AMBA celebrates, amps up call for toolmakers to join forces

Grand Rapids, Mich. — Members of the American Mold Builders Association are celebrating the trade group's 50th anniversary and looking at how they can get through the manufacturing and hiring challenges facing them today.

Powering growth was the theme of the 2023 AMBA conference, which drew 180 mold makers, die cast makers and others to Grand Rapids from May 10-12.

"It's my personal belief the level of unity of the community of mold builders in America across these great United States will ultimately determine our future. Unity is so important today more than ever before," AMBA Executive Director Troy Nix told attendees.

The conference opened with archival photographs of some of the mathematicians, engineers and even janitorial staff who worked at NASA during the 1969 moon landing. While the faces of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins are familiar, they had a team of thousand behind them and their average age was 28, AMBA Managing Director Kym Conis said.

"It wasn't the aspiration that was remarkable; it was the national celebration of the seemingly impossible all in response to global pressure, competition and a determination to succeed," Conis said. "If this success didn't seem possible, it was the teamwork of 400,000 people united in purpose that rose to the challenge."

It's time for mold makers to work together now to face global pressures and competition, Conis said.

"Our biggest competitive advantage is one another," she explained. "We need to pull together to power growth collectively. Right now, mold builders are facing all kinds of obstacles and challenges like the R&D tax credit, foreign competition, supply chain issues and the economy. We need to unite and mobilize more than ever."

Mold manufacturers have an opportunity to elevate the industry, push boundaries and fight for U.S. manufacturing on the international stage, Conis said, especially if they "collectively get better."

Founded in 1973, AMBA is an organization that encourages sharing from political lobbying to best practices to capacity if one member gets in a time jam.

"It's through the power of the network that we have withstood the last 50 years and many trials and tribulations. That is what will help us collectively get better," Conis said. "As long as we keep sharing, we figure out how to shorten our lead times. That's how we're going to beat the competition. Let's take price out of the equation and discussion. To compete, we have to keep getting more efficient. We have to take time out of our turnaround time."

"At its inception, it was an 'owners club,' bringing shops to the same table to establish payment terms, quote request templates and some networking opportunities that didn't exist previously," Starkey said.

The next chapter came in the 1980s and 1990s with more networking and camaraderie and a focus on training initiatives, Starkey continued.

"This current era has a leadership team that has really amped up providing developmental tools: wage surveys, capacity sharing, forums for current and emerging leaders, and more," Starkey said. "For those second- and third-generation shop owners, this is not your father's AMBA."

For one thing, there's no more dancers entertaining at AMBA meetings, Nix joked. He said the first chapter of the trade group held meetings at a Chicago bar.

"Every time they were in the basement of this bar, there was some extra entertainment, dancers or something," Nix said, adding he did hear from one woman who said she didn't attend AMBA events for years because of it.

Nix said he told her, "I assure you we don't have dancers."

The early AMBA members did lay a good foundation, Nix added.

"A group of business leaders came together and said if we began to shift, if we began to talk to one another in this little Chicago land area, we can become better. We can gain an edge. That was the concept five decades ago," Nix said.

The founding AMBA members shared lessons learned, compared notes about technology and later software, and had each others' backs.

Nix said he was told "we would never say no to a customer even if we were full. We'd take the work on and farm out. I thought that was interesting in terms of that level of camaraderie back then. It comes down to this: People make people better."

Nix said the unification message is important because the industry is under attack.

"It's been under attack, but it's worse now than ever," Nix said, adding he wouldn't filter his comments. "I believe in the early '90s a group of very, very smart Chinese business leaders and government came together. I can't prove it, but I believe this is what happened. I believe they went for the long game. Their strategic plan was to take the mold builders in America out of business."

From the stage, Nix looked at the audience and said, "I see democracy. I feel national security. And they're trying to rip that away."

Mold builders also are under attack by the U.S. government with taxes, rules and regulations that make it harder to do business, Nix said.

With the conference marking the start of the trade group's next 50 years, Nix said AMBA members need to keep tabs on one another, visit local shops and rebuild camaraderie.

His vision of the future is that when any AMBA leader asks members to respond to a problem or political issue within a time limit, that it be met, especially letters to federal officials about tariffs but also company struggles.

"Set your pride aside. We can't afford to let any more mold makers go out of business. If you're struggling, if you feel like you're losing, then pick up the phone and ask for help," Nix said.

He urged mold makers to not be more concerned about giving away some business advantage over helping other AMBA members.

"I don't believe that," Nix said. "I think when the tide rises — and we are the tide — that we raise everyone with us."

As the trade group passes the half-century point, it is reaching out to the next generations of professionals and leaders.

AMBA Board President Tom Barr, president of TK Molding & Engineering Inc. in Romeo, Mich., urges his colleagues to work with their community colleges. He is a third-generation mold maker who took a class at Macomb Community College to learn about new electronic discharge machine technology. He said it opened eyes and doors for him.

"I walked into the class and it was full. I took the last seat," Barr said. "I thought, 'Wait a minute. I didn't think anyone was doing this, but here I am in a roomful of young people.'"

He went back the next day and talked to the apprenticeship coordinator.

"All of a sudden we were involved," Barr said. "We're on their advisory board and we work with the local high school. You have to go find them. Young people are not going to knock on your door. Once you find them, if they like it, they tell their friends. That's been great for us."

Most of TK Molding & Engineering's 24 employees are under the age of 30, Barr said.

"We probably have one of the younger shops in the whole trade," he added.

Although the process of partnering with schools and colleges to attract young job applicants can take time, Barr said, "the beauty is they do embrace the automation part."

At a table stand nearby, Tom Stapleton, sales manager for 101-year-old Wisconsin Engraving Co., said the decades have brought many technological advancements in engraving, polishing and texturing services for the mold making and tool and die industries.

"Innovation has taken our company from a pantograph to a five-axis laser," Stapleton said, contrasting a manual method to make metal parts by tracing a pattern or template with the five-axis laser that can be rotated and tilted to produce complex parts efficiently and accurately.

"Every day there is a new level to achieve and it's usually customer-driven. Then we have to find a new way to reach it. Everyone wants more, and they want to pay less and they want it yesterday."