Royal Mould has multi-prong strategy for dealing with competition
Canadian Plastics
Although Royal Mould Technologies Ltd. is a small company, it has not been stagnant. In its 25 year history under the direction of Angel Neira, the company has been proactive and adaptable, and kept a...
Although Royal Mould Technologies Ltd. is a small company, it has not been stagnant. In its 25 year history under the direction of Angel Neira, the company has been proactive and adaptable, and kept a careful eye on the leading edge of moldmaking technology and business practices. This 20-person shop in Toronto is now poised to meet the challenge confronting all North American moldmakers in 2005 — offshore competition. Royal has invested heavily in engineering and CNC programming to boost efficiency, and will be partnering with offshore moldmakers for the production of some smaller molds.
As well, a strong team is in place to support Neira. Six months ago, Michael Draga was promoted to general manager, and Nick Roddy has been promoted to manufacturing manager with responsibility for day-to-day activities.
“With the growing pressures of pricing and lead times, we had to rethink our strategies to ensure that we could offer the industry what it demanded,” explains Draga.
Royal serves mostly the automotive industry, making molds for both small- to medium-sized injection molding machines and medium to large machines. For the past two years, the larger tools have been a strategic focus, but often a tool build contract involves both large and small molds.
“We are currently in the early stages of forming a working relationship with some offshore suppliers,” says Draga. “This will be our opportunity to be competitive in small tools.”
“With Royal developing the engineering 100%, the benefits of lower manufacturing labor rates, and the combination of complete tooling technical support from our Toronto facility, we are well positioned to offer the industry a complete tooling solution package.”
Draga reports that the logistics and shipping times for offshore production are more attractive for small tools than for larger molds.
Royal will continue to produce most molds from its Toronto plant, where it has implemented Unigraphics CAD/CAM and Moldflow for 3D tool design, and Delcam’s PowerShape in its CNC department for complex electrodes. “Our designers have spent approximately 11 months building libraries containing mold bases, components, slides, lifters, etc., to aid in expediting designs,” Draga reports.
Draga and Neira are also hoping to expand the engineering department and incorporate product design and prototyping functions.
