Strall takes helm at time of ‘enormous growth' for KraussMaffei

Munich-based injection molding, extrusion and processing equipment builder KraussMaffei Group is coming off one of its best order intake years ever in 2021.

And in North America, the subsidiary Krauss-Maffei Corp. (KMC) in Florence, Ky., is poised for another great year in 2022, according to Nolan Strall, who took over as president on Jan. 1.

COVID-19 has resulted in increased demand from the medical, logistics and packaging markets on the injection molding side of the business, Strall said in a phone interview.

Meanwhile, the extrusion side has seen "enormous growth" in the profile segment and for recycling applications.

In addition to selling more new equipment, Strall said the KMC service and aftermarket business continues at a brisk pace, too, for a variety of reasons.

Strall is now responsible for all activity in North America, including sales. He succeeds Charlie Rogers after previously serving as KMC's vice president of operations and digital service solutions.

"We're certainly in a growth mode," Strall said. "Overall, business at KMC is up about 50 percent since 2020. We've seen a nice increase in demand for many of the technologies we supply and markets we serve, across both our OEM and service business, which has helped offset the sharp decline in automotive in 2020 and 2021.

"Part of the strength of our company is the diversity of our product portfolio and the fact that our technology has a wide range of applications across many markets," he said.

The rise in requests for service shows an industry in flux. Strall said customers are reacting to an increased need for technical support and skilled maintenance but are having difficulty finding and retaining technical talent.

"The pandemic has had a lot of different business impacts on our customers," Strall said. "In some cases, companies are consolidating facilities and moving assets. For us, that means relocation, recommissioning, preventative service and retrofit work.

"We also see companies outsourcing maintenance to cut costs or to offset the inability to find skilled trades in this ultracompetitive job market, which means they are counting on the OEM for support. There's a lot of acquisition activity, too, and with new management often comes new machines and long-needed retrofit investment. All of these scenarios have come into play for us in one form or another in the past year."

KMC has "an abundance" of service work right now, so being in a position to support customers when they need help is critical, Strall said. The company is looking to fill open positions in service, sales and operations.

"Growing and supporting our team at KMC is job one right now," Strall added.

To better respond to processors turning to automation, KraussMaffei is redesigning its LRX linear robot product line, which can be used with its injection molding machines or with other manufacturers' equipment as well as be a standalone unit.

"The focus is on a more modular construction and design for more localized unit assembly in the U.S., which will drastically reduce lead times to our customers," Strall said.

KMC also is moving beyond its historical Cartesian mold-tending automation systems for injection molding machines. The company is focusing more on post-molding automation for light assembly, packaging and even moving the finished parts.

"Our customers have been clear on their needs and requests to help them automate other areas of their operation, which have been impacted by labor shortages and the difficulty to hire and retain people," Strall said.

By automating relatively simple secondary operations post-molding, processors can free up employees to fill other positions within the factory.

"Our customers are taking a fresh look at automation, in order to potentially use their people in other areas where they're critical," Strall said. "We want to be there to help them develop those solutions and innovate their processes."

KMC also is looking to step up its role to support recycling goals of U.S. businesses. Strall said demand for pelletizing equipment has been strong, and while that is partly driven by higher costs for virgin resin, sustainability efforts are leading to more investments as well.

"Many of our injection molding customers are developing their own internal circular economies for their own supply chain," Strall said. "They are focused on doing their own regrinding, and then extruding, to create their own pellets to refeed into some of their injection applications. There is a big focus to reutilize that waste internally, where possible. We can support our customers in developing that internal circular economy."

KMC plans to exhibit at the Plastics Recycling Conference, near Washington, D.C., in March.

Strall believes it's time to resume trade show attendance, if it can be done safely. He thinks CAMX — the Composites and Advanced Materials Expo held in Dallas in October — was a success although it was attended by a "moderate" number of people.

"Companies sent their team members for a purpose, so there was really rich and robust dialogue," Strall said. "I think if it's managed properly and we do it safely, we absolutely can continue to do it. It's so imperative for industries to meet and collaborate, as well as to have technical interaction and dialogue at a very high level."

Strall also said the industry needs to keep up the quality of the shows "so the content is rich and fulfilling for those that can and do attend."

At CAMX, Strall talked about opportunities for KraussMaffei's composite technologies for lightweighting applications for the electric vehicle, construction and consumer goods markets, in addition to automotive and marine.

"We're looking beyond our traditional automotive applications to see where else we can focus and provide solutions with our technology, especially in the U.S.," Strall said.

The 30,000-square-foot KMC Innovation Center in Kentucky also continues to evolve, most recently to include short production runs to help customers stabilize their processes using the company's extrusion and injection molding equipment and in-house experts.

The process and research and development staff includes engineers with experience in sheet, pipe, adhesives, liquid dispersion, batch to continuous and general compounding.

"We're open to any collaboration our customers want to discuss, using the fantastic facility we have for training, development, trials and short-run production," Strall said. "All those activities can be supported right here in Florence, and we are focused on bolstering our technical team even further this year."

The facility also regularly receives new equipment from Munich and Hanover to showcase technology and support customers.

"We keep equipment for certain time then sell it to customers in need of something quickly," Strall said. "We focus on making sure we have the right development machines for what our customer needs in our market."

Strall joined KraussMaffei as digital service solutions director in January 2020, taking on responsibility for the KMC service business at the same time concerns about the fast-spreading COVID-19 infection rates started changing the world.

The position was his first job in plastics following 10 years in operations, service and business development roles in the aerospace, metal cutting and composites machine tool industries, and eight years with Siemens Industry in various leadership positions.

When the global pandemic was declared in March 2020, bringing lockdowns, travel restrictions and moving business to online platforms, Strall said he quickly saw how KMC's broad product range protects the business.

"If automotive is down, we've got strong offerings in other markets like packaging and medical, pipe and profile, and of course recycling, all of which helps us navigate the various markets ebbs and flows. That's obviously a really big benefit for us," Strall said.

In addition, KraussMaffei has made significant investment in its digital service product portfolio, which has helped service its customers during the pandemic.

After seven months as DSS director, Strall was named vice president of North American operations and aftermarket. He held the position less than two years before becoming president. In his new role, he will remain a member of the DSS global management team.

Strall reports to Volker Nilles, executive vice president of new machines globally.

To support Strall and KMC during his transition period, Rogers is staying on through Feb. 4.

John Fini took over for Strall as vice president of KMC DSS. He previously worked at Rehrig Pacific Co., where he held roles of increasing responsibility, including project manager, plant manager and most recently national reliability manager.

Strall said Fini brings a wealth of injection molding experience to the service team, a high sense of urgency for the customer, and a people-focused leadership style being fostered at KMC.

"We come from some diverse industry backgrounds, but everyone has their core strengths, which fit into our growth strategy and vision," Strall said. "I'm really excited about the team we're building at KMC."