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moldmakingtechnology.com 13 The photo at left depicts precision sleeves, cores and stripper rings for high-cavity medical molds, AMT's niche market. Com- ponents like this require tolerances of ±0.0002 inch to ensure interchangeability within the mold. AMT's business also involves more than manufacturing the mold. In 1998, the company opened Advanced Custom Molders to mold plastic components like the air fow cover above. manufacturing," it represents an evolution toward a type of manufacturing that has historically been more common in high-volume production enterprises. AMT's experience shows that such an approach can be not only be viable for a relatively low-volume, high-mix operation like a mold shop, but also key to competiveness in an era when customers demand more than just tooling. A Comprehensive Offering In fact, the origins of AMT's transition lie in efforts to respond to that demand. Founded in 1978 as a tool builder, AMT expanded into the injection molding business with the open- ing of sister company Advanced Custom Molders, a full-service injection molder, in 1998. Meanwhile, the company worked to expand front-end services as well. The end game was to incor- porate as much of the engineering and production process as possible under one roof. Securing the right capabilities and expertise to deliver on this expanded service offering was no easy task, but AMT wasn't done there. Focusing on more than just building a mold meant the negative effects of any production delay could ripple throughout the entire operation. By the late 1990s/early 2000s, a period that saw a significant exodus of work to low-cost manufacturers overseas, leadership had realized that some- thing would have to change. Namely, the production process would have to become more standardized, more predictable, more transparent. A Standard Approach Making that change meant designating each major process in the tool build—CNC machining, EDM and so forth—as its own department with its own leader. These department heads meet for a kickoff meeting at the start of every new job to determine the specifics of how the job will be processed, often drawing on the input and experience of the employees under their respective umbrellas. That enables those closest to the work to provide input on how best to handle their portion of the process while also ensuring everyone understands the big picture, Bartl says. More impor- tantly, the chosen processes are followed to the letter out on the shop floor whenever pos- sible, regardless of who actually performs the work. This is a marked contrast from the previous approach, in which individuals were largely left to their own devices to determine just how to perform any given task. Although the company has always taken great pride in the skill and problem- solving abilities of its employees, this resulted in natural varia- tion from job to job—variation that obscured both recurring problems and potential new efficiencies. Following predeter- mined procedures takes the variable of the individual out of the equation. The production process would have to become more standardized, more predictable, more transparent. Images courtesy of Advanced Mold & Tooling.