Craft Pattern:
Law F
Lead Time Is
Craft Pattern & Mold brought casting in-house to shave days off lead times for its growing prototype business. SHANNON WETZEL, SENIOR EDITOR
or years, Dennis Hagen, owner of Craft Pat- tern & Mold, Maple Plain, Minn., let his
right-hand man Tony Cremers know he would be given leadership of the company when Hagen retired. For years, Cremers waited, honing his busi- ness skills by watching his mentor and formulating his plans for when he took Craft Pattern’s helm. Finally, at the start of 2008, Hagen retired and Cremers took over ownership of the company. Months later, the recession hit. “No one really saw it coming,” Cre-
mers said. “My wife and I put every penny into this place to keep it going. We ate a lot of ramen noodle, and I put in long hours.” Tree-plus years into running the
company, Cremers is breathing a little easier. Tanks to upgrades in machin- ing equipment, a refocus on prototyp- ing and a high profile collaboration with a key customer, he stresses less about keeping the business open and more about planning for Craft Pat-
32 | MODERN CASTING May 2011
tern’s move into a larger machining and casting facility this summer.
Nick of Time Originally a pattern and tooling
shop, Craft Pattern bought a small metalcasting business 12 years ago to cast its molds and prototypes. When Cremers took over in 2008, he was eager to grow the company through its prototyping capabilities. As part of the plan, one of his first priorities was to move the casting operations in with the rest of the pattern shop. “[When the casting facility was
offsite], if there were issues, I wouldn’t know about them for three or four hours,” Cremers said. “With our lead times, we don’t have weeks or months, so if there is a problem, I need to know now. With casting [operations] in the shop, I can keep my eyes on [them].” As a prototyper, Craft Pattern’s lead time is its lifeblood. Not only must the times be kept short (from a couple days to several weeks), but they must be met strictly—delays are bad business.
Tony Cremers has been president of Craft Pat- tern & Mold since 2008.
Sticking to deadlines means Craft
Pattern plays the hero for its custom- ers, and when it produced a prototype for Polaris Industries, the customer returned the favor. In the fall of 2008, the recreational vehicle manufacturer was in a bind. It wanted to roll out a unique concept motorcycle in January 2009, and one of the key, headline- grabbing pieces needed to be cast and cast fast. “Right after Tanksgiving, we
made the decision to cast it with them,” said Greg Brew, Director of Industrial Design at Polaris. “Our first show was on Jan. 16. We needed a week to ship and a week for photos and a week for painting/final assem- bly. It’s pretty staggering how quickly they turned it around.” Craft Pattern’s employees worked
long hours through the Christmas holidays to supply the main structure frame casting, along with eight to 10 other cast and machined parts. “That type of time constraint is actually pretty typical for us,” Cre-
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