Make 2027 the Year Your Company Becomes MTI Strong

As heat treating companies begin setting goals for 2027, many leadership teams are discussing the same challenges: market uncertainty, recruiting and retaining workers, experienced employees retiring, rising operational costs, and the fast pace of change.

These challenges deserve a place in every company’s strategic plan. As do the resources, that are available through the Metal Treating Institute’s membership.

The opportunity for 2027 is to turn membership into measurable action. Assign responsibility, establish a schedule for engagement, and connect each resource to a business goal. MTI’s programs can become part of how your company develops its people, makes decisions, protects its operations, and strengthens profitability.

MTI Meetings Fuel Your Prospective for Growth

Make it a 2027 goal to select at least one manager to attend each of MTI’s national meetings and bring the value back to your entire team. The educational content provides fresh ideas and practical strategies for addressing workforce challenges, improving operations, and preparing for industry change. Equally valuable are the connections with fellow heat treating leaders who understand your challenges and can share experiences, solutions, and lessons learned. Stepping away from daily demands also gives a manager time to see the bigger picture, renew enthusiasm, and gain a fresh perspective on the industry’s opportunities. Have your manager return ready to share key takeaways and recommend specific actions…turning the meeting experience into an investment in your company’s people, performance, and future.

Use Sales and Forecasting Reports to Make More Informed Decisions

Market uncertainty makes decisions about hiring, equipment purchases, capacity, and cash flow more difficult. MTI’s Sales and Forecasting program gives Members a resource to bring into those planning conversations.

Set a 2027 goal for your leadership team to review the available reports regularly and compare them with your company’s sales trends, customer demand, and order activity. Discuss what the information could mean for staffing, spending, and business development.

Forecasts cannot eliminate uncertainty, but they can help your team prepare for different conditions and recognize when plans need to change.

Make Recruitment and Retention an Ongoing Priority

Finding workers is only part of the workforce challenge. Keeping good employees, helping them succeed, and showing them a future within your company are equally important.

Use MTI’s Jobs of Tomorrow resources to support a deliberate review of your recruitment and retention efforts. How are you communicating career opportunities? What do new employees experience during their first 90 days? Do workers understand how they can grow?

For 2027, select specific improvements and track their results. These might include strengthening onboarding, improving how you promote career opportunities, or establishing more frequent conversations with employees about their development. A workforce strategy needs attention throughout the year.

Build Knowledge before Experienced Workers Retire

When a longtime employee retires, the company can lose decades of practical knowledge along with that person’s daily contribution. Waiting until a retirement date is announced leaves little time to prepare.

MTI’s Online Academy can support a more consistent approach to building employee knowledge. Make training part of each worker’s development plan, with courses selected around job responsibilities and future opportunities.

Pair Academy learning with mentoring, documented procedures, and hands-on instruction from experienced employees. The Academy helps build foundational knowledge, while your veteran workers explain how that knowledge applies inside your plant.

A practical 2027 goal is to identify critical skills, determine where knowledge depends on one person, and begin preparing additional employees to carry those responsibilities.

Review Major Operating Expenses for Savings Opportunities

Insurance and energy deserve deliberate attention in your 2027 plan. MTI’s business insurance and energy purchasing programs give Members opportunities to evaluate these major expenses.

Assign someone to explore both programs before renewal or purchasing deadlines. Compare available options with your current arrangements, considering coverage, service, contract terms, and potential savings.

The goal is to make informed purchasing decisions that support the operation. Any savings achieved can help fund training, equipment improvements, or other priorities.

Strengthen the Liability Terms That Help protect Your Business

Managing risk also means paying attention to the terms under which your company accepts work. MTI’s Statement of Limited Liability is a resource Members should include in that review. MTI identifies the statement as a tool for addressing liability within customer terms and conditions.

Make reviewing its use a 2027 priority with your legal counsel. Examine how it fits into quotations, order acknowledgments, and customer agreements, and ensure the people handling those documents understand the process.

Clear, consistently applied terms can help establish expectations before a problem occurs.

Make Shared Knowledge part of Your Operating Routing

The pace of change makes access to timely information and experienced peers especially valuable. MTI’s weekly operational check-in, online forum, and WallyBot AI offer different ways to tap into that knowledge.

Set a goal to participate regularly in the operational check-in, bring relevant questions to the online forum, and use WallyBot AI to help locate information within MTI’s resources. MTI developed WallyBot around its website to help Members access its knowledge more readily.

Encourage participation beyond the company owner or president. Operations leaders, human resources staff, quality personnel, and other managers can bring useful insights back to their teams.

After participating, ask: What did we learn? Where does it apply? What action should we consider?

Employees Who Engage Together, Stay Together

Make 2027 the year your team engages in MTI’s resources together. When employees learn together, discuss industry insights, and apply new ideas, they build industry competence, personal confidence, and stronger connections with their coworkers. Shared learning creates a common understanding of challenges, encourages employees to contribute ideas, and strengthens trust across departments. That matters because navigating uncertainty, transferring knowledge as experienced workers retire, and keeping pace with change requires a connected team that feels prepared to act. By making MTI engagement a team commitment, you invest in people who can solve problems together and move your company forward.

If you have any questions on any MTI programs or resources, feel free to reach out to our team at info@heattreat.net and we will schedule a 15 minute virtual tour of the programs that will grow your people, productivity, and profits.