The TPR interviewed Bob Sloma, President of
injection mold maker JS Die & Mold, Inc. in Byron Center, MI, near
Grand Rapids.
What is your
company niche, and what does your company do that is notable,
unique or different?
That’s something
that I’ve been working on defining for the last year. Basically we
specialize in complex injection molds ranging in size between 80
and 2000 tons. We build everything from small inserted molds to
large, solid tooling. The high level of quality in our tools keeps
our customers coming back as well as the fact that we meet our
delivery dates. We’re also competitive from a timing standpoint
and often we’ll help our customers when they’re in a bind.
When and how
did you get into the industry, what attracted you to it?
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I purchased the business in
August of last year. Prior to that I worked with a Tier One
supplier and part of my career with them was as an engineering
manager for a $20 million tool & die shop that specialized in
injection and compression molds, secondary processes and
fixtures – a full service company. My background also has been
in process improvement; I have a Six Sigma and mechanical
engineering background. A little over a year ago I was looking
for a business to buy. My love is manufacturing of tooling and
piece parts. This company came up for sale and what attracted
me was that it had already been in business for 20 years and
profitable even during the downturn in 2000 to 2002. This was
a testament to the employees and |
Bob Sloma, President of
injection mold maker JS Die & Mold, Inc. in Byron Center, MI,
near Grand Rapids.
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the company’s culture. There’s a good culture here of continuous
improvement and what I’m bringing to the table is more structure
and a methodology to our process improvement efforts.
Relate a
notable "best time" for your company.
I would say that
this year has been one of our best years – a record from a sales
standpoint. It’s been a little more challenging from a profit
standpoint but I’m pretty much meeting my goal of breaking even.
This next year looks to be even better. We’re in the process now
of diversifying our business and growing our non-automotive segment
and so I’m looking at even better things ahead.
Similarly,
relate notable challenges that your company has overcome.
We do not shy
away from taking on offshore tooling and doing certification of
them for our customers, and we’ll make engineering changes, which
are inevitable. We’ve often taken offshore tooling and built new
cavities because of parting line issues, cracked cores or the
tooling is just not up to our customers’ standards or that of any
North American 
mold
manufacturer.
We also pride
ourselves on delivering injection molds when we say we can and our
program managers and management staff focus on program management
to ensure we meet deliveries. For example, we were able to take on
a large rear truck fender prototype tool that a customer thought
could not get done in the eight week timeframe an OEM customer
needed. We met the delivery and both customers were very pleased
with the overall quality of the prototype parts that came off of
the tool. Our personal attention allowed us to help them make
their OEM happy.
When you are
working on projects with your customers, what aspects would you
like them
to better recognize?
I would say that
the aspects that are the biggest stumbling blocks are product
changes during the initial tool design and getting us more involved
in the up-front part design. That’s something that we’re trying to
work on with our customers more – making sure the product is
designed for manufacturability as early in the process as
possible. Another thing we try to make them aware of, and offer as
often as possible, is our ability to make product design changes
before the mold is built. We can often take a design and make it
better and more conducive to manufacturing. Getting us involved in
their design reviews is critical and could save them time and
sometimes also money in the long run.
List newly
acquired technology, machinery or key personnel (in last year).
In the last year I’ve
been focusing most on personnel. I’ve hired a sales manager, Bob
Donovan. He has experience in the plastics industry. He was a
general manager at a plastic parts manufacturer and has also been a
sales rep during his career, so we’re in the process of building a
sales rep organization that reaches beyond the usual 250-mile
radius.
I’ve also hired a
quality manager, Rick Tippett, who is leading our ISO 9000
recertification. He also has Six Sigma experience and he’s in the
process of leading us in our first formal process improvement
project.
We are in the
process of putting our entire engineering team on Catia V5, a
computer-aided design solid modeling package. Our engineering
department has been set up with a division between the designers
and the surface modelers, so we’re basically going to combine those
two groups into one organization to do 3D solid designing for our
tooling. I figure that I can take a week out of the process by
doing that – I’ve done it before so I know it works. Catia V5 is
one of the two major 3D design packages that are out there. It’s
really come down to Unigraphics and Catia now. We’ve found a lot
of our customers are looking to Catia in particular.
Has your
company recently expanded? Plans to expand or form
partnerships/alliances?
We are a charter member
in the formation of the Great Lakes Tool & Die Collaborative (www.gltdc.com).
We are seeing some business happening between members. We are in
the process of utilizing a connection with one of our partners to
work with a major shoe manufacturer to come up with a proposal on
how we can do more for them from a tooling standpoint. We found
out that they still source all their designs and tooling in North
America.
Looking at it
from our company’s viewpoint, I thought about forming some China
connections, but now, over the past year, I have conceived ways for
us to instead compete with them. Speed of delivery is part of the
ability to compete. From a strategic standpoint I may follow some
of my customers into Mexico, but that probably won’t occur for
another year or two.
Are you
involved in any industry organizations or educational programs
related to the trade?
We are a member
of the American Mold Builders Association (AMBA), and we are on the
advisory council of the local high school (Byron Center High
School) where they have a tech program. They are in the process of
reorganizing that program, but we donate materials and equipment to
them and we also provide a scholarship for seniors going into
continued tech education after high school to encourage them to
stay in the trade or at least in engineering. I think it’s
important for those going into tech trades such as engineering to
have shop experience as a background. Even though I have a
bachelors and masters degree, I made sure I took shop classes and
believe it is important for kids to understand what it takes to
make the products we use everyday.
What do you
think about changes occurring in the industry due to
globalization? How has it affected the way you do business?
I see
globalization as a double-edged sword – it’s an incredible threat
as well as an opportunity. As I was buying this business I was
thinking about the issues going on in the industry… My belief is
that we are still going to be looking at further consolidation
because we have more capacity than there is demand. We also have
to compete with the lower costs offshore. We have to get it down
to the point where we are just competing on technology because
they, offshore, have to use the same technology. That means driving
toward more automation to help take 
labor costs
out. One of the things I’m looking at is “productionizing” our
manufacturing process. I found it quite interesting this year that
Plante Moran’s report has changed from a mold maker survey to the
mold manufacturing industry survey, showing the technology side of
the industry. As I mentioned before I think we can compete with
speed, so we’re driving toward shorter lead times as a main focus.
That will help us on cost and our customers are willing to pay for
speed.
We’re also
working on our marketing and selling our value added services such
as product design. We’re also looking at our customers and seeing
what services we could provide after the mold is built and trying
to position ourselves to be able to provide them.
I’ve heard of the
desire of overseas companies to buy larger tooling from North
America. This may be an opportunity at some point, depending on
currency valuation and our country’s trade policies.
What will the industry look like in 3 to 5 years?
There will be
more consolidated, faster and leaner players. I think we’ll also
see more small players with high automation, assuming they have the
money to purchase the capital. For ourselves, we’re going to be
looking at how we would lay out our factory floor if we were to
start from scratch. Companies will be looking at specific core
competencies and services. We’re already seeing that happen in
companies specializing in wire burning, laser welding, etc., and
the tooling industry will probably follow suit.
Additional
background information:
Number of
years in business: 21
Current number
of employees: 51
Current square
footage (each location): 20,000 square feet – 18,000 mfg
Additional
locations: None at this time.
Website:
www.jsdie.com
Types of tools
built and/or run: Injection mold tooling
Industries
served: Automotive, medical, appliances, consumer products and
more.
Contact
Information:
JS Die & Mold
8505 Piedmont Industrial Park Dr.
Byron Center, Michigan 49315
Phone: 616-878-1597
Email:
bobs@jsdie.com
Sales Manager Bob Donovan:
bobd@jsdie.com