the yeast for a few hours before getting pressed. But during that time, the fermentation process must not start. That is only feasible with imported methods from South Africa. They use frozen water canisters to keep the grapes cool.

It might not be a frozen canister in our foundry world, but there are technologies that level up your foundry. Every tool has its weak points in thermal management. Tackle them early with jet coolers or 3D-printed inserts combined with micro spraying. That improves your thermal management massively and prevents a need for cold water entirely. The smaller temperature interval reduces the fatigue load and prolongs your tool’s lifetime. Consequently, it cuts down on operating and maintenance costs because you avoid heat checking.

Using frozen water canisters is like perfecting your thermal management; if you know how to use them, you will never go without them. But you need to know about these little details. You can come up with all those ideas yourself, or you can exchange ideas with other people within the industry. The cellar master hosts feedback rounds where he meets several colleagues, and they critique each other’s wine. They exchange the latest improvements and methods they successfully implemented. Even as a family-owned business, it is normal to hire consultants regularly to point out weak points in their processes to improve and overcome home blindness!

2. Deliver an experience and integrate additional services

The next step that successful winemakers take is to expand their business around the wine. After the cartridge ride, we returned to the winery, where we got a delicious meal and some more wine. We bought some more to take home. But you could have rented a room in their guest house. Do you see how they surrounded their core business with other services that generated an experience for the customer and increased their revenue?

It is definitely not that straightforward for the foundry industry. But besides the automotive customers, many industries need HPDC parts but don’t know it yet. When they hear about it, they need guidance on designing these parts. These are services you can sell. Here, it would be best if you found a way to generate a package for your customers that they cannot neglect.

If you would like the same experience at Bauer Winery, follow the link. If you would like an analysis of your foundry’s situation or support in optimizing your processes and expanding your business opportunities, schedule a free consultation below. I’m looking forward to your call.