A lot has changed in the 38 years Venture has been in business, including this Ohio facility, one of three the company now operates in the United States. Steve Trapp, VP/GM (top), holds a PVC lid for a battery standby power system, while manufacturing engineer Mark McGinnis displays one of eight parts molded for a Whirlpool washing machine. A spacious reception area greets visitors to the Newton Falls facility. Delphi Packard Electric Systems relies on VPI to ship connectors, fuse blocks, and wire harnesses to its locations worldwide. An in-house automation carousel makes short work of hot stamping ladder tops. A smaller-tonnage molding bay sports banners with key account customer names. A family mold produces eight related parts that are robotically removed from the tool. The robot arm then drops the parts onto an automated cooling conveyor, after which they are assembled into components for Whirlpool. Vacuum cleaner bezels are sent out to be chrome-plated, but VPI may switch to IMD in the near future.

We’ve all heard of customer-centric operations, but this one leapfrogged beyond buzzwords and has the growth to prove it.

Running a successful molding firm these days takes more than just a seat-of-the-pants approach. Like the industry in which we all participate, management challenges have become more sophisticated and require a reach beyond the status quo. At Venture Plastics Inc. (VPI), increased awareness and broadened capabilities are launching what was once a regional molder into a global player with excellent growth potential.

Steve Trapp, vice president and general manager at VPI, is our tour guide today, and he begins the visit with an explanation of the company’s approach to its customers. How appropriate. Putting customers first is something the firm prides itself on, and has been a key to its growth.

“We’ve developed our key accounts,” Trapp begins, “and have created teams around them to differentiate ourselves. We find out where these OEMs are headed in the next three to five years, and then we design our services and adopt technologies that will meet those needs. The cross-functional team at VPI, composed of engineering, operations, commercial, and quality personnel, helps us to ferret out those needs.”

In some cases, customer goals are cost driven. But in others, targets involve the way customers are supported from an inventory standpoint or the availability of a new technology like inmold decorating, according to Trapp. “It’s all up to the team. At least one of those team members will be able to see the sweet spot as it relates to helping the customer long term. We rely on covering all of the areas of expertise to accurately assess needs.”

It appears this strategy is paying off. Sales at VPI rose 20% in 2006, a higher-than-average boost, and coincided with a record year in terms of production.

Growing with customers

As its customers make strides in becoming global suppliers, VPI is keeping pace by adding capabilities and services. For example, as we tour the molding floor, we notice an almost impossibly complicated electrical connector being molded in a 16-cavity tool and running in a 250-ton Milacron-Fanuc Roboshot. To provide its customer with zero-defect shipments every time, VPI makes sure each cavity is segregated. As a Star Automation robot drops a part into one of 16 tubes, any suspect parts are shuttled off to a separate bin. What makes this project even more involved is the fact that these connectors are shipped to locations all over the world.

Says Trapp, “This customer has evolved as a global supplier on a major scale, so we now ship to its operations in the states as well as those in Mexico, China, and South America. They’ve asked us to deal with all of their global operations rather than ship to a distribution location as we have in the past. This takes cost out for them.”

That’s not all. Another group within the large automotive supplier is requesting that VPI perform design coordination between itself and the direct OEM (nameplate) customers. “Management of the design process is their hot button,” Trapp adds. “To be successful, we focus on key customers along with cost, quality, and innovation. We make the effort to understand what they want.” This approach hasn’t taken VPI in any one direction, he explains. Rather than being the low-cost provider, for instance, it has spurred investment in lowering cost while improving quality.

Made possible by science

Did the mention of cavity segregation ring any bells? VPI has employed RJG’s eDart system and cavity pressure sensing for the past 18 months, and Trapp says they’re sold on the technology.

“It allows us to monitor pressure and velocity, and automatically develops a footprint for the machine. Robots pick parts out because something has gone out of parameter. We may not be able to see the defect but it’s there,” he says.

Venture Plastics Inc., Newton Falls, OH Facility size: 52,000 ft² Annual sales: $20 million-plus (2006) Markets served: Appliance, communications, pump, ladder, and automotive Customers: Avaya (Lucent), Dover Corp., Delphi Packard Electric Systems, Electrolux (Frigidaire), and Werner Ladder Materials processed: Broad range of engineering and commodity resins, including PVC No. of employees: 130 Shifts worked: Three shifts, 24/7 Molding machines: 38 total (Ohio and Texas facilities), 55-725 tons; mostly Cincinnati Milacron, five Roboshot all-electrics, several Mitsubishis Internal moldmaking: No Quality: TS16949 Venture Plastics Inc. (330) 872-5774 | www.ventureplastics.com

Recently, manufacturing engineer Mark McGinnis received RJG’s Master Molder II certification, so he now has the knowledge to train others in RJG concepts. He explains, “Our quality mark is higher at a lower cost. External defect ppms are world class, and the internal numbers that affect us from a cost-of-quality standpoint have gone down as well. We’re using technology rather than people to tell us when a process goes astray, and then the robots separate for us.”

While these capabilities are a plus for all of the parts it produces, a carrier that VPI molds for Smuckers from crystal polystyrene benefits greatly. This is the rich-brown-tinted box that sits on restaurant tables and is filled with Smuckers products. It’s molded in a 170-ton Milacron press outfitted with a Yushin robot, and then pad printed.

Smuckers is recognized as one of the top 50 companies in the country in terms of image and operations. It tells its suppliers that whatever they do, it reflects on Smuckers’ image. “Because their products sit in front of the customer as they have breakfast at IHOP,” Trapp says, “the appearance must be top shelf.”

In this case, VPI’s customer is looking for perfection in the definition and detail of the pad printed logo, clarity of material, and quality of the end product.

“As you get more involved with each customer,” he adds, “their real priority begins to surface. A certain level of quality is a given, but in this case, the requirement goes above and beyond. Another customer who is fighting for survival in the marketplace may want an innovative supplier who can address cost as a top priority.”

A Mattec system for process monitoring and data collection works together with the RJG system to reduce the overall cost of quality while increasing the level VPI attains. Eighty percent of molds are instrumented to segregate parts via cavity pressure transfer in an RJG Decoupled II molding strategy, according to McGinnis, with plans to go to Decoupled III levels soon.

Shop floor examples

Next, Trapp and McGinnis point to a 550-ton Milacron press fitted with an eight-cavity family tool from Rapid Mold Solutions Inc. (Erie, PA). The eight parts are assembled to produce four drain buckets per shot for a Whirlpool washing machine.

Talc-filled PP is delivered to the press via a Una-Dyn pneumatic material handling system, and then injected via Husky hot runner into the family mold in a 25-second cycle. Parts are lifted by a Yushin robot out of the mold and into purpose-built chutes that glide them onto a cooling conveyor.

Various grades of polyamide can be found at several presses, including a 220-ton Milacron that pumps out a glass-filled nylon gas pump handle for customer OPW. A PPE robot empties the two-cavity tool, and parts are then assembled with a steel plate.

OPW is the largest OEM for gas dispensing systems with a 50% market share. It makes the handle, nozzle, and pumping mechanism. Another environmental division makes the underground tanks for gasoline, and VPI molds the gas caps with a locking mechanism.

For ladder OEM Werner, VPI is trialing an in-house hot stamping carousel to be shipped to its new molding operation in El Paso, TX. The carousel applies a safety warning in red and the OEM logo in white, taking cost out of the formerly time-consuming secondary operation. One of the reasons VPI invested in the new facility was to better serve its customers with operations in Mexico.

Finally, the quality department is a hive of activity. Expecting shipment of a new coordinate measuring machine, it is also the central location for three initiatives—TS qualification, lean manufacturing, and Six Sigma. “Our customers are asking us to achieve the same levels of manufacturing efficiency that they themselves must meet,” says McGinnis.

Investigating options

Several of VPI’s key customers have asked the supplier to look into inmold decorating as a means of improving quality and reducing cost. For instance, rather than painting or chrome plating parts for appliance customer Electrolux and heavy truck supplier Stoneridge, it may be possible for VPI to use IMD and eliminate the secondary operation.

Currently, there are several components that could be converted, including a small instrument panel bezel molded in ABS in a 55-ton Roboshot. VPI built its own programmable logic control for this workcell to divert parts not in spec. They are used in the instrument cluster in Navistar, Peterbilt, Volvo, and Mack heavy trucks.

Other, larger bezels that are also sent out for chrome plating belong to an appliance application where they are part of a canister for vacuum cleaners and room air purifiers. Both the transportation and appliance markets are interested in the aesthetics of IMD, Trapp explains.

VPI sees its future growth trending toward contract manufacturing. “In addition to investigating new technologies,” he adds, “we have a team that goes to China every other month to look at various supply sources such as tooling, plating, and purchased components. It consists of a new business development manager and engineers. In this endeavor, we are becoming a contract manufacturer and managing the supply chain. We can offer our services to buy components or finishing capabilities, and we’ve told our customers that we’ll present the real cost of sourcing both domestically and overseas, and then give them our recommendation.”