NFTN is the culmination of a significant government and industry association-led effort to develop a globally competitive South African foundry industry through appropriate skills training, technology transfer, and diffusion of state-of-the-art technologies. Its main outcome is to reduce import leakage, increase investments in key manufacturing processes and activities, employment and exportability.

The NFTN will facilitate development of a globally competitive South African Foundry industry through appropriate skills training, technology transfer, and diffusion of state of the art technologies.

The goal of the NFTN has been and remains to increase the global competitiveness of the South African foundry industry through the provision of appropriate services, in order to reduce import leakage, increase local production, and increase investment in the sector.

The key objectives of the NFTN
NFTN’s 6 key result areas

providing coordination within the foundry industry
supporting dissemination of information to both public and private sector
mobilisation of stakeholders around common initiatives
diagnosis of key challenges and performance criteria on both foundry and systems level (foundry industry as a whole)
leveraging and linking public sector resources towards the improvement of individual foundries as well as the foundry industry at large
ensuring close collaboration between the public and private sector

NFTN’s 6 key result areas are structured in such a way that it can easily address the key challenges of the foundry industry in South Africa.

Competitive Improvement
Human Capital Investment
Cleaner production

Environmental and Waste management
Energy management

Expansion of foundry industry
Science, Technology and Innovation
Cooperation for industry competitiveness

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NFTN Working Groups

The purpose of the industry working group page is to keep stakeholders informed of the progress of activities on key areas/challenges that affect the competitiveness of the South African foundry industry. It gives participants the opportunity to ask questions, get information and give advice. The aim of the working groups is to create a Foundry Community of Practice. On 21 November 2011 NFTN hosted a Foundry 10-year road map workshop. The aim of the event was to mobilise public and private sector to initiate a change process to a common goal for the foundry industry.

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Connect with thought leaders and other industry members of a Working Group.

Discuss

Share. Exchange. Inform.

Why Working Groups?

The quote to be displayed…The topics covered in the Work Groups are crucial and we should tackle them with force. People do their day-to-day jobs without thinking further – and the ship is sinking. As an example for my company, if we get energy right we will improve our competitive position by about 20Mio/annum. Worth the effort I would say.

Can you see the impact on the 180 companies? The impact of waste cost reduction might not be that big, but it is still significant and it is definitely more than our combined salaries for quite a few years.

I must say that if you make an effort, you might as well do it properly. The NFTN provides the right platform and actually, it is easier to fight through NFTN than trying to tackle it as a relatively small company.

It is clear to me that we would never have had this Nersa meeting as Autocast South Africa. And if we would have had it, we would not have achieved anything. At least now we have a chance. This is an important message to industry.

There must be strong work groups with people who can make a difference. Delegating crucial responsibilities to the HR department is essential. Work Groups 4,5,6,7 and particularly 5,6,7, are absolutely crucial and must be actively driven by people who can offer time and energy.