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moldmakingtechnology.com 33 Taking Action If these line items seem broad, that's because they're sup- posed to be. While plotting the course is a job best-suited for those at the top, the task of actually steering the vessel falls to Mold Craft's employees, Bartz says. To that end, the mas- ter plan serves as a guide in the development of single-page sub-plans that outline specific goals and priorities for indi- vidual departments. The dramatic improvement in the shop's quote-capture rate was among the first and most significant examples of putting the plan into action. Although the master plan called for attracting a certain type of customer in broad strokes, the objectives and action items on Lidell's sales and marketing sub-plan outlined how exactly the shop planned to get there. One example was the development of a "filter" to weed out RFQs that aren't likely to pay dividends. In essence, the filter is a checklist of questions used to obtain as much information as possible about the prospec- tive customer's priorities without getting designers and engineers involved. For example, a custom molder might be asked whether it has already estimated the cost of tooling and incorporated that into the price quoted to an OEM customer. The answer can say a lot about the prospect's knowledge base, as well as the level of service it expects to receive from Mold Craft. Other common questions cover how many other toolmakers received the same RFQ and the timing of the order. Lidell emphasizes that the filter isn't just a static list. Questions tend to vary according to the specifics of the work and the nature of the prospective customer. Developing the filter was listed as a milestone on the sales and marketing sub-plan. As such, checking it off the list repre- sented significant progress toward a line item under Guiding Principles & Strategies: "Verifying that customers align with Mold Craft's values and fit our target profile before dedicating valuable resources." The filter was judged a success because it Andrew Larson (left), hard mill specialist, and Pao Vue, electrode special- ist, work near an automated cell that has dual high-speed machining purposes. The Makino F5 VMC on the left side of the robot fnishes cores, cavities and inserts after roughing and outside heat-treating operations. The Sodick HS650L VMC on the right side, purchased in January, simultaneously machines electrodes for features that can't be milled. With eight positions for blocks and 143 for graphite blanks, the Erowa Robot Compact in the middle serves up both types of components as needed.