Modern Plastics Worldwide - October 2007 - dae uptlax

MODERN EXECUTIVE
The global operation, industrial style
By Clare Goldsberry
Some moldmakers claim to be ‘global,’
when what they mean is they can
find a mold shop somewhere in the
world that will build a mold for them if
that’s what a customer wants.
It’s obviously more difficult to set up
physical operations globally, but that’s
the path that Industrial Molds Inc.
(Rockford, IL) and Axis Inc. (Peoria, IL)
have taken with their Industrial World
Sourcing (IWS) venture, established in
February 2007.
Axis Inc. offers integrated engineering
solutions from concept through design,
analysis, modeling, detailing, tooling and
final product drawings. The company
offers back-office services through its
parent firm in Noida, India: these services
include mechanical engineering, professional
services contracting, software
services, and architectural engineering
services. Industrial Molds, which makes
molds for injection molding of thermoplastics
and thermoset plastics, plus
metal die casting, and Axis have a common
owner.
Spanning the globe
“We’re truly a global company, with
molding and mold manufacturing facilities
in the U.S., three facilities in Sweden,
a molding plant in Mexico, mold manufacturing
in China, and an engineering
joint venture in India,” says Tim
Peterson, sales manager for Industrial
Molds. The Swedish connection is via its
partner there, Ferbe Tools AB.
Industrial World Sourcing (IWS) has
been incorporated as a part of the companies’
expanding global footprint. With
more customers demanding a single point
of purchase for product and design engineering,
mold manufacturing, molding,
Creating a truly global company takes innovative entrepreneurialism, a
willingness—eagerness, even—to cross borders, and the investment
necessary to establish the support systems in order to be successful.
Pyramid Plastics is the precision molding unit within the IWS venture.
and contract manufacturing, it became
obvious to officials at Axis and Industrial
Molds that together they could create more
waves on the world stage. “We can take a
product from a sketch on paper to a finished
product, and do that with our capabilities
wherever in the world customers
require it,” Peterson says. “Some customers
want a global supplier, and need
our expertise worldwide. To have these
capabilities helps us get a foot in the door
of companies that won’t even talk to you if
you don’t have a global reach.”
Other OEMs, particularly those that
don’t manufacture globally but want to
take advantage of lower-cost manufacturing,
contract with IWS so they don’t
have to deal with foreign contractors
themselves, Peterson explains. “They
don’t want to be up at 2 a.m. taking a
phone call from a guy in China about a
production problem,” he adds.
IWS provides various levels of service
depending on a customer’s requirements.
For example, for a customer who wants
high-production, precision tooling, this
would be done at the company’s Rockford
plant. Less-precise or lower part-volume
tooling would be done in China. Assembly
operations could take place at IWS’s molding
operations, Pyramid Plastics in the
U.S., or Pyramid de Mexico. Design, particularly
detailing work for mold prints,
will be done in India. The time difference
allows the detailing work to be done while
it’s night in the U.S., with prints ready to
go the next morning. “It’s a support system
for the U.S. engineering team,”
Peterson notes.
Having global capabilities is not just
about price. “We can’t be just cheap.
There are a million companies that will do
‘cheap.’ We need to provide the value of a
good solution and meet customer’s
requirements at all levels,” Peterson stresses.
“We want to be about solutions.”
Those solutions include not just moldmaking
and molding but also assembly
and value-added operations, Moldflow
analysis, part modeling, design of experiment
and finite element analysis. IWS also
provides consulting services, project management,
and sourcing for customers who
need those services.
“We make sure we understand exactly
what the customer needs,” says
Peterson, “then leverage our global capa-
MPW
bilities to provide that solution.”
38 OCTOBER 2007 • MODERN PLASTICS WORLDWIDE modplas.com