At Thermotech, we welcome the opportunity to assume programs using customer supplied tooling. In fact, over 30% of the programs that we bring into production are manufactured from tooling transferred to us by our customers. This has been a growing trend as many customers have worked to consolidate their vendor base, moving existing programs to Preferred Suppliers, such as Thermotech.

Defined Process
Thermotech has a clearly defined process for qualifying transfer molds. Our goal is to identify and address any tooling quality/compatibility issues early, minimizing the number of surprises as the program moves into production. As with all programs at Thermotech, a dedicated project manager is assigned to each Transfer Tooling Program. The role of the project manager is to organize the process and to lead the cross-functional team responsible for bringing the molds into quality production. When the tooling is received by Thermotech, it is thoroughly inspected by the team for quality and compatibility with our equipment. Necessary modifications are documented and mold changes are quickly made. Once the tool is ready to run, the mold is sampled. As with new tooling programs, parts are qualified using the I.S.I.R and /or PPAP process.

Many of the programs that are transferred to Thermotech are comprised of multiple molds. By flexing the various resources of our three operations, we are able to manage the influx of these large programs, no matter where the manufacturing location. Our defined process along with our experience in assuming large projects, has resulted in our ability to requalify transfer tools and bring them into production quickly - in an average of 2 weeks.

Long-Term Cost Effectiveness
With each transfer program, we develop both a short and long-term plan. The short-term plan is focused on getting the tooling into production quickly, minimizing any disruption to the customer's schedule. Longer term, however, we look to optimize the process to provide our customers with the most cost effective solution. This often involves the complete reengineering of the program, which can include modified or new molds. Thermotech is able to offer the option of amortization of repair/replacement tooling costs into the savings, resulting in no additional capital outlay for the customer.