Service. We have the philosophy around here that we have a ‘tooling ER’ that’s always prepared for tool repair and tool work. We realize our customers have schedules to meet and if a mold is down, it’s critical to get them back up and running. We jump through hoops for them and that’s probably one of the biggest things they like about us. Quality also brings them back… I’ve never had a customer say our quality was any less then excellent. We stick with a job for however long it takes to make it a superior tool. In our area there aren’t a tremendous amount of tool shops so we do provide a more unique service as compared to shops that are up north where there’s a lot of competition. Not that there isn’t any competition – it’s worldwide now. But locally there probably aren’t as many as in other locales and that makes us all the more valuable to our customers.
 

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

My dad was a mechanical engineer and worked in the tooling industry. He was a designer and worked his way up through the business, so I grew up with the industry. In addition, my next door neighbor owned a tool & die shop and I started working for him at age 14. In high school I took shop classes and they helped get me even more interested in the trade. It’s a shame that there aren’t as many shop classes in high schools anymore. There are a lot of kids getting left behind that could be great in this industry. When I got my driver’s license I worked after school and put in full-time hours – whatever it took to learn the trade. I just loved it and I enjoyed making money. When I graduated I went to college for a couple of years but told my dad I was wasting my time and his money and instead got into a local apprenticeship. A few years later I got married and got a job at Black & Decker and that’s where I really got exposed to mold making. I was there for about five years until they relocated back to Maryland. I had started my own shop in my own back yard while still at B&D. It was either move to Maryland with B&D or stay where I was and move forward on my own. Together with my wife Karen, whom I have been married to for 28 years, we moved forward on our own. Karen continues to work here with us and without her I don’t know if we would have made it. She has truly been a blessing. Having a partner that you can truly trust and who understands the hardships that come with the business is wonderful. I was about 26 at the time. That’s where Superior Tooling was born. We still have photos of our kids carrying parts around the shop on their Hot Wheels back then. We’ve been at our current location in Wake Forest for about six years.
 

Relate a notable "best time" for your company.

Probably the best time was when we built our new plant (their current location). That was exciting. The vision of the company grew to a new level at that point. The business was growing as well. We set all kinds of records that first year. It was followed by some of the biggest challenges we’ve faced, but we’re still here. We survived that. But I remember the good times and those were great times.
 

Similarly, relate notable challenges that your company has overcome.

The biggest challenge I think we face is in repairs. Often the tools are coming from a different source and they’re not right. You have to re-engineering them and make them work from something you had nothing to do with in the first place. You have to be very inquisitive and come up with a ways and means of making it right. There have been so many cases like this for us to deal with.

For example, we had a mold that made a cover for a satellite dish and it had a broken cavity. It cracked into the water lines and they had huge problems with it. We came up with a way to cut the section out, insert it and run water lines so they routed through the insert. We saved the mold and it’s still running today. We saved the customer a lot of money and down time because we turned this job around in a week or two. 

As for new tooling, we just finished two 32-cavity molds and our goal was to achieve a 4- to 5-second cycle time. Working with the molder we came up with a design that accomplished that goal. These are very, very high quality molds and we just got more work from that customer because of what we did with the first two. 50 million parts per year are being run off these molds.

There are a few other success stories from this year, too. Some of our customers have helped us get new business because they tell others about us. We don’t always know how new customers find out about us, but they do and we’re thrilled.
 

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

The support that we can give. It’s not only us – it’s most U.S. tool shops. You can get support from U.S. tool shops that you can’t get from China. China’s only going to stand behind that mold until it leaves the dock. We’re pretty much held accountable for a tool for life and we’re willing to be there and do that. The support that comes from Superior comes without a price tag. Most of the time the tool shops are held accountable and changes are made on good faith and for no charge. You don’t get that anywhere else. I’d also like them to recognize that we can sit down with them and design the tools and communicate with them up front like no one off shore can. Once a purchasing agent places a tool, they wash their hands of it. It goes on to engineering. I don’t know too many engineers that don’t say they’d rather buy tools from a U.S. shop just because of the communications and support they get. If a purchasing agent would just look at their tooling costs from the beginning through part production they would see we’re a great value (U.S. mold makers).
 

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

Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) – we’ve really stepped that up this year along with our Metrology Lab. That was put in place to be able to offer first article inspection and also to inspect the tools we build. We also do a lot of reverse engineering. Sometimes we’ll get a mold that’s damaged. The drawings don’t always match the actual tool we’re dealing with so we’ll reverse engineer the tool and save time and also money before the repair is done. We provide these services for other suppliers as well.
 

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

We expanded five years ago when we moved into our new building, doubling our space. We do work with other companies, sending work out to suppliers who are specialty houses for such things as round cores, polishing, welding and mold bases. The other partnering we do is working with fellow American Mold Builders Association (AMBA) members, trading work back and forth depending on our needs. I want to expand in that direction and continue building on those opportunities.
 

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

We’re pretty active with the AMBA and we have an apprenticeship program. Tech schools come by once or twice a year for tours and once a year I give a lecture to a manufacturing engineering class at North Carolina State University. I’ve been doing this for about three years now. At first I was kind of disappointed in it and there wasn’t a lot of attentiveness from the students. But this year when I went back it was the total opposite. The students were totally interested; they asked lots of questions and it gave me some hope back. Many students used to ask, “Who wants to go into manufacturing?” Now it’s changing – at least around here – and I’m finding that they are seeing the advantages of working in the trades again. I hope that continues. If there’s one thing I can’t stress enough it’s that there are not enough schools promoting metalworking as a viable career option. Too many kids are still under the impression that what we do is dirty and uneducated work. In fact, and your readers know this, mold making has become very high tech and it’s always been a pretty clean environment to work in. I have received many compliments from people that tour my plant about how clean it is. I’m a stickler for keeping a very clean shop.
 

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

I think it’s a disappointment because we’re losing the skills and technology in this country. I think people have forgotten that we were the strongest in technology in this world. In order to be successful and prosperous as a country you have to be able to produce something. In order to get back to the way we were it’s going to take centuries. The cheap products at Wal-Mart are great, but it’s nothing compared to what we had before globalization. Everything anyone ever touches went through the hands of a toolmaker somewhere. Just reach out your hand and touch something. If we lose that for good to another country we’re going to be beholden to that other country. We’re losing the ability to be self sufficient.

Globalization has made us slow our growth rate and reduced our apprenticeship program. The fact is, nobody is going to come to the U.S. from another country to have a mold built. That just doesn’t happen very often. So we’re working smarter and with fewer workers. We can’t compete with China on price, so we sell our quality, attention to detail, and other services we’ve talked about previously.
 

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

I think we’re going to see a bit of leveling off on the rush to go to China because more and more people are realizing it’s not the bargain it was thought to be. We’re going to see a little more level of a playing field. Our government will hopefully wake up to the fact that we can’t lose what’s left of our manufacturing base and enact tariffs or take other actions. The government should offer some kind of tax credit to companies that keep business in the U.S. as opposed to the current laws that reward companies that go offshore. Health insurance needs to be reformed as well. I think we’ll continue to see mold making shops close up because they can’t afford health insurance, rising fuel costs and other expenses that go with being a business owner in the U.S. I think the shops that survive are the ones that are willing to take some of the steps that we’ve talked about – downsizing, working smarter, keeping up with technology. But many can’t afford to do all of that. Technological advancements should be made as long as there’s business enough to support investment in it.
 

Additional background information:

Number of years in business: 21 years 

Current number of employees: 20

Current square footage (each location): 20,000 square feet

Additional locations: None at this time

Website: www.superiortoolinginc.com 


Types of tools built and/or run: Build injection molds, stamping dies, blow molds, compression and die cast tooling, jigs and fixtures and precision machine work.

Industries served: medical, electrical, telecom, house wares and appliances, some automotive – just about everything but toys. 

Contact Information:
Superior Tooling Inc.
2800 Superior Drive
Wake Forest, NC 27587
Phone: 919-570-9762
Fax: 919-570-9765
rearnhardt@sti-nc.com