Tooling Innovation Leads to Reduced Overall Total Cost and Increasing Competitiveness

Like many molders, Hi-Craft is faced with the increased competition from overseas production sources.  We have personally witnessed valuable programs sent out of the United States in search of lower cost manufacturing.  Hi-Craft is committed to finding solutions to compete in this highly charged, global environment.  And, we are doing it —one part and often, one tool, at a time. 

Though, we still champion our local tooling providers, we have developed a new powerful tool in our competitive arsenal – the ability to harness the lower cost country tooling sources, LCC, to add a large cost savings for our valued customers.  By leveraging the lower cost of the one-time tooling expense, we are able to competitively quote the long-term manufacturing programs and keep our manufacturing 100% in the United States – where it belongs to provide jobs and security for our employee partners.

 Through our LCC partners, Hi-Craft designs, approves, and oversees the production of the tool.  These LCC tools are constructed with the same US steel, tolerances, and standards that we require from our local sources.  With a typical 30% shorter lead time until first sample and often a nearly 60% reduction in cost, our LCC tooling solution can provide valuable competitive advantages to both us and our customer partners.

 This strategy doesn’t work for most injection molding firms, for it requires the highest caliber of in-house tooling and sampling services to support the tools once they arrive stateside.  Tools made overseas must be fine-tuned to perfectly match our partners’ needs.  This is where Hi-Craft Engineering’s 40 years of tooling expertise is vital.  H&C Tool, our own in-house tooling firm, employs full-time designers, tooling engineers, and toolmakers with immediate response to bring these tools quickly to a successful PPAP with the lowest possible lead-time — without any delay for local shipping or tooling queues.

 Give us a call to discuss how we can leverage this LCC solution to meet your company’s needs.  We look forward to partnering with you.