NextGen Mold Technologies is Sticking to the Plan

MoldMaking Technology introduced NextGen Mold Technologies, based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, to our audience this past January. Prior to this, President Dennis Goggin had taken the stage at the MoldMaking Conference in November 2022 to share lessons learned during the first 9 months of his team’s journey when launching a new mold shop.

Since MMT’s last coverage of NextGen, I have been hearing and seeing posts lately that things are moving along quite nicely, so I wanted to get the official scoop. What follows is my recent Q&A with the company:

 

Tell me about any updates to the facility, workforce, service offerings and the industries served since last November?

Dennis Goggin, president, NextGen Mold Technologies: We remain in our 25,000-square-foot plant in Windsor. Our focus has been developing our surfacing and design team to support our growth in new tooling programs. We have maintained a steady headcount of 45 employees since September last year. The most significant change in our business operations has been in the concentration of new tooling for Tier 1 suppliers in the automotive sector, which currently represents 70% of our workload. We have maintained our engineering change, repairs and landing program support to our customer base to ensure robust service delivery capability.

Can you provide more details on the changes you've made to the team?

Goggin: Our design team is now up to eight members. We have added an estimator, Dan Ryan, to support increased quoting activity, incumbent with the transition to new tooling. He brings 15 years of experience and knowledge in estimating and design to the team and has proven to be a critical factor when considering our strategies in sourcing new tooling programs.

Darryl Clare has joined the team in the capacity of program manager. His appointment was a strategic investment to ensure we maintain our “customer-obsessed” mindset as our business model evolves. His attention to detail and commitment to service enables us to maintain the level of customer support that has yielded the rapid growth enjoyed over the past 17 months of being in business as “NextGen.” Darryl has assumed a large amount of responsibility, allowing myself and Jason to focus on growing our customer base.

In addition, Nicola Geyser has moved into the role of director of finance and HR, enabling her to focus on financial reporting and strategy, team development and satisfaction.

Has the company's vision changed at all?

Goggin: The goal remains to improve efficiency and promote better ideas. In the coming year, we plan to make some strategic investments in technology to help reduce our carbon footprint, increase energy efficiency and sharpen our competitive edge to transition into larger and more complex tooling. This will grow our market reach and help us meet our objectives to service all of our customers’ needs.

From a scientific research and development perspective, we plan to transition some of our design team members into more permanent macro and pattern development roles. This will prioritize our focus on efficiency and timing improvements from the start, which will then trickle over into each subsequent department.

As communicated in our first interview, we don’t want to be the biggest, just the best. This means providing the best environment for our team and the best service experience for our customers.

What goals have you reached?

Goggin: The team aggressively went after the development of a Tier 1 and Tier 2 customer base. Though we will not let our foot off the gas, our customer base has diversified tremendously over the past year, allowing us a degree of comfort as the market has become more and more competitive.

Since November 2022, we have consistently met our sales targets and have been in the fortunate position to reassess and increase the monthly goal to meet our improved trajectory. Customers have been excellent to work with and have responded well to our team. We are very grateful for each opportunity we have been awarded.

What is the latest investment in products, equipment, software, technology, etc. and why?

Goggin: We added a new Roeders carbon cutter to help reduce bottlenecks and a new boring mill. From a software and technology perspective, we developed macros and patternmaking to increase our engineering efficiency. We also have John St. Pierre, a process and systems developer, working daily to develop our tailor-made ERP. 

Our internal GenVision software serves manufacturing, sales, finance and human resources by offering real-time visibility of work orders, job costing, milestones, scheduling, employee birthdays and performance management. We now have every department contributing ideas and working from the integrated system. The team generates live data reports every day to help make more informed decisions.

What is the most significant change since last November?

Goggin: The most significant change would be the concentration of new tooling. The increase in this type of work will likely double our annual revenue, so the team is excited about the growth again this year. 

However, this requires us to consider the risks incumbent with these changes, including hedging, insurance and other risk management strategies to support sustainability and meet our continued growth and improvement aspirations responsibly.

Tell me about the most notable project your team has taken on since last November?

Goggin: It’s hard to pinpoint one specific project. Each team member has been focused on improving what falls within their area of expertise, including researching available funding and grant opportunities, ensuring continued competitive employee benefit offerings, team engagement with our design methods, costing formulas, KPIs and material sourcing as well as the way we design and process tools.

Learning how to operate cohesively during such an impressive growth spurt has definitely been a notable project. A lot happens at NextGen each day. Our team is humble in knowing things can be done more intelligently the next time. We do not settle.

What is your strategic plan for the next 3-5 years?

Goggin: The vision for the next 3-5 years has not changed. We remain focused on strategic, controlled growth to maintain our healthy work environment and strong customer relationships. We have fun 98% of the time! We want to maintain this whether we stay this size or if we grow three times bigger.

Why do you believe NextGen has enjoyed this success in such a competitive market?

Nicola Geyser, director of finance and HR: They say if you take care of the small things, the big things will take care of themselves.  NextGen is a breathing model for this analogy. We were interviewing a potential new addition to the team a few days ago and when inquiring why the candidate was interested in joining our team, we learned that they had only met the owner of their previous employer once in 5 years. I think Dennis’ hands-on approach is the real game changer at NextGen. 

He is available to everyone all the time, whether it’s ensuring that the new kid on the block has the opportunity to continue their education, a costly medical procedure for a team member is funded or someone’s family member experiencing a tough time receives mental health support. 

You cannot fake this level of investment and interest. I believe I speak for the team when I say we feel a sense of belonging at NextGen and a desire to please, and this translates into every interaction.