The TPR interviewed Nick Schommer, Director of Tooling Services, at Phillips Plastics. Based in Phillips, WI, Phillips Plastics boasts more than 718,737 square feet of manufacturing and R&D space, mainly located in Wisconsin. The company also has formed strategic alliances with tooling and processing companies in Europe, the Far East, Mexico and South America.

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

We serve original equipment manufacturers in virtually every market. We have established ourselves as a premiere source for the design and manufacture of custom plastic and metal injection molded components. By pairing talented individuals with state-of-the-art technology, we have developed an infrastructure of complete resources that can provide solutions to even the toughest molding challenges.

Understanding the value of having a single source providing development through production services under one roof, we offer cross-functional experts in the areas of design, engineering, tooling and production to ensure that components are designed, tooled and molded to the highest quality and lowest cost possible. During all phases of the process, the focus is to design and build quality production tooling in the least amount of time at a competitive cost. The result of all of this is getting our customers to market extremely fast. In some cases this can mean millions of dollars to customers in additional sales.

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

Phillips Plastics Corporation’s story began in 1964 in a northern Wisconsin creamery, when co-founders Robert Cervenka and Louie Vokurka had a vision for a molding company. This vision, along with a press dubbed “Lester” and a handful of people, helped create what has become one of the largest and most respected injection molders in the country. Today, we have annual sales of over $230 million and employ 1,500 people in 14 locations.

From a personal standpoint I got into the industry by chance and it’s been great. While going to school I wanted to find a part-time job and ended up applying at UFE, Inc. in River Falls, WI. That was 22 years ago. I’ve been working at Phillips Plastics for the past 17 years now. Initially I worked on the molding operations side of the business, eventually moving into a project engineering role. From there I took on what we call Opportunity Development and then became General Manager of our Design Development Center. Most recently I’ve taken on the Tooling Services leadership role and it has been a great bunch of people to work with.

Relate a notable "best time" for your company.

That is a difficult question to answer as each year brings something new and better. However, in the early 1990’s the company made a strategic decision to begin serving the Medical Market. 35% of our sales are now medical and that is working out well for us. We did not get out of other markets but have been growing medical at a faster pace. This has worked well for us for a couple of reasons. One is obvious in that we do not have all of our sales coming from a single market. Second is our focus on high quality, which serves the medical market well.

Similarly, relate notable challenges that your company has overcome.

Like all mold shops we have had to overcome the challenges of competition from oversees. To do this we have been implementing new technologies and equipment and focusing on speed. We are also incorporating into our part designs the advantages that technologies such as high-speed machining offer. These technologies are driving us to hard machine as much as possible. To hard machine more we try to incorporate part designs that allow us to do this. It also changes the way we approach our electrode design and what we want to burn. While we may not be able to eliminate all burning, we can minimize it. This speeds the mold manufacturing process.

We also have the capability to offer prototype parts that are injection molded in specification resins in as few as 5-10 days to meet a wide range of advanced design and manufacturing verification needs. Our innovative RPTech™ (Rapid Process Technologies) process is utilized in developing concepts for manufacturability while facilitating accelerated verification time frames, significant reductions in development costs, and quality components that are designed for manufacture.

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

It is important to think about the manufacturability of a tool right from the beginning of a project, even during the industrial design phase. Our product designers are splitting the tool in their minds soon after they start. They are looking at the manufacturability of a mold from the beginning and that does a few things — it makes a mold easier and less expensive to manufacture and more robust when it’s all done. Our designers are talking to our manufacturing and tooling engineers all the time, so when they are thinking about product design they are thinking about long-term manufacturability of that part and how to make that mold exceed our customers’ expectations. Subsequently, when our mold manufacturing teams get that geometry we can really fly with it.

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

The company’s tooling services offer several advantages including maximum part-to-part repeatability, reduced time-to-market, and competitive pricing. Our high-volume molds frequently run well in excess of one million cycles due to superior tool materials and construction, supported by strict maintenance schedules. In addition, we frequently use mold simulation software to identify potential molding issues prior to tool construction when design changes are easily incorporated at minimal expense.

A recent investment of nearly $3 million in high speed machining, EDM and automation equipment and training was made to remain a technologically advanced company. High speed machining is a method of producing a wide variety of tooling that adds precision, automation, quality, and increased throughput. All three of our mold manufacturing locations now have high-speed machining capabilities up to 42,000rpm. The oldest machine is less than three years old and we are planning to buy at least two more machines. Recent equipment purchases include: three Roeders RFM 600 High Speed Machining Centers, two Mazak Nexus 510- Machining Centers, one Haas VF3SS, three new Charmilles Sinker EDMs, two Charmilles Wire EDMs, and three System 3R robotic systems. By implementing this technology, machining and polishing times are reduced by at least 50% in some cases and allows for automated 24/7 operations.

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

In the past year we have grown by about $30 million in sales. For the most part we had existing capacity in our existing plants to handle this growth.

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

A number of people are involved in trade organizations such as the AMBA, the Society of Plastics Engineers, and the Industrial Design Society of America. In addition, the company works with the state to hire tooling apprentices. At the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie, one of our people teaches CAD related courses and Phillips Plastics’ owners have endowed a chair at Stout to teach a course that explores the competitive advantage that can be obtained by creating and nurturing a corporate culture that treats people with respect.

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

Globalization is inevitable and we try not to view it as a bad thing. We don’t want to just go out there and find suppliers; we want to ensure that the processes we have in place in North America are in place overseas as well so that there is a continuation in the level of quality we provide our customers. Establishing alliances overseas has been a slow process and a big learning curve. We now have one offshore source for molding and we have relationships with three offshore mold builders as well. Again, we want to build relationships and use the right resources for the right program and I think Phillips does this. We have to make sure tools are run well, not just for production start-up, but five or ten years from now.

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

I think it’s going to continue to grow. Companies that change with their customers will continue to thrive. Globalization is part of this change so we must include it in our strategic planning. Companies that are going to stick around will be those finding ways to differentiate themselves and that’s a different mindset than we had to have in the 1990’s.

Additional Background Information:

Number of years in business: 42

Current number of employees: 1500

Current square footage: 718,737 square feet

Additional locations:
Corporate Center
Custom I
Custom II
Phillips, WI

Design Development Center
Hudson, WI

Design Development Center West
Sunnyvale, CA

Multi-Shot Molding
Operations Center
Magnesium Injection Molding
Eau Claire, WI

Medical Molding and Assembly
Metal Injection Molding
Origen Center
Menomonie, WI

Precision Decorating
Medford, WI

Technology Center
Prescott, WI

Short Run
New Richmond, WI


Website: www.phillipsplastics.com

Contact Information:

Phillips Plastics
Opportunity Development
1201 Hanley Road
Hudson, Wisconsin 54016
877.508.0252
715.381.3291 fax
info@phillipsplastics.com
 

Types of tools built and/or run: Market Entry, Prototype, Castings, SLA, Machined Models, Master Unit Die, and Production Tooling

Industries served: automotive, medical, consumer, industrial, defense, lawn and garden, recreational, and appliance