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10 MoldMaking Technology —— SEPTEMBER 2017 Profile Image courtesy of Big 3 Precision Products Inc. Over the last 15 years, Big 3 has made sever- al moves to expand, including being acquired by TVV Capital, acquiring other companies and forming strategic partnerships. How has this affected the way Big 3 operates and serves its customers? Todd Riley, COO: In 2001, founder and CEO Alan Schedit and a team of successful indus- try veterans formed the injection stretch blow mold (ISBM) group. In 2003, we acquired a well-established Injection Blow Mold (IBM) tool group and its facility in Millville, New Jersey, from the Alcan Plastics Group. In 2006, we acquired the world class design team known as R. J. Abramo Associates Inc., located in Holliston, Massachusetts. In 2012, the Nashville, Tennessee- based private equity firm TVV Capital acquired us. Earlier this year, we partnered with Fuseneo Inc., a structural design firm comprising industrial designers, graphic designers and 2923 S. Wabash Avenue Industrial Park Centralia, Illinois 618-533-3251 big3precision.com • Founded in 1970 as a small machine shop in rural Illinois and is now headquartered in Centralia, Illinois. • Has a total of four design, manufacturing and product validation facilities in the United States with more than 250 employees companywide. • Has a title (Big 3 Precision Products) that refers to the company's main blow-mold manufacturing business plus its two divisions, Metal Stamping and Rack/Material Handling (for the automotive industry). • Builds injection blow molds (IBM), one- and two-step injection stretch blow molds (ISBM) and extrusion blow molds and offers product development and preform design capabilities as well as sampling and in-field mold startups for customers in the household/personal products, nutrition/drinkable, and pharmaceutical/medical industries. Big 3 Precision Products designed and built this 10-cavity injection stretch blow mold, which is installed in the customer's Nissei 70 DPH molding machine. Big 3 built this tool specifically for its customer's Nissei. Big 3 qualified it on its own and matched the Nissei 70 DPH in the Big 3 ISBM validation lab in Centralia, Illinois before shipment. This process is part of how Big 3 serves as a turn-key solutions provider in the blow mold tooling industry. A Conversation with … Big 3 Precision Products Inc. engineers. We feel that partnership gave us a competitive advantage by ensuring that the product design is creative, innovative and manufacturable. We put these partnerships together to be the best "turn- key-solutions provider" in the industry. We are willing to take responsibility for the projects that we undertake by offering end-to-end service capabilities, which is uncom- mon in IBM and ISBM. Instead of one company designing the bottle, another designing the tool, another building the mold and maybe yet another sampling it, we eliminate the "silo" approach. There is no throwing a project over the wall, because we can do it all ourselves. Many mold manufacturers struggle to overcome cost objections. How does Big 3 get customers past those objections and on to approving projects? Riley: We have worked diligently to explain what we do, how we do it and what they can expect in terms of qual- ity when they do business with us. We tell customers not to focus on the initial price. Instead, we tell them to look closely at the value over the life of the project. Typically, any well-trained purchasing agent will want to discuss the tool- ing price on a quote. It is our responsibility to explain that the tooling that we have quoted is of quality and will last for the life of the project. We use the best quality steel and materials that money can buy. We provide evaluations and quotes within 48 hours, and we perform project kick-off meetings and design reviews before engineering is released to ensure that we meet customer expectations. We have a