Aaron Johnson, VP of Marketing and Customer Strategy, Accumold
I cannot play the violin!
There, it’s out in the open, and I feel better for letting everyone know.
As a micro molding expert that is about to discuss with you the necessity of combining expertise and a suite of top-end technology options when seeking precision molding solutions, why I hear you ask is this relevant?
Well, my lack of ability at playing the violin is a key failing if I am to play melodious music. And it is the defining factor whether you put a $10 violin from Walmart in front of me or a $1 million Stradivarius. Whichever violin I pick up, the noise will be the same. Awful!
The same is the case when looking at the art and science of micro molding. What differentiates a successful and market-leading micro molding company from a mediocre one is not the kit that resides in-house (anyone with a line of cash can buy good kit), it is the inherent expertise in the micro molding team that is the differentiator, and it is identifying the extent and power of this expertise that is crucial to partner selection and successful micro molding outcomes.
Core Competencies and Core Values
I have made the point for a number of years now that the relationship between a micro molding expert and a customer should be a healthy, pragmatic, and in-depth partnership. When working on a micro molding project, it is unlikely that you will have the necessary technological infrastructure to undertake your own project in-house, so you lean on a company that has made the necessary investment in all the right tooling, molding, validation, and automated assembly technologies.
But what you are really seeking is access to the knowledge base that resides within your chosen micro molder’s team. Boil it all down, you need to make sure that your micro molding partner can push the parameters of what is possible and innovate on your behalf, not just flick a switch and hope for the best.
So it is that you are buying into and need to explore the values of your chosen micro molder, because values will define the nature of the partnership that you will forge, and it will also allude to the levels of aptitude and working practices that will underpin your relationship.
The dichotomy is between core competencies and core values. The former you can buy. The latter come from attitude, management and team ethos, and are driven by knowledge, passion, respect, morals, and reflect the beating heart of your micro molding partner.
When it comes to marketing and image, in these days of easily created and slick looking websites and marketing materials, it is easy for middle of the road companies to present an image that flatters to deceive. Let’s face it, spending a few hundred bucks you can have a world-class looking website that says all the right things.
But next time you search for a supplier and line up your top 10 websites, take a step back and have a real look. I will guarantee that the ones that are maybe not all they are cracked up to be list an impressive array of competencies, but you will see very little about the values of the company, its heritage, its beating heart, what is inherent in its DNA.
It is my belief that values are what drive competencies. It is the values inherent in a company that allows it to make and more importantly PROVE claims. Proof is everything, and to prove competence, you have to be able to demonstrate the correct ethos, knowledge, understanding, and values to achieve what in the micro molding world are often impossibly complex and testing manufacturing challenges.
Core Values for Micro Molding Success
So, the time has come when you have short-listed your potential micro molding expert. It looks as if they have the technological wherewithal to make and validate precision plastic parts. Good start.
Now however comes the slightly less easy to assess and quantify aspect of your short listed micro molder. You understand that this company will be an integral part of your product development process, a true project partner, and so you need to get under the bonnet and in effect look into the whites of their eyes and work out what makes this company tick and how it works.
Of huge importance is an assessment of the knowledge that resides in the team, and here there are no short cuts. Knowledge comes from experience, and experience comes from the number of years that your chosen micro molder has been at the vanguard of innovation in micro molding. If a company has three decades of experience molding in a variety of industry sectors it will be better placed to navigate the vagaries of your product development process than a company with less than 10-years experience, or one with a restricted knowledge of only one industry sector.
When micro molding, I have found that at every turn customers require smaller and smaller parts with more and more exacting tolerances, and very often there is a resignation at first meeting that they feel that maybe they want the impossible. Customers owe it to themselves to know that their chosen micro molding partner has the experience and understanding to go that extra mile and come up with solutions and optimal, timely, and cost-effective solutions however challenging the application.
With the required knowledge set in the bank, a micro molder must then be able to exhibit a set of core values that motivate success. Every member of the Accumold team, for example, signs up to and lives by the core values of the company that underpin and motivate everything that we do. Without the right values, competencies and processes can be weak and produce sub-optimal customer experiences and results.
Every member of the Accumold team is characterised by dedication and integrity. Each member of the team is defined by customers’ success, and each is dedicated to the provision of optimized solutions within budget and on time. Accumold’s team focuses ONLY on customer satisfaction, integrity meaning that every project we work on is characterized by an honest, pragmatic and collaborative working relationship with our customers. By doing this we add real and tangible value to a customer’s micro molding project.
Micro molding is Accumold’s absolute focus. The company has existed at the cutting-edge of micro molding for its entire 30-plus year history, and as such the company owns the space that other suppliers are trying to migrate to from the world of less exacting precision molding, where size and tolerance are less difficult.
Good micro molding partners should be seen to nurture the fundamental meaning of partnership. Results are always better when knowledge is openly shared throughout a team, and this also allows teams to be creative and find practical micro molding solutions for any application.
Core Competencies for Micro Molding Success
To an extent I have played down or taken for granted the competencies that a good micro molder must be able to demonstrate. Micro molding involves much more than micro molding per se. It also requires expertise and technology solutions that facilitate micro tool fabrication, validation (if a part cannot be measured to prove adherence to design intent then it is useless), and automated assembly.
With the requirement to mitigate risk of tolerance creep at every stage of micro product development, it is critical that micro molders have the technology to hand to undertake every stage of product development in-house. True vertical integration as I have said many times is not just desirable but is in fact fundamental to successful micro molding outcomes.
Summary
So what have we learned? First, I cannot play the violin!
Second, when embarking on a micro molding project you want to make sure that your chosen supplier not only has the best violins to hand, but they have the experience, knowledge, versatility, passion, drive, and enthusiasm to play them like a virtuoso. Values and competencies combine to make sweet music when micro molding. You do not want someone with no aptitude playing a great violin, and you do not want a virtuoso playing a Walmart toy. You want Yehudi Menuhin playing a Stradivarius. Interrogate you micro molding partner carefully to ensure your projects hit the right note.
