Our main focus is engineering and mold design for productivity and production capability. One niche is companies that come to Janler with a piece part design, and request us to critique and modify it to allow for excellent mold design, i.e. high production with minimum downtime.

We have a big view of the molding process, the mold, and the products it makes. We have four degreed engineers and two highly experienced mold designers on staff today. Add that to the 70 plus years of experience my brother Alan and I have in the business, and you will realize how all of this experience allows us to design and build multi-component, multi-function molds that our customers have learned they can rely on.

If you love your business, if you love what you do, then anything’s possible. It’s always been that way and I believe that will never change. It’s the pride you take in your work that makes the difference. This industry was built on people like my dad who believed nothing was impossible!

Just give them a challenge and they will find a way to resolve it. They just thrived on the “impossible jobs”. We still work that way. It’s just a lot harder finding those customers. A mold is a huge upfront cost and we’re up against some hefty competition overseas. But we’re finding those opportunities, and we’re having fun doing it.

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

Between my father (Joe Klingler, co-founder of Janler) and my uncles, working at Janler over the summers and after school, learning the mechanics “hands on”- it was inevitable that I’d be in the mold making business. I have a mechanical/ geometric mind and I like the balance of it all. Molds and tooling work that way; it all makes sense to me. I couldn’t have gotten a better mold and molding education than from my family. I mean, dinner conversations revolved around the business. Your brain was always on it. I could see how much fun they were having doing it and the tremendous amount of success they had, too. Janler, founded in 1952, always supported the apprentice training programs, and has been a great training ground for many, many mold makers. In fact, many of our best competitors apprenticed or worked at Janler before breaking off to do their own thing.

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

Right now! Well, it’s always been a good time, but right now is a great time for us. When we sold our big molding operations, we had a plan. That plan took longer than expected to come together, but it is coming together and we’re really confident about the future.

We knew we wanted to go back to the core elements of Janler; engineering and mold designs for precision parts. Janler is on a growth swing. Our customer base has changed, but that too was according to our plan. We have cut ourselves to the bone to operate as lean as possible, and that too will continue. I’m very satisfied with how we did it and what’s happening as a result.

Similarly, relate notable challenges that your company has overcome.

I mentioned “impossible jobs” before and talked about how a mold maker’s pride is what pushes him to take on those challenges. We recently made a multi-cavity cap and spout mold with two tether springs on it, that when the mold opens, the two parts self assemble as they are ejected into the box, ready to ship. The customer didn’t know if it could be done, but we took on the challenge and accomplished it. Those are the kinds of jobs we go after. Don’t tell me it’s impossible, because anything is possible. It’s the methods involved in proving out those molds and our abilities that makes this business so much fun.

Another large project we were brought into was a part design that we helped critique to make it more manufacturing friendly. This was a difficult part design with 14 telescoped shut-off surfaces between core and cavity. It had multi-angle and flat shutoffs. We grew that project from part design to prototype and pre-production tooling, to six multi-cavity production molds. It was a three-year continuous improvement project. Last year the customer came to us and asked us to maintain the molds for him, so we set up the P.M. program and installed Progressive Components cycle counters, because we wanted to track real numbers. In the course of three months we raised their molding productivity output by over 15% and reduced their maintenance costs close to 50%. One year later, productivity doubled and maintenance costs continued downward. Today, instead of running all six molds to get the output they need, the customer now runs four tools while two are in the maintenance cycle. Needles to say, the customer is elated.

That’s the kind of thing a good mold maker can do for his customer that typical in-house maintenance teams can’t do. Our staff of engineers brings disciplines that are different from what the customer’s in-house team is going to have, and our mold makers are going to have a wide variety of experiences to draw on, because they work on a wide variety of molds.

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

That they better recognize the value of our experience. At the first meeting, there’s always fumbling and you feel the cold air around you, and the heat of competition. You’re not friends yet. You’re not on the same team. It takes time to learn to work together. No one becomes your best customer on the first project. But once you do work together, you begin to better understand and recognize the customer’s goals. That’s when you start to play on the same team. It all comes from trust and relationship building through experience. That’s key to being brought in early on a project where we, the mold engineering team, can be an invaluable resource. You can ask all you want to be brought in early, but there’s only one way to get invited to that party- it’s through relationship building.

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

We’ve done a lot. We’re working on new computers with new software- and that will be a continuous improvement process from now on. We have new Charmilles EDM, EDM Wire and Hole Popper machines. Our Mori Seiki Hi Speed/Hard Milling machine and Okada Graphiter have taken hours out of the build times, and helped reduce delivery time and cost. We’ve added highly experienced, degreed engineers to our staff and put them in charge of plant operations, engineering and design services. We brought in well-trained, skilled professionals that have really enhanced our operations. And we continue to train all employees in all departments. It’s the broad spectrum of disciplines and experience that they bring to their jobs that makes “gray matter” disappear, replaced with black & white procedures and processes.

In 2003, Janler achieved ISO 9001 certification, and shortly after embarked on a complete lean operations program. Owners, management staff and several mold makers attended the lean manufacturing courses sponsored by the Tooling & Manufacturing Association (TMA). We’ve focused on implementing lean manufacturing throughout the entire company. We continue to attend monthly Lean Breakfast meetings and the peer review system has been invaluable to our lean transformation and quality control systems.

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

We have definitely expanded our engineering department, and mold making actually downsized on space, but grew in capabilities. We also added several new molding machines, with muti-shot capability, for trial and pre-production runs on the newly available floor space.

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

Janler is a 50-year member of the Chicago Tooling & Manufacturing Association (TMA) and my father and I both served as board members. Janler also joined the American Mold Builders Association (AMBA) at its formation. These organizations need our participation and support.

I have also been active with the University of Illinois undergrad engineering program. The tutoring and mentoring of future industry leaders is unbelievably rewarding.

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

I think the changes occurring have been, for the most part, good changes, in the sense that mold making companies that are willing to make the transformation necessary for survival, such as reorganizing management practices, implementing lean processes and updating equipment and software, will survive. We’ve been in a horrific industry storm in recent years, and when you are in a storm you don’t just sit there and wait it out. You put on your rain boots, raincoat and hat in order to minimize impact and protect yourself as you move forward. How has it affected the way we do business? We’ve gotten lean. We’ve updated our processes and brought in key engineering people who are experienced in all of this. It’s really made a difference for us.

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

I think we’ll continue to see some attrition, and the big guys swallow up some of the smaller guys. There’s been a lot of that going on and it will no doubt continue. But I also see many companies re-engineering themselves and really coming back to life like we have in the last two years.

I think there will a place for the conglomerates and the private enterprises that keep focused on their particular niche. Mold manufacturing is not leaving this country; it’s changing. If you change with it, you’ll be in business. Janler will be there.

Additional Background Information:

Number of years in business: The Company was established in 1952.

Current number of employees: 32

Current square footage:18,000 sq.ft.

Additional locations: No

Website: www.janler.com (Currently not operational due to re-design in progress.)

Types of tools built and/or run: Injection mold tooling

Industries served: Medical, Packaging, and Electronics

CONTACT INFORMATION
6545 N. Avondale 
Chicago, IL 60631

Phone: 773-774-0166 
Fax: 773-774-2420 

Email: cek@janler.com