By Brittany Willes, contributing writer
The American Mold Builder

“We do things a bit differently than some of the bigger molding companies,” remarked Brian Scott, president of Liberty Molds. “We’re a service industry, and our goal is to make the process – from project management and engineering to part design and molding – as seamless as possible for our customers.”

Headquartered in Portage, Michigan, Liberty Molds first opened its doors in 1986 as a moldmaking tool shop specializing in injection molds. In its more than 30 years in business, Liberty has maintained a simple but powerful objective: to provide the best possible service and products for its customers. “That’s what we live by,” said Scott. “Customer service is the biggest part of what we do and is at the core of how we operate.”

Looking for cost-effective solutions

A strong customer service focus has proven invaluable for the company as evolving technology and a changing economy have drastically altered the ways in which clients approach the tooling process. According to Scott, “The push for more cost-effective tooling is at its peak right now. Especially in the last two years, customers have been increasingly concerned with pricing and keeping costs as low as possible.”

As a shop that deals primarily in automotive tooling, Scott believes there are two main reasons pricing pressures have become so prevalent. The first comes as little surprise to anyone in manufacturing industries: Simply put, the cost of doing business in the US, especially for tooling, is expensive. Thus, companies always are on the lookout for ways to reduce the price of overhead.

Another reason pricing has become a major focus could be a result of changes in how automakers now are packaging their products. Once upon a time, shops like Liberty would build only two or three molded parts for a car. Today, automakers are offering many different package levels for their vehicles, all of which require a significant amount of tooling.

“Automakers today want anywhere from five to eight variations of the same part for different packages,” said Scott. “As a result, they’re trying to reduce costs wherever they can in order to make their products more cost-effective. One area they focus on heavily is the price of tooling and negotiating for the lowest possible prices.”

As part of its mission to provide the best possible service, particularly as the needs of its customers evolve, Liberty has worked hard to find ways to help customers with their pricing concerns. One way it has done this is through outsourcing as a way to reduce costs. “About 12 years ago, I put together a business model to start outsourcing tools to low-cost countries, such as China,” stated Scott. By outsourcing part of its workload, Liberty is able to quote larger tool packages. For instance, with a package of 10 to 20 pieces, 10 or 12 of those tools might be sent off shore while the rest remain in-house.

“By using this type of business model, we’re able to still perform work in-house while outsourcing some jobs to China, or wherever, as a way to keep costs down,” explained Scott. “It benefits both Liberty and the customer who then can turn around and negotiate with their own customers. It’s been a very effective business model.”

While Liberty has been employing this model for more than a decade, it has only been within the last few years that there has been a noticeable increase in the number of jobs being sent off shore, according to Scott. “In the last three years, outsourcing has picked up drastically,” he said. “Last year alone, my outsourcing numbers – which include both domestic outsourcing and low-cost country outsourcing – made up 48% of our sales.” It’s hardly surprising that as pressures for more cost-effective tooling prices increase, so do the number of parts sent off shore.

“We happened to be extremely busy last year, so naturally we ended up sending more parts off shore,” said Scott. “However, the majority of it was due to the pressure from customers needing their products to be more cost-effective. This was the biggest reason we ended up sending more parts to China than we normally would.”

Investing in the future

Outsourcing is not the only avenue Liberty had looked to as a way of creating more cost-effective products. In the past 18 months, the company has invested more than $1 million in electrical discharge machining (EDM) robotic cells. “The type of tools that we build are very EDM-dependent,” Scott stated. “We do smaller tools with high-tolerance and small details – things that are highly susceptible to human error.”

While Liberty has been making use of EDM technology for some time, it found that the technology it had been using was outdated. In order to remain competitive, Liberty needed its shop to be able to run lights out. It also needed to increase productivity.

“We took a full year to study how many electrodes we cut and found that, in 2017, we cut roughly 11,000 individual electrodes,” explained Scott. “By 2018, we had the necessary data to show that  we needed to update our EDM technology. Doing so allowed us to reduce the number of electrodes we were using. Adding the robotics cell ensured that we would be able to run two new machines 24/7.”

Although Scott has not done a second study on the number of electrodes used, he has noticed a difference in the productivity achieved with the updated technology.

“Obviously, part of it depends on how busy the shop is, but I can see the increase in productivity,” he said. “The cavities are getting out of the EDM machine quicker, which gives the toolmakers more time for assembly and fitting. Furthermore, the quality of the burns and the final product are showing up on the job cards. Toolmakers are spending less time on jobs for things like hand fitting. The technology is definitely paying for itself.”

In addition to its investments in robotics and EDM technology, Liberty also has been making strides in the area of 3D printing. This development was the result of one of Liberty’s customer’s desire to invest in the technology. “Like a lot of molders, they discovered that moldmaking is, in fact, not that easy,” he said. More importantly, when not done correctly, moldmaking is less than profitable. Liberty came to that customer’s rescue by offering to partner on the process.

“The customer 3D prints inserts that wethen put in the molds and finish for them,” said Scott. So far, it’s an arrangement that benefits all involved. “The customer gets the benefit of our years of knowledge and experience with the molding process. We benefit by getting access to the technology and getting the learning curve out of the way, without having to spend half a million dollars on the machinery,” he continued.

As Scott noted, 3D printing is far from being a low-cost process. It is not a money saver or a time saver. Molders have to look at each part individually and determine if it is worth the time and expense to have it 3D printed.

“It’s important to analyze the part that you’re trying to build a mold for,” he explained. “It might be a simple insert inside the mold that is laser printed so water can get to the area. It might not be the whole cavity box; it might just be pieces of it.”

Even with its challenges, Scott believes that 3D printing is an important process for mold builders to consider. “As parts become more and more complex, it will definitely be something each moldmaker has to look at if he wants to stay competitive,” he stated. “It’s one of those things where you have to ask yourself. ‘when do you want to jump into that segment?’ Every year it’s getting less and less expensive, but every year is another year your competitors are getting into it. It’s kind of a gamble, and mold builders have to decide if it is worth it to spend the money up front.”

For Liberty, partnering with another company allows it to get a jump on learning the nuances of the technology while minimizing the cost. This puts the company in a good position going forward while also providing a return service for the customer.

Along with new robotics technology and 3D printing capabilities, Liberty also has expanded its services by investing in a laser welding company. “We started United Laser Welding last year as a way to get a quicker turnaround for our customers on engineering changes and repairs,” said Scott. Liberty’s customers aren’t the only ones benefiting from the new business.

Because United Laser is located off site from Liberty’s property, the general public has been allowed access to the facility. “By having it off site, other tool shops are able to come in and use it without causing any delays for our own projects,” Scott said. “It’s been a very successful venture so far and is one more way we are able to provide better service for our customers.”

Serviceable solutions

As Scott noted, customer service is at the heart of Liberty’s every undertaking. From part design to the final molded project, Liberty’s mission is to keep things as simple as possible for the customer.

“We manage everything,” said Scott. “If XYZ company wants a mold built in China, they don’t have to send their people there. We manage the process for them. All they have to do is bring their people onboard, and we take it from there – from having high-quality, functioning molds built overseas and shipped to the US to doing all the processing and tuning and dimensional layouts in-house.”

He continued, “It’s just like they’re building a mold locally in Portage, Michigan. We make the process as seamless and cost-effective as possible.”