New Name, New Capabilities Fit Precisely

 

Just after the New Year, MMT was in receipt of an emailed announcement that Columbus, Indiana, mold manufacturer Precise Mold and Plate had changed its name to Precise Tooling Solutions to more accurately describe the services offered there. I wrote an article for MMT’s September issue about then Precise Mold’s use of data-driven systems to more proactively advance how they build and repair molds and to better serve their customers’ needs. The transformation to data-driven technologies were driven by CEO Don Dumoulin, who purchased the company in January 2013.

Don told me that the new name was not meant to change customers’ perspectives about what they do because in the end, they will still focus most of their business on building, repairing and maintaining injection mold tooling. “Almost everything we do touches their tooling environments on some level, whether it’s building new tools, making productivity adjustments to current tools that they own, or manufacturing work cells that they use to build their final products on. They consider most of that tooling. And what we try to do daily is provide solutions to our customers, so it seemed logical to keep the Precise name, and then modify it to become Tooling Solutions instead of Mold and Plate.”

Wait. Back up a minute, you say. What does Dumoulin mean by “manufacturing work cells that customers use to build their final products on?” On December 8, Precise announced that it had acquired the ErgoStation® product line of adjustable height workstations and machine bases from Western Michigan-based Extol Inc., a designer and manufacturer of custom and pre-engineered plastics-joining equipment.

Don says that while acquiring a business that makes ergonomic workstations may seem out of place for a mold manufacturer, it’s not. “I’ve probably been asked by customers at least a couple dozen times if we can build a workstation or base for them, but we would tell them no because we didn’t have the engineering drawings and it just wasn’t what we did,” he explains. But Dumoulin realized that Precise was already using its CNC machines and other equipment to build plates and tabletops for them, which was essentially half of what the customer was requesting. “When this business came for sale, it was a no-brainer to purchase it. It fits right into the back end of our shop and most of the customers Extol had were plastic injection molding companies--many the same as ours, so it's a perfect fit.”

In addition to adding a new service in the ErgoStation acquisition, Precise Tooling is also expanding its manufacturing capacity with the recent addition of a new Mitsubishi EX30 wire EDM and a Fermat five-axis CNC boring mill, which Dumoulin was told is one of the largest of its kind in the region with a 156-by-78-inch work envelope.

I asked Don what the future holds for Precise and he replied that he’s always keeping his eyes open for new acquisition opportunities that are relevant to his company’s focus. He also said he predicts the ErgoStation business, which typically sells around 200 workstations and machine bases a year, should see a healthy increase in sales once Precise’s marketing and sales plans are executed. Based on what I learned writing my article last summer, I have no doubt more new and exciting things will be happening in Columbus, Indiana, in the coming year. If you missed our feature on Precise Tooling Solutions, click here.