The TPR interviewed Roger McGinnis, who is president of Richmond Tooling, Inc. in Colonial Heights, VA, and Christy Pratt, Office Manager. Richmond Tooling is a full-service, custom manufacturer of injection molds for plastic. Acknowledging the challenges that so many manufacturers have faced over the last decade, Mr. McGinnis and Ms. Pratt explain how Richmond Tooling has worked to distinguish itself and hone its capabilities to remain competitive.

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

Roger: Richmond Tooling’s niche is building molds for small molded parts and up to 16 cavities. Most of what we do in that area is heat treated. As for what is unique or different, one thing is that we’ve made some laminated cores that are furnace brazed together in such a way that we are able to install better and more uniform cooling passages, which results in faster cycles. We’ve encountered molds where the core geometry makes cooling difficult, and we figured out a way to successfully alleviate that problem.

Our customer base is in the medical, electrical, consumer, automotive (indirectly), and
packaging industries.

Christy: Another thing we do very well is provide excellent customer service. Roger and everyone here at Richmond Tooling put our customers first. We give personalized attention to each of our customers by giving them easy access to anyone and face to face time when they need questions answered. Because of this personalized attention we have had some customers for over 20 years.
 

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

Roger: I started as an apprentice moldmaker in 1960 in a shop like Richmond Tooling and worked there for 18 years. How I got into it was just by accident. I went to college for a year and it didn’t work on any level. When I got back home that summer I decided I wanted to be a machinist, but couldn’t find a job. My dad was a golfer and was playing golf one day with a guy who ran the apprenticeship program in Virginia. He gave my father the name of a mold maker that was looking for apprentices. I ended up going there and getting a job, working for 90 cents an hour. It was a good fit. After that I worked for a molder for seven years or so, but they moved to South Carolina. I didn’t want to relocate and I needed a job, so I founded Richmond Tooling. I bought a Bridgeport and a Herig Grinder and a lathe and put them in my basement. I operated the business from there for six months and then moved to a dedicated space outside of my home.

Relate a notable "best time" for your company.

Roger: A good time for Richmond Tooling was about 15 or 20 years ago. Business was really good. It just seemed to be easier. Plenty of work was out there, and we had better access to people both from a customer and worker aspect. I don’t know that it was ever real easy, but there were fewer issues then. Starting about eight years ago, it just became difficult for a lot of reasons. Work dried up and more challenges came about.

Christy: A notable best time for Richmond Tooling is also now – Richmond Tooling’s 25th Anniversary – and knowing the company has lasted through all of the challenges. That’s an accomplishment all by itself and a testament to
the company and Roger’s personal relationships with customers, especially the one we’ve had for 20 years.

Similarly, relate notable challenges that your company has overcome.

There are two examples that come to mind. The first example goes back to cooling. We’ve done some other things relative to cooling that helped reduce cycle times, which is certainly a piece of what molding is all about. One project involves an injection mold for a medical product that had cycle time issues. Roger sat down with the customer’s engineering team and helped them figure out the best way
to cool the product down and eject it more efficiently.
There was a 50% reduction in cycle time. The customer was more competitive in the market because of this result.

The second example involves waste material. Roger was able to take an existing mold and redesign to make it more efficient by cutting the runners in half and this reduced material cost.
The customer was able to recoup a lot of the mold cost with the money saved in material in the
first year.

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

One of them certainly is that we can’t start on a project until we have a part model and shrinkage data. Often there are delays in this kind of information and that can delay a project. These are important design details and getting complete information helps us to speed up the design and the mold build.

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

Roger: Three years ago we bought an Erowa robot that tends two machines including a machining center where it loads graphite electrodes to machine them. It also works on an EDM Sinker where we can change out work pieces and electrodes. This really has increased our efficiencies and enables lights out operations, which we often do.

We’ve managed to operate fairly inexpensively over the years. By design, we’ve grown slowly and have been very diligent in keeping costs down. Because we operate a bit more cheaply than others, it’s been easier to make it through the last five to eight years. The other thing we have been doing better and more of over the last 18 months is hard milling. First of all, it’s accurate. If we’ve got contoured shut-offs, we can get them right the first time; and it speeds up the process, especially with getting the blocks to heat treating. We mill less details, go to heat treat and then come back and add the details, shortening lead times. If we can hard mill rather than EDM we can reduce
lead times.

Christy: We did get a new Wire EDM machine and programming software last year that is more efficient than our older one.

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

Roger: Not at this time. We moved into our current facility 15 years ago and it’s serving us well. As for partnerships and alliances, we’re open to them, even with customers or other moldmakers, which makes sense today. We do have solid partnerships with our vendors, though. They have a big impact on our getting our products out in a timely manner and it’s been a huge thing for us and a factor in our success.

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

Christy: We are members of the AMBA Carolinas Chapter, SPE, and we are involved with the local community college that does have a machine shop for training. Roger is on the community college advisory committee for the machine shop program with 10 other people from local shops in the area, helping to develop the skill sets needed for jobs that are available. There’s a definite shift from manual to CNC type work, so this emphasis is being driven at the school to update programs. Roger will be working with the college to further develop its apprenticeship program so that it’s better across the board with regard to skills developed.

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

Roger: Five or eight years ago we saw work go to the Far East that we should have been doing, and it became difficult to find work. What I think I’m seeing now is that shops like Richmond Tooling have learned how to do the work quicker and at less cost, helping us to be competitive.

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

Roger: Shorter lead times and lower prices are real from U.S. shops because of modern machinery and modern software, and it’s my opinion that the Far East is going to be less of an issue in the future because of their rising manufacturing costs and rising transportation costs.

Christy: In 3 to 5 years there will be another section of the world that will be cheaper. It is Richmond Tooling and other American mold shops’ job to work towards being competitive with the rest of the world. This means becoming leaner on our operations and our costs. It is great to have an organization like AMBA to help get American mold builders together to share ideas that help us make our molds more competitive.         

Additional Background Information:               

For more information:

Richmond Tooling, Inc.
1830-A Ruffin Mill Circle
Colonial Heights, VA 23834

Phone: 804-520-4173

Fax: 804-520-4175