The TPR interviewed Ron Cisliek, Vice President of the North American office for BraunForm, GmbH Plastics and Pharma Technology. BraunForm is an international tooling and molding company with a long-standing history of partnering with clients to design innovative, durable solutions that meet the challenges of the global marketplace. 

 

Braunform - Mold Shop	Braunform - Molding

What is your company niche, and what does your company do that is notable, unique or different?

At BraunForm, we possess over 25 years experience in precision multi-material applications as well as the capacity to serve large clients’ tooling and molding needs around the world. We are internationally renowned for our innovative engineering, product performance, on-site support, and for protecting our partners’ intellectual assets. But we still consider our loyal staff and our in-depth experience to be our true niches.

While toolmakers are investing in automation, many are forgetting the fact that no technical advance can replace strong engineering practices and knowledgeable staff. At BraunForm, we don’t plan to make that mistake. Instead, we continue to retain seasoned staff (average age: 32). Our in-house, injection mold manufacturing department is home to 150 employees, 16 of which are engineers and 16 of which are shop floor programmers who work together with clients and suppliers to deliver the debugged, optimized, more complete tooling solutions customers want today. We are true market innovators. Yet our strong, respectful relationships with suppliers and clients add value to projects that far outlasts automation advances alone. 

When and how did you get into the industry, what attracted you to it? 

BraunForm owner and founder, Erich Braun, first entered the tool-making trade in Germany in 1959. His passion for toolmaking and for thinking up new and improved ideas for manufacturing is something he has carried with him throughout his life. While working for a well known mold shop from 1965-76, he recognized that many of his visions and goals could only be realized through independent operation and control. To attain his visions, Erich Braun formed his own company in 1977. 

Relate a notable “best time” for your company (can be more than one). 

The “best time” we can experience at BraunForm is when a customer calls us to say our products are working like a charm. This happens regularly, yet we never lose our enthusiasm for pleasing clients. On an operational note, over the 28 years BraunForm has been in business, we’ve experienced some very memorable firsts, including: 

• Building our first stack mold in 1978.
• Shipping our first integrated two-component tool to a customer in 1986.
• Attaining ISO 9001 certification in 1995, then DIN ISO 9001 and 14001 in 2004.
• Completing our multi-million dollar tool-making support facility in 2003.
• Expanding into the North American market by opening BraunForm, Inc. in 2004
• Merging both European facilities into BraunForm, GmbH - Plastics and Pharma Technology in 2005.
   

Similarly, relate notable challenges that your company has overcome. 

When we started to expand the marketing of our company’s capabilities internationally, we did not anticipate the huge response that was generated. As a result, we expanded our manufacturing capabilities, to balance our vision, our current clientele and new demands in new markets. 

We also enhanced our North American presence by opening BraunForm, Inc. in the US in 2004. This move has enabled us to support our international and North American clients as our opportunities continued to grow. 

As we continue to expand globally, BraunForm is committed in the pursuit for shorter lead times and more economical tooling prices, while maintaining high levels of quality, low product maintenance, and even faster cycle times. Maintaining the balance of price and performance within customer goals is a continuous and always evolving cycle which we have been able to address. 
 

When you are working on projects with your customers, what aspects would you like them to better recognize? 

It’s hard for our first-time customers to understand the amazing level of involvement and commitment we invest into their project. From beginning to end, our staff works together as a team to monitor quality and to clear away any bottleneck situations that should arise. Our strong engineering department lays the foundation of our manufacturing processes and planning. Working alongside press manufacturers and automation companies allow us to pre-test and optimize turnkey applications before they ship.

Many times, customers’ own processors and toolmakers visit us on-site for one-on-one training, a practice we encourage whole heartedly. We, in turn, perform routine on-site visits to customers who desire this service. Also, post analysis of orders helps us continually improve efficiencies, quality and team communication. It all boils down to this: We’re not satisfied until our customers are. 

List newly acquired technology, machinery or key personnel (in the last year). 

In 2005, we invested $2.5 million into our manufacturing operations, which enabled us to: 

• Expand our high-speed cutting department by 50%

• Increase our large machining center for moldbase frames and components

• Enhance automation/robotic processes for electrodes and mold components across several departments

Has your company recently expanded? Plans to expand or form partnerships/alliances? 

In the fall of 2005, we conducted a further expansion of our manufacturing facilities in Germany. The undertaking increased our shop capacity by 10% to more than 110,000 square feet. The expansion has also allowed us to increase our ability to handle larger-size tooling for stack molds and spin-stack molds, as well as turnkey automation systems. 

In February 2006, an announcement at Molding 2006 was made regarding BraunForm’s signing of an agreement with Gram Technology. Having Gram Technology together with our own patented tooling methods will allow further options for customers to consider in driving product efficiencies and profitability. 

BraunForm’s quality and innovation has always been enhanced by our international, especially European, partnerships. We currently export over 70% of our products out of Germany, the majority going to European markets. However, we have seen a growing trend for representation and services in North America, Brazil and Asia. Today, we are looking to expand partnerships to serve these markets’ needs for larger multi-cavity tooling and their thirst for innovative technology to improve efficiencies. We see these as perfect opportunities for future partnering for mutual success.

Are you involved in any industry organizations or educational programs related to the trade? 

BraunForm’s North American office is a member of SPI since 2004.  

In relation to education, our German-based operations provide continuous apprenticeship programs in which an average of 15 students is in training at any given time. In addition, we use press manufacturer open houses, technical conferences (such as Molding 2006) and one-on-one presentations to educate the public about the various technologies available in the industry.

What do you think about changes occurring in the industry due to globalization? How has it affected the way you do business? 

We feel that the internet has turned tool-making into a truly global phenomenon. When choosing a tool maker, many companies are beginning to disregard the traditional personal and word-of-mouth recommendations for the cold, unproven and even risky numbers found on websites and in buzz words like “China”. With everyone being squeezed for every ounce of investment and operational savings, it is an understandable, yet not necessarily wise, method of choosing a company. However, unless true due diligence is performed on the information found online, the true story of ultimate production costs due to poor quality and performance can be lost. 

Market dynamics are also affecting the industry.  For mold builders, we believe that most of the simpler types of tooling jobs will be going to offshore companies, with only a few local support jobs remaining. Since there is a constant demand for piece-part efficiencies and lower tooling investment, the challenge will be to find customers and applications that can warrant these types of needs. We feel these will be customers who have high-volume applications and a product lifespan of more than one to two years, because in high volume applications that require downstream assembly or packaging, precision tooling for product consistency is critical.

What will the industry look like in 3 to 5 years? 

As competition continues to heat up, successful small to medium local shops will be those that ally themselves with customers who can benefit from their advantages, such as quick turnaround time and low shipping costs. As shops reach out across the country or across the world, distance opens the market to more competitors -- and thus greater challenges -- on the horizon. With communication and data becoming nearly instant via the Internet, the whole aspect of communication and geographic logistics will play less of a role as competitors weigh to justify costs and the value they bring to the table. Still, we believe the simple points that will always be questioned and evaluated in terms of risk will remain location to customer, cost, delivery, lead time, engineering, and technology. 

Many shops that continue to seek new opportunities with new clients for commodity goods will continue to be challenged to compete against LCC (low cost country- i.e. Asian, Indian, and Eastern European) pricing. We think this will spell the demise of mid-sized shops – unless they offer a unique technology or are strategically located to their clients. Instead, successful shops of the future will have made the choice to stay local or make greater investments to go global. 

Also, in the future customers who have high-volume applications will work with resources that provide related technology, experience and partners to ensure the greatest balance of manufacturing quality and profitability. If vendors do not adapt to customer demands such as new technologies, reduced lead times and reduced tool pricing, I believe the days of long-term relationships between vendors and customers will continue to decline. However, I think that vendors who can offer turnkey programs with known industry partners will have a great niche by being able to provide the greatest peace-of-mind comfort to clients with high-profile projects. 

Unique technologies to reduce manufacturing space and expenses, such as in mold assembly, spin stack technology, or combining multi-materials to produce single products, are also going to be important for mold makers to capture global clients.

In the future, we believe that customers who currently have high-volume or long-life products are going to be working with a smaller group of mold makers worldwide. Global clients will more than likely narrow their vendor basis of toolmakers and require them to work together off a single source of engineering. This will allow these clients global flexibility and consistency to move tooling all over the world. Knowing this, larger shops will more than likely benefit, due to their capacities to handle large programs in a timely fashion like BraunForm does. 

Additional background information: 

Number of years in business: 29 

Current number of employees: 215 

Current square footage: 

BraunForm, GmbH Plastics and Pharma Technology

BlackForest Region of Germany: 110,000 s.f. facility 

BraunForm, Inc. (Sales and Project Management Office)

Florida, USA 

Website: www.braunform.com 

Types of tools built and/or run: 

Because we produce so many custom applications, it is not possible to quantify all the types of tools we built and run. However, our mainstream products include:

• Prototype molds for innovative production
• High-end production molds that incorporate
  • High Cavitation / Close Tolerance Single Face Molds
  • Multi-Material Technologies (TPE / LSR)
  • Spin-Stack (Gram Technology)
  • Stack-Molds
  • Cleanroom Tooling
  • Insert Molds
  • In-Mold Labeling (IML)
  • In-Mold Assembly (IMA)
• Multi-Tool Programs
  • Series of Various Components
  • Duplicate Tooling
• Custom Hydraulic and Servo Driven Rotary Tables / Platens

Industries served:

BraunForm’s flexibility makes it open to all markets – technically and geographically. In fact, of the production molds we build in an average year, 70% of our products are exported out of Germany. Our main focus is on small to medium-sized parts that warrant our innovative technologies and manufacturing capacities, such as powder inhalers, closures, disposables, and packaging, to name a few. 

Contact Information:
Ron Cisliek
E-mail: ron.cisliek@braunform.com
Tel: 727-547-0087
Fax: 727-547-0836