KALAMAZOO ? Industry leaders, economic developers and members of the banking community met Monday for Tool or Die: Saving an Industry, a meeting that explored the concept of coopetition ? the challenge of maintaining a competitive edge while establishing collaboration. The event was sponsored by Accu-Mold, Inc. and Southwest Michigan First.
The event attracted nearly 60 participants from throughout the Southwest Michigan region. Many of these interested stakeholders will continue to meet to pursue priority issues that impact the tool and die industry in our region. Additional meetings will be scheduled for February and subsequent months to be determined at a later date. The Michigan Manufacturer?s Association also has a number of meetings scheduled that will teach companies how to build a coalition. They are hosting a session for the Greater Kalamazoo Region on March 11 at M-TEC.
The future of this industry is a topic of critical importance both to the region, the state and to the future of manufacturing in the United States. According to keynote speaker Jay Baron, president and director of manufacturing for the Center for Automotive Research, one of the founding organizations behind the United Tooling Coalition (UTC), ?Our region is the center for the tooling industry in North America.?
Michigan accounts for 24 percent of the nation?s tooling industry and 7 percent of Michigan?s manufacturing industry. Of the nearly 200,000 lost manufacturing jobs in Michigan since 1998, an estimated 34,000 have been in this industry. The National Tooling & Machining Association estimates 30 percent of the country?s toolmakers have shut their doors since 2000 and many left are barely hanging on.
?Coalition members band together to achieve competitive advantages that none of us could achieve alone,? said David Martin, president of Accu-Mold, an inaugural member of UTC. ?It gives us purchasing power and enables us to establish standardized processes that make us more competitive on a global scale.?
As a group, a coalition has extensive capabilities for engineering, prototype development tooling construction, and it can leverage cooperative bidding advantages. Martin said the competitive nature of small firms can actually be a significant advantage when competing for bids on large projects. ?Overlapping capabilities among coalition firms enables us to provide capacity as a group that we couldn?t begin to achieve on our own,? he said.
Accu-Mold, Inc. is a full-service mold making shop serving virtually every industry, including: automotive, consumer products, electronics, medial, office technology, packaging and more. Accu-Mold specializes in exceeding customer expectations to achieve cost-effective solutions that meet its clients? evolving business needs. Capable of performing design reviews and coordination of all molds, dies, and fixtures through global sources, Accu-Mold?s expert design and engineering team provides continuous improvement processes and personalized customer service. Contact Accu-Mold at (269) 323-0399.
