And the 2011 Leadtime Leader Award Winners Are ...

2011 Winners

Large Shop
A niche specialty in mold repair, three plants in the southeastern part of the U. S., and the acquisition of mold manufacturer JungwooUSA has resulted in United Tool & Mold, Inc. (UTM; Easley, SC) thriving over the past several years. UTM has 70 employees spread throughout its three locations, primarily serving the automotive, lawn and garden, appliances, large truck and power tools markets. In addition to mold repair, UTM also builds plastic injection, blow and compression molds as well as performing engineering changes, engineering services, service-on-site, laser welding and in-house texturing.

Small Shop
Since 1978, Mold-Tech, Inc. (Albertville, MN) has zeroed in on manufacturing specialty molds—such as prototype, development, bridge, multi-cavity, hot runner, auto unscrewing, insert, in-mold decorating, micro, metal injection, silicone, shuttle, multi-shot and stack with an average leadtime of six weeks. Strict attention to detail while producing these close-tolerance, precision injection molds has led to success for the company, which primarily serves the medical, electronics, consumer, automotive and telecommunications markets.

Honorable Mentions

Large Shop
MSI Mold Builders (Cedar Rapids, IA) counts on a team-driven approach—along with lean manufacturing principles to reduce waste—to provide high quality, low maintenance and efficient plastic molds in the shortest possible timeframes. The company focuses on the design, build, repair and part design of prototype molds as well as the design and build of injection, gas assist, external gas, structural foam and structural web processes. Customer demand for a reduction in-mold delivery time drove MSI’s re-definition of its manufacturing process through the use of an incremental approval system that begins with mold concept and continues through final design.

Small Shop
JMMS (Easley, SC) bills itself as a combination of traditional strengths of full service metalworking and conservative business management with continuous improvement in processes, cutting-edge technologies and established relations with Asian manufacturing partners. Services include mold and die design, manufacturing and full-service tooling capabilities in plastics and metal forming to OEMs and suppliers in industries such as aerospace, appliances, automotive, consumer products, electronics, lawn and garden, medical technologies, power generation, power tools and returnable packaging.