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Joe Plunger, president and CEO of Midwest Metal Products, recently described his innovations to Representative Gene Pelowski (left) and Senator Jeremy Miller (right).
Helping Manufacturing Enterprises Grow Profitably Inside Enterprise Minnesota® magazine you will find in-depth information and unmatched insights into the latest innovations, business successes, and ingenious company leaders among Minnesota’s manufacturing community. The magazine reaches over 42,000 readers, including CEOs and additional key decision-makers.
Tony Cremers, owner, Craft Pattern & Mold.
PROCESS EFFICIENCY
What Forecast? Prototype maker Craft Pattern & Mold uses ISO 9001:2015 to bring order to a stressful production process
I Chip Tangen Relationship Manager 651-226-6842 Chip.Tangen@enterpriseminnesota.org www.enterpriseminnesota.org
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f you are a manufacturer who is frustrated by the pressures and inefficiencies of limited forecasts, you should meet Tony Cremers. Cremers owns Craft Pattern & Mold, a Montrose-based prototype and product development center. His company offers onsite tooling, casting, and machining to help OEMs develop top-secret projects. Craft has been manufacturing precision prototype plastic and metal parts for commercial and industrial applications for 30 years. The hush-hush environment typically means Cremers's company receives
projects with little advance notice, demand for quick turnarounds, and the expectation that the orders’ specifications might change several times throughout the process. “It’s a very fast-paced environment,” Cremers says. “Our workloads change daily.” His typical workload forecast might be two weeks, “and we don’t know what we will be working on after that.” The customer’s requirements may not be precise when Craft gets the project, and they may evolve during the second and third phases of the project. Cremers’s team has learned to be agile,