It’s unlikely that a moldmaker who is close in proximity to his customer or molder will take any shortcuts because when a performance issue pops up, they’ll be stuck with no-charge fixes.

A Project Manager shared these thoughts: “Sixty-six percent of the problems you have with manufacturing originate with your tooling. You have to have good tools to start with. Seventy percent of the costs are in the resin; 11 percent is labor. So what do you really have control over? Our solution is to build high cavitation tools and keep those presses running. The tools I am working with here seem at first to be very simple, but the key is to run these tools lightning fast and run them forever. Only quality tooling that is built right will meet this goal

“We’ve also had customers come back to us and say they have quality concerns; they want to sell a safe product,” he continues. “With all the consumer issues that have arisen, if they get caught up in that, they are risking multiple millions of dollars. We don’t want that to happen. We want to provide tooling, and therefore products, that they can trust.

We can provide that with U.S.-built tooling. Sure, there are tool shops in Asia that can deliver a quality tool, but then you are now paying similar rates, so why leave the country? It’s no longer competitive.”

Many offshore moldmakers require payment to be made for the mold prior to releasing the tool for shipping. This is an act of faith that is not required by a U.S. mold builder. And now after that check is cut, molders are assessing where the savings is, and where it is not.

“The changed economy and the value of the dollar are why companies are really doing the math now,” explains O’Kelly. “You have to look at the true costs.

I can quote a mold offshore and get it for less, but that is just the beginning of the tooling investment. When you look at the cost of following the tooling, seeing all the cost factors that go into doing that are immense. The trips overseas are very expensive; you have shipping costs. Once the tool is back in the U.S. you aren’t going to ship that tool back to China for repairs or maintenance. If you are molding in China, you have to go over there and make sure the molding company is up to the standards of your customer. Many times they are not.”

“The major problem was that way too many purchasing folks were not involved in actually understanding that this tool was going to be running over a long period of time,” offers the OEM Project Manager. “It’s like there’s a disconnect. For instance, take resin. These guys get a big bonus based on purchasing resin for a half cent cheaper, but they aren’t there when the stuff won’t run. The same scenario applies with tooling.

We once bought tools from Asia where I actually found ball bearings that are 72RC hard in the steel. They had to be gun-drilled out or worse. We’ve tried three programs and all have come back with less than satisfactory results. We have the best tool shops right here in America for delivering a profitable tool. And if there are any revisions or issues that arise, there’s something to be said for being able to get in a car and go check on your tooling.”

Costly travel and time zone differences have taken on more prominent roles in the decision to bring back tooling, or at minimum, to scrutinize and reassess one’s tool cost presumptions.

Recently, a tooling engineer said that while many mold programs are still sent to China, where they are very closely monitored, the company increasingly accesses local mold builders because he makes a point of factoring in the lifetime costs of each project.“It’s more than just the up-front tool cost,” he says. “I look at the complexity of the molds being built, how many visits we’ll have to make to check on progress and enforce our standards, travel expenses, material costs, shipping costs and other factors.

I frequently find that working with smaller U.S. shops of 12 to 20 employees can be much more cost-effective than some big mold exporter. There is better connectivity, no administrative hoops to jump through and better qualifications on the shop floor where it counts. More often now, my local mold builders can turn a project around faster and more economically than a Chinese vendor can.