SPE Mold Making and Mold Design Div Announces MoldMaker of the Year Award Recipient

Naming the 2011 Mold Maker of the Year

My name is Scott Peters and I am presently serving the SPE as Mold Making and Mold Design Division International Chair Elect. In this role I am part of the executive board of directors responsible for the day to day operations of our division. I have previously served the SPE as Division Chair, Newsletter Editor, Awards Chair and Division Councilor. Over the past 35 years I have had the extreme honor to meet and work with other highly dedicated Mold Makers and Designers from around North America and Europe.

In my current “Paying” job, I am the Operations Manager for HunterDouglas Mfg. China Co., Ltd. In this role I have continued my deep ties to the North American Plastics and Mold Making Industries. As a result of living in Guangzhou for the past 3 years I have forged new relationships with industry leaders here in China. In those new relationships I have found new friends and colleagues that share the same passion for our industry as those I have known in America and Canada. This has been a richly rewarding time in my career.

Let’s talk a little bit if we may about what is the Society of Plastics Engineers, Inc.

The SPE is an amalgamation men and women representing over 26 Technical Divisions. Those industry professionals represent academics, research scientists, industry practitioners (folks like you and I that work daily in business) and students. With current membership of just over 17,000 individuals on almost every continent in the world SPE is looked to as the premier industry knowledge base for plastics.

SPE has a rich history that spans nearly 70 years. In those years the society has held annual technical conferences. It is during that annual conference that the latest research is presented to the membership and our industry as it relates to the various technical disciplines. Presenters from around the world meet in locations around the globe to share their research results and introduce new technology to the plastics industry.

In 2011 those Annual Technical Conferences will take on a new look and feel as the SPE embarks on two new venues. Those are known today as Euro-Tec and Asia-Tec. Euro-Tec will be held in Barcelona Spain later this year and Asia-Tec in Japan.

Additionally throughout the year the Divisions with the assistance of Local Sections hold focused technology seminars in the form of one, two or three day symposiums. These Re-Tec’s as we refer to them allow our members to be very focused on the subject matter they receive and make specific application to the daily career activities.

As you can tell SPE is well respected in most corners of the world.

The Mold Making and Mold Design Division of SPE makes up one of the 26 Technical disciplines covered by the Society. Our division is an off-shoot of the Injection Molding Division and was formed some 33 years ago.

In the early days the Injection and Rotational Molding Division managed the technical content related to our industry. When the Mold Making and Mold Design Division spun off, it was a time of rapid technological change. The molding making industry was growing and changing so quickly that the information was almost impossible to keep fresh. Additionally, the Injection Molding Industry was seeing huge changes in resin and machine technology that drove a divide.
Since that time the Mold Making and Mold Design Division has held close ties with the Injection Molding Division. Our joint goal has been to broaden the knowledge of both segments of the Plastics Industry while providing our individual membership bases the technological information they need to remain competitive in an ever changing market. Today the Mold Making and Mold Design Division has over 1200 active members on our roster. Our mission remains the same as it was over 3 decades ago: “To foster growth in the mold making and design profession(s)  by encouraging the training of moldmakers at the apprentice level, and by supporting the continuing development of established moldmakers by gathering and exchanging information on materials and mold performance.”

In 1983, the Mold Making and Mold Design Division determined to establish an annual award that would recognize one industry professional who has contributed in a significant way to the betterment of our market place. It was at ANTEC 1983 that the Mold Maker of the Year Award was given life. Every year since then, with the exception of 2008, names have been submitted for review along with short biographies allowing the Executive Committee a chance to see who in our industry is making positive change.

Following that lead in 1992 the division instated the Mold Designer of the Year Award to meet the need for recognizing professionals in that market segment that were also making significant contributions to the trade from a design perspective.

The roster of Mold Makers and Mold Designers of the Year reads like a “Who’s Who” of the Mold Making and Mold Design Industry. These leaders have seen fit to leave their mark on the craft that has provided their source of income over the span of decades in their careers.

It is said that no man is greater than when he bends down to help another. These individuals through their dedication have done that bending and today we are together to meet and recognize the latest member to the Mold Maker of the Year honor role.

In 2005 I had the distinct privilege to join HunterDouglas. It is because of my current employment that I was able to meet and become friends with an individual that I believe is an industry leader here in China and around the world. That man started a mold making company at time when the industry was changing yet again. He led his team of mold makers to build a reputation for high quality tooling at competitive prices and deliveries. From there he added injection molding to the list of capabilities that customers would find available when doing business together. But that wasn’t enough.

This man saw that in order to grow and thrive in a highly competitive market place he needed to do three things. Those were then and remain today integral components of his business plan. The first thing he saw as necessary was the need to differentiate his company from the growing numbers of similar firms in South China and the world. This would be achieved by:
1.    Establishing a clear market plan.
2.    Determining to set the standards for his market niche.
3.    Having a clear vision for the future of his company and industry.
4.    Managing the financial and human capital employed in his company.

From there he could see a need to be a “Good Corporate Citizen.” He achieved this by:
1.    Determining that his company would treat customers as valued partners in the mutual success of each other.
2.    Adopting a “Win Win” approach to doing business where both his company and the customer would come away satisfied from the exchange.
3.    Maintaining a healthy environment for his team mates in which they would be able to:
a.    Have clear safety standards to maintain a safe workplace.
b.    Develop to their full potential as craftsmen/craftswomen.
c.    Gain on-going training from Apprenticeships to Engineering Degrees.
d.    See a clear career path.

Finally he saw that as time went on it may be necessary to adopt new paradigms in mold building. In the early part of the first decade of the new Twentieth Century, his company broke with tradition of having one mold building area responsible to shift and change between “Small Close Tolerance Molds” and those of “Large More Open Tolerance Projects.” In adapting to that change he established a “SWAT” “Special Weapons and Tactics” department responsible to design and build molds at a new industry standard for China, that of “Society of Plastics Industry Class 101.”

It is as a result of these visionary traits that we come to this history making occasion. The occasion of naming for the first time in the more than 7 decades of the existence of the Society of Plastics Engineers, and the 3 decades of the Mold Making and Mold Design Division the Mold Maker of the Year located off of the North American Continent. Today I am pleased to make a formal presentation of this award to my colleague and friend Mr. SY Chu – Chairman of Zhongshan Pacific Master Precision Injection Ltd.

In addition to making this presentation to Mr. Chu, the Mold Making and Mold Design Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers will make a $500.00 US contribution to the GangKou Technical School as an honorarium in Mr. Chu’s name. This donation is made possible by a grant from the D-M-E Company in Detroit Michigan, USA.