2020-2030 Editorial Advisory Board: Meet New Board Member Brian Dippel

Brian Dippel brings 35 years of plastics and moldmaking experience to MoldMaking Technology's Editorial Advisory Board. His career has helped him develop an expertise in mold design, mold construction, production and maintenance.

Brian attended trade school to learn tool and die making and then earned his degree in business administration and management from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. He started as a toolmaker building injection and blow molds and then moved into extremely high-volume injection molding production at The Plastek Group in Erie, Pennsylvania, (whose owner, Joe Prishcak, was the founder of MoldMaking Technology. Brian gave me my very first mold shop tour).

Brian was the tooling manager for the Spectrum Molding Division of Plastek, responsible for managing the tool room that supported 65 molding machines. His responsibility was to maintain the condition of the molds to improve production efficiencies and metrics. He also was the Spectrum Division program manager for high-volume “take over” consumer packaging production systems.

Brian integrated and validated high-speed production systems, assembly & decorating equipment, molds, robots and presses into the Spectrum Division. Brian also managed consumer product development programs before being promoted to General Manager of Triangle Tool, at the time a 60-man tool shop, another division of the Plastek Group.

Currently, as the operations manager for Sybridge Technologies (formerly  X-Cell Tool and Mold), he manages the engineering, quality, program management and molding departments. Most recently, Brian helped X-Cell expand into injection molding by supporting the effort to add more medical customers to capitalize on the company's ISO 13485-certified class 8 cleanroom capabilities.

X-Cell Tool & Mold, Inc., located in Fairview, Pennsylvania, is a 55-person shop offering injection mold design and manufacturing for the medical and consumer product industries. In 2019 this shop was named MoldMaking Technology's Leadtime Leader Winner, an effort Brian led with the team.

Brian is looking to work with other mold-building and injection molding production professionals to learn and understand their daily struggles in the business of building and running molds, particularly high-volume production molding for medical and consumer products.

Two of Brian's main focuses are the customer and continual improvement. He believes that customer satisfaction is critical because what defines a customer relationship is not what happens when times are great. The relationship is built and defined when times are not so great and things are not going well. The choices you make during more challenging times will make or break your relationship with your customer.

When it comes to continuous improvement, Brian says that complacency is not acceptable. He works with the X-Cell team to improve the quality of work by improving the quality of X-Cell's designs. It's their standard. Mold longevity through user-friendly designs that result in an overall lower cost of ownership is the end goal.

Brian is ready to lend MMT insight on business issues, software, culture, workflow, equipment, mold materials, mold components, training and workforce development. He is also looking to work with other mold-building and injection molding production professionals to learn and understand their daily struggles in the business of building and running molds, particularly high-volume production molding for medical and consumer products.

When Brian is not working, he spends time woodworking and scuba diving.