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he one resounding theme of my presidency has been ensuring our members have understood the major skill that I felt would get our companies and association through any major hurdles that comes our way: relationship building. I passionately champion the importance of building relationships within the performance plastics industry. IAPD offers an incredible tool that we can leverage in our industry relationships through strategic sourcing, by using the Source Guide included at the back of this magazine as a road map to do just that.

In today’s globalized world, we have endless options for sourcing plastics and materials. The saturation of the industry makes it more critical than ever to find the right supply sources. Our industry relies on the expertise and quality of our suppliers, and the relationships we build with them can have a profound impact on our success. When we utilize the Source Guide to its fullest extent we can easily connect, not just as customers and suppliers, but as collaborative partners in our journey toward excellence.

Editor’sPerspective

rial by fire” and “drinking from a fire hose” are two familiar phrases that have been thrown around in my first few weeks at IAPD. Both ring true to my experience so far, but a more accurate description of my experience came from IAPD CEO Susan Avery when she said that this was “both the best and worst time to start this role.”

I began my time with IAPD just two weeks shy of our 67th IAPD Annual Convention + connecX in San Diego, CA, and I hit the ground running as a whirlwind of information and introductions were thrown my way. I’ve soaked up as much as I could and asked as many annoying questions as I could manage during the opportunities, I’ve had to meet with you. Thankfully, everyone has been gracious and enthusiastic to equip me with the intel I need to begin mapping out my goals as your new director of marketing and content.

hen plastics professionals are encouraged to achieve excellence through well-designed career development plans, IAPD member companies benefit from increased productivity, higher employee job satisfaction, reduced turnover and enhanced financial results. Additionally, plastics organizations that focus on the professional development of their employees tend to have more effective succession planning.

When designing career progression plans for employees, it is important to consider two aspects of professional development: building an individual’s human capital and building their social capital. Human capital is defined as a person’s knowledge, skills and experiences that can be employed to achieve productive work. Examples of human capital development include product training, computer skills training, leadership skills development and sales training. However, human capital development by itself is insufficient to prepare a person for career advancement. Effective career progression plans must also consider social capital development, which focuses on building an employee’s professional network.

Social capital is defined as the power that resides in the relationships between people that can be used to get work accomplished. Having an effective network benefits the careers of plastics professionals in a number of ways including:

EnvironmentalCorner

he topic of sustainability is not something new for the performance plastics industry or within IAPD. We have focused on it for the last 14+ years when IAPD first launched its Environmental Committee. The industry has evolved over the years, and technological advancements in the recycling of plastics has helped our industry improve the amount of materials that we divert from landfills.

When IAPD first started its Environmental Committee and initiatives, we sought to benchmark where the performance plastics industry was on recycling its internally generated scrap material. Additionally, we sought to capture other environmental initiatives that our member companies were executing and measure their progress over time. 13 years later, IAPD is still having difficulty collecting and measuring this basic data from our industry.

While our industry is still working on dealing with the internally generated scrap that we produce, the rest of the world has moved on and not only expects more from us, but needs more from us.

Fabrication Services Showcase contains paid listings of companies with fabrication services, products and machinery that cater to the performance plastics distribution industry. IAPD does not endorse nor make recommendations in regard to the companies supplying their services. For details and pricing information to include your company in this Fabrication Services Showcase, contact Dave Blackhurst, IAPD’s Sales Executive, at (913) 345-1005 or email dblackhurst@iapd.org.