Craft Pattern & Mold, based in Montrose, Minnesota, is an industry leading manufacturer of prototype plastic and metal parts, as well as production tooling, for a variety of commercial and industrial applications. They offer onsite tooling, casting and machining to help OEMs develop top secret projects. This agile group can work with little advance notice, very quick turnarounds and the expectation that order specifications may change several times throughout the process. Industries Craft Pattern & Mold serves include aerospace, automotive, agriculture, construction, electronics, medical and many more.
Tony Cremers, the owner of Craft Pattern & Mold, had a desire to grow his business sustainably. In order to grow, Tony knew that he had to fine tune his company’s production procedures and get different parts of the operation on the same page. The niche service Craft Pattern provides requires 100% accuracy and very fast turnarounds.
Craft Pattern & Mold approached Enterprise Minnesota, a NIST MEP affiliate, with a desire to position themselves for continued and sustainable growth. In working with Business Growth Consultant Keith Gadacz, it was determined that ISO 9001:2015 certification would be the best way to align business units, streamline operations and put processes in place to meet the stringent customer demands required of Craft Pattern & Mold. In addition, certification would show Craft’s clients that it was meeting compliance requirements and provide confidence in the quality of Craft’s parts. The certification project was completed successfully and the company has benefited significantly from the process improvements.
We needed to get the different parts of our operation on the same page, making sure everything’s complete before it goes on to the next department. There was a point – probably about three-quarters of the way through our [ISO 9001:2015] training when a light came on for most of us. We realized the certification’s value when we started to understand it is more of a management tool than it is how we process things from start to finish. It’s working great now with everyone on the shop floor.