Buy AICC!

February 6, 2018

This issue of BoxScore takes an in-depth look at where our industry is headed in 2018. This discussion will then continue at our Spring Meeting at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass in Phoenix, April 16–18, as we look into the future of our paper supply, as well as several disruptive forces that are affecting our industry, such as the theoretical decline of retail and the continued rise of e-commerce.

The purpose of providing you with all of this insight is to help you make the right capital expenditure decisions to ensure the continued success of your organization. A critical player in all of this is our Associate, or supplier, members.

The Associate members of AICC support our industry and our efforts to remain a fiercely competitive and sustainable segment of our marketplace. They are on the road every day and in the doors of all of our members, and they know what is going on in the marketplace. They know which solutions work and which don’t. There would be no excuse not to listen to what our Associates have to offer when making these major decisions.

But getting advice from our Associates is just one small benefit. The real benefit of our partnership culture at AICC is the collaborative efforts that occur between our suppliers and our members.

When I look at my own shop floor, the machines that are the most productive are the machines that have been developed in collaboration with my machinery suppliers. As hard as an Associate member works in developing a new piece of machinery, it is only with time on the shop floor that the real improvements can be made.

I’m blessed to have a talented mechanical department, so when they figure out an improvement on a new machine, we share that improvement with our Associate members so they can enhance and include that improvement on future machines they sell—even to my competitors. The next time I have to buy the same machine, it will already come pre-installed with all of our improvements, along with some improvements suggested by other customers. It is a win-win situation.

So, when you are implementing a new project in your plant, please invite your AICC Associates to the table. Listen and learn from them. Work with them. And if you do buy a solution from a nonmember, encourage them to join AICC and to invest in the organization that is here to ensure your future success and agility in the marketplace.

Support those who support you. Buy AICC.