A Different Kind of Specialist

Many of the manufacturers covered in this magazine try to make mold manufacturing like an assembly line. Departmentalizing the shop often means, in essence, departmentalizing people—that is, to some extent, even a cross-trained toolmaker likely spends most of his or her time in, say, EDM or programming.

This approach leaves plenty of room for variation. As an example, consider Mold-Tech, the subject of last month's Profile. Having experimented with dedicated CAM programming and disliked the results, the Minnesota shop decided to tear down the wall between engineering and the shop floor about seven years ago. Today, machine operators write their own CAM programs.

Whatever the merits of this approach, Mold-Tech is doing just fine today. Check out the article to learn more.