MSI Mold Builders: Breaking Tradition

Roger Klouda got into the trade like most of the men and women in it – he followed in his father’s footsteps. His father owned a tool & die shop for more than 25 years. When the industry slowed in the late 1960s, his father established a mold repair business and called it Manufacturing Specialties, Inc. From there the business blossomed into a full service moldmaking operation and does business as MSI Mold Builders.

Roger Klouda came by his interest in the industry honestly, and he joined his father’s company as a partner in 1978.

MSI built primarily aluminum tooling for structural foam at first; then in the late 1970s the company started an injection tooling division, building high pressure injection molds. Today, MSI Mold Builders designs and builds various types of steel and aluminum molds for injection, structural foam, rim, blow, gas assist and structural web processes, in addition to aluminum limited production injection molds. The split is about 70% plastic injection, 30% foam, according to Klouda, who is president of MSI.

The company experienced a growth spurt beginning in 1989 when a new, 23,000-square-foot building was built. In 1994, a 14,000-square-foot addition was constructed, making the current 37,000-square-foot headquarters as it stands today. This plant employs 90.

In 1981, MSI established its Bentonville, AR, plant (MSI South), opening a new, 10,000-square-foot facility in 2000. There are 18 employees at MSI South. Finally, in 2001, MSI acquired the assets of an existing mold shop in Greenville, S.C., naming it MSI Southeast. That plant is approximately 20,000 square feet and employs 18.

Klouda explains that his company builds molds for the computer and business machine, medical diagnostics, material handling, sporting goods, lawn and garden, appliance, consumer electronics, heavy equipment and transportation industries. Though the company does not do any actual processing in house, it does have a 1,000-ton sampling press.

All of this may not seem extraordinary, but when you realize the timeframe within which this growth spurt happened and you listen to Klouda describe his company’s corporate philosophy and all of the internal restructuring that was done, you realize this is a mold company that is setting the mark for all other mold companies to follow.

“It was probably eight to 10 years ago when we realized that the conventional mold making process was not very efficient,” Klouda explains. “So we embarked on a planning session including all of our personnel. We wanted everyone to contribute toward finding the best way to manufacture tools.

“One of the first things we realized was we needed better management of the process and a better process for building tools,” he continued. “We were like every other shop, your best moldmaker became your lead man; your best designer was your lead designer and so on. We realized we needed professional management. The key was getting the right people in the right positions. We always had good people, but we lacked getting the right guys in place. Our best toolmaker was not necessarily the best manager.”

“We just decided we needed a change and bringing outside people was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up” Klouda says and it worked.

The key came 4 years ago, he says, when MSI had the opportunity to replace some people. They hired a financial person who knew manufacturing. They brought on an engineering manager who had mold industry experience as well as management. MSI also hired an Operations Manager who had more manufacturing operations management experience. His name is Steve Kimm.

Kimm worked for 17 years at Amana Refrigeration, and most recently as the manager of its industrial engineering group. His duties included improving the efficiency of not only molding operations, but also stamping, vacuum forming, roll forming and other manufacturing processes.

The changes happened in about a six-month period. Klouda notes that it was hard to get his mold makers to understand that they didn’t need a manager that is mold savvy, but someone who knew more about manufacturing overall and could pull it all together. But once the guys understood, everything began to come together.

Kimm helped set MSI on the pathway to leaner operations by evaluating what is called a value stream, and into what is a more streamlined operations process, plus he got rid of waste in the plants which included machinery and equipment.

“I know it works,” he says. “It reduces costs. MSI developed a Visual Scheduling System or a Visual Factory where you can walk into an area and you know exactly what the schedule and the priority is. You know the hours consumed, the hours sold and you know the plan. You can see what is being measured and what has purpose.”

“We completely departmentalized the plant,” Klouda explains. “We went from having about 50 people on the floor with journeyman experience and status to about eight doing the actual mold building work. Everyone is specialized in an aspect of the mold building process now. Had you told me 10 years ago that I could turn a moldmaker into an EDM Specialist and have him be happy, I would have told you that you were crazy. But it happened.”

Klouda says his employees get a sense of accomplishment today that they didn’t have 10 years ago. He says they truly understand that the needs of the industry or any manufacturing operation, is to be as efficient as possible.

Kimm says baseline productivity improvement was up by 18% after the first year. Four years later he measures an overall improvement of about 70% and the team continues to find ways to improve further. “If you can’t offset the deflation of mold prices with the efficiency improvements of the business, you will no longer exist”.

“You always have to be evaluating what the customer is willing to pay for,” says Kimm, who subscribes to lean practices including getting rid of clutter and distraction created by equipment no longer utilized in a plant.

In addition to the reorganization of his team, Klouda also put everyone in the company through continuous process improvement training. The objective of that was to educate his staff on how to gather data and how to make decisions based on that data.

“We wanted them to learn how to establish what the particular payback would be for any action taken based on those decisions,” he explains. “We wanted them to be able to make those measurements before putting anything new into place, whatever it might be, in order to maximize on our investment of time and resources.

“One big thing we’ve done is completely change the flow of the work through the plant so that jobs literally move from one end to the other more efficiently,” he adds. “When a mold comes off one machine it goes right to the next machine rather than to the rack in between processes. It’s right there for the next guy to work on. This cuts down on what we call ‘non-value added time.’ The customer may not care about this operational change, but the costs and time associated with downtime adds no value to the job in their eyes either.”

Klouda says his company probably manufactures in excess of 200 molds per year. The departmentalization the company went through goes right down to some of the smallest mold building tasks.

“We have four guys in the plant that make every ejector box for all of those tools,” he says. Most mold shops have a tool crib with bolt stock, ejector pin stock and other components. One guy then oversees inventory and the rest of the guys have to go to him. It just doesn’t make sense anymore.

“In our plant, there is an assembly area where everything they need to assemble the tool is there when they need it,” he continues. “They don’t have to chase it down.”

Klouda says he’s working on is getting a vendor to put ejector pins and other mold components in his plants on consignment. He feels that there are a lot of hidden costs involved in the process that one doesn’t see on the tool. Having someone keep his company stocked up once a month would save time and money because his tool room would have everything his guys need when they need it.

Taking the Art Out of the Part

Klouda breaks an age-old mold industry image when he says moldmaking is not a one of a kind industry where every mold is unique in and of itself. Rather, it behooves the industry, in his opinion, to apply good manufacturing principles to it. At least that is what he is doing at MSI.

“All molds are basically the same and where you can apply a conventional manufacturing processes to you should do it so that you have more time to do more customized work,” he states. “Standardization and minimization of resources is critical to more streamlined operations and cost savings.

“Focus on standardization and efficiency and don’t look at a mold as an art form, but as a manufacturing process,” he advises. “We [moldmakers] have spent too much time trying to defend what we do as an art form when our customers just see a tool. If they could get by without molds, they’d do it. There are parts of our business that are somewhat artsy, but then again, there’s not that much that’s art.”

A strong statement, but Klouda assures you it is the right way to look at things. His company’s success is proof enough.

Getting down to brass tacks, Klouda cut 10 people out of the operation three years ago.

“We didn’t miss a beat as far as sales are concerned,” he says. “No one ever walked up to me and said ‘you got rid of the wrong guy.’ It’s a mistake to think that someone that is producing at 60% is better than not having anyone at all. It’s just not true.”

Getting the team to all pull in the same direction has been key to MSI’s success, he explains. The company has not had a decrease in sales of any significance over the last three years.

“This year we’ll probably be up about 20%,” says Klouda. “Part of that is because of the streamlining process. What took 14 weeks to build five years ago now takes 8-9 weeks – and it hasn’t been that hard.”

The greatest gains have been from removing the dead time as well as the excuses. No longer is “We can’t do it because …” an acceptable response. The current attitude is “What do we have to do to make it happen.”

Even during the slow time, if you can call it that, MSI was investing in equipment. For example, Klouda purchased a 5-axis, high-speed CNC machining center (can handle blocks 64x110”) and this year a second one is budgeted for.

“We believe in having state of the art equipment and it’s really the only way we can compete,” he says. “We’re maximizing on what we have in machines and people. The new machine will be for bigger molds.”

Kimm agrees state of the art equipment is important but he says it’s the processes within the plant that make the difference.

“Some of the best improvements on efficiency were made during the time we were using the same old machinery we’ve always had,” he asserts. “It’s streamlining the process, not just capital improvements, that make the difference.”

In terms of sales and service, Klouda says it is because his project managers don’t manage tools on the floor that they have time to manage customers and prospect for new customers and sales. He and his managers have spent a lot of time basically training their customers to know what is required at their end if they want the short lead times and quality tools. He says the customers have been receptive to their input and some solid working relationships have been established as a result. He also says that it’s a lot of work, but it’s necessary.

The Engineering Services Department is probably the next area up for reorganization, Klouda says. His team is just starting a review process to establish criteria for shorter lead times.

In addition to reorganization, the company brings in consultants – people who understand how to help people make decisions and identify problems. Klouda’s goal is not to have these consultants solve the problems, but to help employees identify opportunities and facilitate the solution, as well as training in the decision making process.

“It helps cut through the internal political crap and get to the heart of the problem,” he says. “It’s an education for us, because my guys learn that the things we are asking them to do is not MSI management trying to do something to them, but instead it’s wanting good processes in place for accomplishing goals while cutting time and costs.”

Klouda says his company shares all pertinent costs with the people in the plant – labor percentages, repair budgets, building budgets, etc. The purpose is to ensure they understand what it takes to build a tool.

“We figure the smarter they are about these things the more they can help us,” says Klouda. “We’re not open book, but we’ve trained them to recognize where costs affect or don’t affect operations.

“I would say 90% of the guys are more trusting, helpful and believing because of their involvement; the rest are still skeptical,” he continues. “You're never going to get everyone together on that, but I'd like to see more improvement. It’s been an eye-opener for some of them, especially in the continuous improvement process – when they do their numbers and there’s no payback on some of the ideas they have.”

There’s obviously been some payback for the company overall, and Klouda sees that continuing far into the future.

For more information on MSI Mold Builders, go their website at www.msimoldbuilders.com, or call 319-848-7001.