By Sean Shafer
Business Unit Manager,
Die/Mold Technologies
In spite of overseas competition and higher material costs in the plastics industry, the dollar volume of investment in new plastics processing equipment is up. At the same time, the unit volume for investment in new plastics machinery is flat. What does this mean? It appears we’ve lost a significant portion of commodity work to overseas competitors, and that has been replaced with value-added products and services. High value, precision technology is beginning to dominate the North American plastics industry.
Plastic inventory to shipment ratios are still in decline, meaning that the plastics industry is continuing to improve its efficiency. Much of this can be attributed to increased investment in equipment and technologies to enhance productivity. This trend will continue.
About eight years ago, the Asian die/mold market set a goal to hit 80 percent market share by 2008. Many in the U.S. laughed this off, but now are seeing the results of this goal.
Given the trends above, what goal should the North American die/mold market strive towards? Where can we prosper and what niche can we exploit into opportunity, allowing us to continue to grow beyond the commodities?
At recent trade shows and shop visits I’ve noticed a trend for moldmakers to note - great success is being found for those taking advantage of unique or emerging industries such as medical, micro, large molds and high-value tooling. Such industries provide prime examples of value-added products and services, which can be very profitable for those willing to tackle the tougher programming, accuracies and materials. These markets need innovative, responsive, technologically-driven manufacturers - North American manufacturers. And if the plastic molders and OEM’s are changing their business models, the mold builder should, too.
These niches can often be found at the extremes - the big, the small, and the unique.
Large molds bring unique concerns such as massive tooling that’s hard to move, heavy-duty fixtures, and reduction of setups to make the process efficient. Micromachining usually calls for very small tools that are hard to handle and careful programming. Unique molds and dies, such as high-value tooling and medical, often require machining tough materials in short lead-times, extreme accuracies and several steps of quality control.
In this issue of Competitive Mold Maker, we’ll share some examples of North American manufacturers who have successfully found their niche by producing complex, value-added molds and dies. We’ll also discuss how we can continue the trend of improving the efficiency of the die/mold industry by applying lean principles.
Contact Sean at 248-232-6200; E-Mail: Sean.Shafer@Makino.com.