EAB Insight: Pricing, Proper Vent Depth and Profit

Camille Sackett is an engineering, sales, marketing and business development professional with first-hand experience with design, sales and marketing, quality standards and organizational process development. She was recognized as part of MoldMaking Technology’s series on Women Impacting Moldmaking.

Currently, Camille is the vice president of sales and project management for Accede Mold & Tool in Rochester, New York. Her participation on the EAB includes access to the expertise of the Accede team on operations, manufacturing, engineering, quality, mold sampling, and facility safety and maintenance.

Here, she continues this year’s EAB series by sharing her three all-time favorite MMT articles and key takeaways that have been valuable to her work and career.

1. March 2022 – A Different Approach to Pricing

A cost-based approach to pricing used in moldmaking is the fundamental flaw causing net profits to be less than 10% of sales. There is another option.

Key takeaway: "The key to velocity-based pricing is that it’s a system. A velocity-based approach has several distinct advantages: Speed and simplicity. No cost allocation is required. The need for time estimates can be reduced or eliminated. Mechanisms exist for appropriately pricing value-added items. There is confidence in the throughput margin being earned from each job. It's clear how to make more money without having to raise prices."

This article makes a very appealing argument for adopting the velocity-based pricing system over the traditional cost-based pricing system, which presents challenges for moldmakers due to the industry-typical ebbs and flows of work.

2. March 2019 – How to Determine the Proper Vent Depth

Vent depth is critical to optimizing mold performance, so here is one approach to finding that elusive right number.

Key takeaway: “Installing vents with depths on the high side of the range is risky because it could produce a mold that flashes and requires repair. To avoid this scenario, the moldmaker usually sets the vent depths to the lowest number in the range, enabling the molder or OEM to produce a part and then proceed to do the final tweaking of vent depths themselves based on their process parameters. An effective strategy to determine the correct vent depth is to use a spare cavity and core stack and gradually increase the depth of the vents by about 0.0002 inch to 0.0003 inch, cycling the mold after each increase and noting the appearance of the parts at the vent locations."

This article is an excellent reminder of a moldmaking fundamental for processors and their toolrooms: Inspect and monitor your vent depths. Not just at FAT but on your PMs as well. It's not uncommon these days for molds to run for three, five or even 10 million shots. So over time, the vents will coin and need to be requalified.

3. June 2018 – Making Sense of an Income Statement

Asking the right questions when reviewing a profit and loss statement will facilitate better decision-making.

Key takeaway: “… mold builders are not viewing the report in a vacuum. Instead, they compare the data to the budget, actual performance in other periods or years, industry averages or other benchmarks. They also analyze the relationship of items. For example, a mold builder looks at each expenditure as a percentage of its parent expense group. To ensure that the information is easily comparable, it is paramount that mold builders use percentages rather than actual dollar amounts."

This article reminds us of another fundamental — data without context is meaningless. Ratio analysis is essential for informed decision-making and strategic planning. It helps moldmakers paint a more accurate view of their shop’s trajectory.