2009 LEADTIME LEADER AWARD WINNERS

LARGE SHOP WINNER
Commercial Tool and Die, Inc. (Comstock Park, MI)
Since being named last year’s Leadtime Leader winner, Commercial Tool & Die, Inc. has managed to keep its sales consistent and maintain its workforce of 126 through the continued production of high quality plastic injection molds primarily for the appliance, furniture and automotive industries with an emphasis on high quality customer service and continuous improvement initiatives. The company combines employee innovation with the latest, greatest technology and equipment to design, manufacture and maintain not only plastic injection molds, but also gas-assist, compression, two-shot injection, and plastic injection molds in an average time period of 11.9 weeks.
www.commercialtoolgroup.com

SMALL SHOP WINNER
Byrne Tool & Die (Rockford, MI)
This family-owned company has just 15 employees to turn out molds in an average of five to six weeks—specializing in product development, plastic injection design and mold build, fixture design and build, and repair in the automotive, furniture, medical and office furniture industries. With a mix of long-term employees and younger employees, the company uses a variety of lean manufacturing strategies like Kanban, SMED setup reduction, 5S, and value stream mapping to improve leadtimes by 25 percent over the past several years.
www.byrne-tool.com

LARGE SHOP HONORABLE MENTION
Armin Tool & Mfg. Co. (South Elgin, IL)
Sixty-five employees strong, Armin Tool & Manufacturing serves the closures, medical, personal care, packaging, electronic, automotive, military and aerospace industries with multi-cavity, two-color; two material; unscrewing; stack; and liquid silicone injection molds. The company’s business philosophy is quality, price, delivery and customer service; average leadtime is 16 weeks. The addition of a turning center with “Y” axis milling further streamlines the mold design and build process.
www.armin-ind.com

SMALL SHOP HONORABLE MENTION
Elite Mold & Engineering (Shelby Twp, MI)
Elite Mold & Engineering specializes in prototype injection mold manufacturing, low-volume production manufacturing, and prototype and low-volume part molding for the automotive, medical, military, aerospace, consumer products and electronic parts industries. With just 21 employees, leadtimes average five days for small parts and three weeks for medium/large parts.  The company believes in continuous and process improvement, and continues to accelerate leadtimes with the purchase of high-speed equipment (CNCs, electric molding machines and CNC EDMs).
www.teameliteonline.com