Innovation, Diversification and Integration Guide Mold Builder Growth

Q: Describe the origins of Quality Tool and Die?

Chad Kearns, Vice President, Quality Tool and Die: Quality Tool and Die (QTD) has quite a history. We started back in 1976, primarily focusing on automotive mold spare tooling, gages and fixtures. By 2005, though, we'd hit a rough patch. Our customer base shrunk to just one customer and we were down to seven full-time employees. That's when the founding owners decided it was time to retire and pass the torch.

Q: Before we dive deeper can you share your background in moldmaking?

Kearns: I attended the Crawford County Votech's tool and die program during my 10th and 11th grade years. In my senior year of high school in 1995, I began working at a local tool and die shop. Over the years, I worked as a grinder specialist for three different companies in Meadville. In 1999, I met Brad (McDowell) at the company where we both worked. Brad left the company in 2002 to do subcontract work for local tool and die shops. In 2004, I started as a grinder specialist for Quality Tool and Die. It turned out that QTD was subcontracting work to Brad. After a few months, I was tasked with grinding and subcontracting the overflow work. When the owners of QTD, who had only one customer and were looking to retire, offered to sell the business to me, I immediately discussed it with Brad. That's when we both decided to go all in and we purchased QTD on September 7, 2005.

We are tool makers at heart who spend every day on the floor getting our hands dirty. We have learned a lot about the business of moldmaking as well. At the end of the day, we use common sense in our approach, treat customers the way we expect to be treated and never resort to remembering yesterday's lies. We believe in being honest and customers are usually willing to work with you when things go off the rails.

Brad McDowell, President: After graduating from a vocational school in Mercer County, PA, with a degree in machining, I have worked in manufacturing, specifically in machining or tool and die, since 1989, when I finished high school. I consider myself fortunate to have been trained and mentored by some highly skilled toolmakers over the years.

I am part of an excellent team at QTD, where I can pass on the knowledge and skills I've acquired to the next generation. Although I also handle management responsibilities, I prefer to be hands-on on the shop floor. My passion lies in creating things and I believe that drive will always be a part of who I am.

Q: What made you decide to take on this challenge?

Kearns: My business partner Brad McDowell and I saw potential in the company, so we took the plunge and purchased it. We started in the original 8,000-square-foot facility with nine full-time employees. Our first mission was clear: expand our customer base and modernize our machinery.

McDowell: We went all in on new equipment. It was a significant investment, but we knew it was necessary to stay competitive.

At the time, hard milling and hard turning technology was becoming increasingly popular in the tool and die industry. We were looking for machines that could not only perform soft milling, but also efficiently machine hard steels.

Q: How long did it take before you started seeing results? And then what was your next move?

McDowell: It took some time, but by 2014, we had filled that 8,000-square-foot facility. We were bursting at the seams and knew we needed to expand.

As luck would have it, we found another company in Meadville, PA, called Trio Tool and Plastics. The owners were looking to retire and had a 20,000-square-foot facility housing an outdated mold shop and plastics facility. We saw an opportunity and took it.

Moldmaking has its ups and downs, so what interested us the most about Trio Tool was its injection molding capabilities. Many of our customers sought suppliers who could build a mold and produce samples under one roof. While we didn't necessarily need Trio's tool and die equipment, we were drawn to their injection molding capabilities to help us through the slower times in the moldmaking market and to expand our services. We renovated the entire building in the first year and relocated our existing equipment to the new facility, giving birth to QTD Plastics.

Over the years, we have realized that upgrading and replacing equipment is crucial for us to provide cutting-edge technology to our customers. Therefore, we decided to partner with suppliers such as MC Machinery and Mitsubishi EDM. Their top-notch, highly repeatable products make perfect sense for supporting our organization as we move into the next phases of growth. This partnership brings benefits not only to our tool shop but also to our molding operation, as it enables us to complete tool builds more quickly and with less finishing time, thanks to the optimized efficiency of these machines.

Q: How did you manage that transition?

McDowell: It wasn't easy, but we knew diversification was key. We invested heavily in a new quality system and became ISO 9001:2015 certified for tooling and plastics. We also got an additional 13485:2016 medical certification for our plastics facility. Quality control is the foundation of everything we do.

Building a quality system from the ground up requires a lot of commitment and a significant investment of time and money. After speaking to several consultants, we hired A Wright Path, based in Moon Township, PA. Scott Wright and his team assisted us from the initial stages to certification. During this process, we also hired a full-time quality manager to oversee the implementation of our quality system, working with A Wright Path. We are now just one year away from our third cycle of re-certification.

Kelley Spring, Operations Manager: As mentioned by Chad and Brad, building out our quality management system was just as important as the equipment and facility upgrades the organization went through. It’s a culture shift. Maintaining world-class quality isn’t something you can do only when a customer is visiting. It’s a 24/7/365 way of thinking; it’s an expectation we have of our team to consistently do what we say we’re doing, day in and day out, especially when no one is looking. Our third shift team members maintain the same exceptional quality level as their counterparts on other shifts simply because that’s how we do business.

Q: Let's talk about your current capabilities. What sets Quality Tool and Die apart in the market?

Kearns: We believe diversification is key. After realizing that the "one customer in one market" model wouldn't lead us very far, we decided to diversify into multiple markets. This decision has allowed us to maintain a steady workflow throughout the year, and we've noticed that our company has improved through this diversification. Each market has its unique characteristics, and we've been able to apply our knowledge from one market to solve problems in another.  

We design and build complete molds (metal injection molds, rubber and silicone molds, prototype molds and high cavity class 101 production molds), perform precision machining of complex components, manage injection molding transfer programs, offer new product development and provide medical device injection molding. We do all of this for the medical, firearm, caps and closures and consumer product markets. These are the markets in which we received opportunities. Every day, we are looking to expand into additional markets.

However, what really sets us apart is having mold building and production molding under the same roof. We can take a new product from early concepts to a finished product all in one place. We realized early on that quick turnaround times were crucial. We believe that by offering a wide range of solutions in one place, we could gain an advantage over our competitors. As the tool and die industry developed in the early 2000s; we observed that many companies focused solely on injection molding. The mold had to be packaged and sent to a tool shop whenever a repair or modification was required. Keeping all the work in one place could save one to two weeks in transportation time alone, not to mention the cost. It would also reduce the variables in risk analysis.

Spring:  At QTD Plastics, the tool shop and molding facility are in the same building, greatly reducing mold repair downtime and improving operational efficiency. When a mold needs repair, it is swiftly moved from the molding machine to the tool shop, typically within hours rather than days. Also, during the testing of new tools, our process engineer, mold designer, project engineer and tool makers are all conveniently located by the machine, saving valuable time during the testing and process optimization phase. This setup enables us to address challenges in real-time and make continuous progress.

Q: Can you give us an example of how this integrated approach has benefited a customer?

Kearns: We were approached by a customer working to bring a new medical device for esophageal deterioration to market. In our first meeting, we defined all the critical features and current problems the customer was experiencing, considering the best manufacturing practices. The final product included a molded plastic part with reverse impellers, overmolding a stainless steel tube and a samarium cobalt magnet. We had one common mold frame with changeover tooling to mold 12 different iterations. We made models of the products, designed and built the tooling and then molded all of the product. We captured the quality control needed for an FDA-approved medical device.

Q: Let’s about the team that makes all of this happen. How have you managed to grow your workforce?

Kearns: We're proud of our team. At QTD, we have 17 employees some of whom have been with us since we purchased the company in 2005. Over at QTD Plastics, we have 14 employees operating 24 hours a day, five days a week. We've been fortunate to attract some of the best talent from other companies in the area that have gone out of business over the years.

We're big believers in investing in the future. Our current goal is to have one student per year in for co-op training through our local Crawford County VoTech. We have a high school graduate starting full-time this year and another student starting part-time this summer. It's all about nurturing local talent and building for the long term.

Brad and I usually conduct all the interviews, but I want to emphasize that it's truly a team effort. Our employees often refer people they know are interested in moldmaking or looking for a career change. Over the years, we've primarily relied on word-of-mouth recruiting, which has proven very effective.

In the last two years, we've finally reached a point where we have the resources to invest in young people who aspire to become moldmakers. When a new employee comes in for their first day of work, we assign them to shadow one or more experienced moldmakers, who are there to provide support and answer any questions.

Q: What's your secret to employee retention?

Kearns: We treat everyone here like family. Our approach is simple: we don't want our employees to miss their children's events during the day. We just ask that they get the work completed. It's all about flexibility and trust. Employees can see the delivery date on every job we have in the shop at all times. Brad works closely with the tool shop employees daily to manage the prioritization of jobs and programs. We also use IQMS, which enables every department to access delivery dates and hours needed to complete each job. They understand what must happen, and we trust them to do it.

Spring: Trusting your employees to do what they do best, providing them with the tools to get it done, and then getting out of their way leads to a dedication you can’t achieve any other way.  I started my career in plastics in 2008 with another local molder, C&J Industries, and joined the team here in 2020. I worked my way up through production planning, customer service and sales, and I was eager for a bigger challenge. I was attracted to the opportunity to be directly involved in growing a young molding facility like QTD, and I knew it was the direction I wanted to take my career. From day one, Brad and Chad have trusted me every step of the way to lead and grow the molding side of their business and that’s key to employee retention.

We are incredibly grateful for every person who has contributed to our success — from our employees to our customers and suppliers. None of this would be possible without them. Our organization has many great things ahead, and we are excited about the journey. Ultimately, our goal is simple: to be better than we were yesterday.

Q: What's on the horizon for Quality Tool and Die?

Kearns:  We're always looking to the future. In the next four to five years, we plan to build a new state-of-the-art injection molding building with a clean room. That will lead us to expand and update our mold-building facility using the latest technologies. We aim to be one of the most efficient mold-building facilities while investing in our local youth who have decided to build a great career in tool and die.

Q: Any final thoughts you'd like to share with our readers?

McDowell: I'd just like to say that we're incredibly grateful for the journey we've been on and the team we've built. We're committed to staying at the forefront of our industry, whether that's through investing in new technology or nurturing the next generation of talent. At Quality Tool and Die, we're not just building molds and parts — we're building a legacy.

Spring:  We are very appreciative of every person who has contributed to our success — from our employees to our customers and suppliers. None of this would be possible without them. Our organization has many great things ahead and we are excited about the journey. Ultimately, our goal is simple: to be better than we were yesterday.