October 2013 | ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 55
Milacron LLC—still often referred to by
its legacy name “Cincinnati Milacron”
and still based in Cincy—got out of
the metalworking tools and grinding
business in 2004. Ever since, it has
focused its efforts on being a world
leader in plastics machinery, mold technologies and industrial
fluids. The company, now owned by the private equity firm
CCMP Capital Advisors LLC, has been rapidly expanding,
acquiring Mold-Masters (Toronto, Ontario) earlier this year and
giving credence to its tagline: “Now More than Ever, Your Most
Complete Partner in Plastics.”
Milacron executives Mark Vanzant and Jim Kinzie say that contract manufacturing has become an important tool
to diversify the overall business.
Milacron Optimizes Capacity with Contract BusinessContract manufacturing, once just a tool to use excess capacity at Milacron, becomes a vital diversification strategy
Sarah A. WebsterEditor in Chief
Contract Manufacturing Profile
Today, Milacron consists of Milacron Plastics Machinery
(injection, extrusion and blow-molding); Mold-Masters (hot
runners); DME Co. (mold technologies); Milacron Aftermarket
(parts and service) and CIMCOOL Fluid Technology (metal-
working fluids and services).
But a little-known part of the Milacron business has also
been growing, too. About a decade ago, Milacron planted the
seeds of a contract manufacturing business to offset the cycli-
cal nature of the machinery business, which is highly sensitive
to the ups-and-downs in the economy.
The strategy is now regarded as vital to the company.
Milacron’s contract manufacturing business, known as Mila-
cron Contract Manufacturing, has provided a relatively stable
source of revenue, especially during tough times, and it’s also
been a steadily growing source of revenue.
“We have a pretty cyclical business,” said Mark Vanzant,
director of Manufacturing and Engineering, Milacron. “This
was a strategy we arrived at 10–15 years ago to help us kind
of balance our manufacturing loads. …
“Using [the] machining facilities we already have, we look
for business that requires similar capabilities.”
Most often, that has been customers with big, high-tech
parts, including those in the oil and gas, wind, agriculture,
mining and locomotive sectors, among others. Milacron also
provides parts to other noncompeting machine builders who
sometimes do not have enough capacity to meet orders.
56 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | October 2013
Contract Manufacturing Profile
These thrust-bearing races are manufactured as part of
an industrial machine. They are machined using horizontal
machining and vertical turning centers from a AISI C1117
steel 54" (1372-mm) diameter ring weighing over 1000 lb
(450 kg). Milacron manufactures five of these monthly.
See us at SOUTH-TEC Booth #919 & FABTECH Booth #N-2007
CosenAdvantages“
”
www.cosensaws.com
20.25” RoundProgrammableBandsaw
14.2” RoundEnclosedBandsaw
SEE US ATWESTEC
BOOTH3300
See uS atWeSteC
Booth #3300& South-teCBooth #611
“Our niche is low volume, high technology,” said Jim
Kinzie, plant manager, Milacron, Mount Orab Operations.
Kinzie, who has worked in various positions at Milacron
during his 42 years with the company, explained that the
large vises, injection screws and fabricated or cast-iron
bases that Milacron manufactures for its plastic extru-
sion, blow-molding and injection-molding machines makes
Milacron especially capable to make smaller lots of large
items. “The machinery to make the parts is pretty much the
same,” he said.
Vanzant added: “We have capability up to about 60-ton
parts.”
Milacron’s contract business has grown to more than $8
million in sales annually, which Vanzant called “a small part of
total sales, but an important diversification tool.”
The company learned how important that diversification
was during the Great Recession, when the machinery side of
the business took a severe hit. During that period, the contract
manufacturing business made up nearly 40% of the ship-
ment’s out of the Mr. Orab plant. “It was a boon to us during
that period,” Vanzant said. And while Milacron still had to lay
off workers, he noted that without the contract business: “It
would have been worse.”
Today, Milacron has come to consider this contract manu-
facturing business, once meant only as a offset to use excess
manufacturing capacity, as highly important to the overall busi-
ness strategy.
“We will subcontract Milacron work to maintain our
contract business,” Kinzie said, explaining: “Once you lose it,
you won’t get it back. The problem with turning it on and off is
losing customers. We try and keep the contract work growing
no matter how business at Milacron is doing. We need to be
able to fall back on that.”
The contract manufacturing business does have some
boundaries to its growth, however. Milacron will not compete
with its machinery customers. Because those customers are
ABB Robotics. From small parts to the largest. Automated metal fab made easy.
From entry level systems for smaller parts to the most intricate, highly engineered systems for heavy, large frame welding, ABB has the ideal robotic system for the full range of welding, cutting and metal fabrication applications. With industry leading software innovations that reduce programming complexity, ABB robots and modular systems can easily handle small batch runs of highly diverse parts. The ABB family of robots includes a selection of integrated dressing models that deliver 15% shorter cycle times, lower operational costs and greater flexibility. www.abb.com/robotics
58 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | October 2013
Contract Manufacturing Profile
See us at FABTECH Booth #N-1436
typically in plastics, however, and Milacron is typically selling
metalworking services, this has not been an issue.
“We do not compete with our customers,” Vanzant said.
For example, he noted, “We do not do molds.”
Optimizing Manufacturing Capacity
Milacron has two large factories that
make a variety of small and large parts
required to make plastics machinery.
There’s a 500,000-ft ² (46,500-m²) facil-
ity in Batavia, OH, as well as a 190,730-
ft² (17,738-m²) facility about 15 miles
away in Mount Orab, where the majority
of contract manufacturing work is per-
formed. “The equipment we have in
our facility is a wide range, from small
parts to large parts, geared to make the
parts required for extrusion, blow mold-
ing and injection molding machinery,”
Kinzie said.
Milacron offers precision CNC mill-
ing, grinding, turning and hard-facing
operations, as well as a number of sec-
ondary and finishing operations, such
as whirling, heat treating, deburring,
coating, freezing, testing and more.
At Mount Orab, the facility consists
of five connecting buildings. Each build-
ing has a different type of operation.
One makes small parts you can pick up
with your hand. Two plants make large
parts that are moved by crane or with a
forklift. A fourth building does heat-
treating and other specialty processes.
The fifth does long and skinny, shaft-
type work, which is where the com-
pany makes its screws for the injection
business. Among its many machining
capabilities, which are listed in detail
on the company Web site, Milacron
also does whirling, a specialty opera-
tion. The whirling machines (made by
Weingärtner in Austria) have a ring with
a series of different types of cutters. As
the ring spins, it travels down the shaft.
The process is somewhat similar to turning, except instead of
one cutter working at a time, there are maybe six–eight cut-
ters working at a time. “It removes a considerable amount of
stock,” Kinzie said.
I am Accuprofi table.
High performance tools and lower costs means greater productivity to you.
You would never sacrifi ce quality for
affordability and you shouldn’t have to.
Accupro tools are crafted to meet the highest
standards for performance. But at 15-20% lower
cost than other premium brands, they’re priced
to keep your bottom line as low as possible.
mscdirect.com/accupro800.645.7270
Exclusively Distributed By
Among Milacron’s greatest assets in securing contract
business, however, is the company’s sizeable, highly-skilled
and flexible manufacturing workforce of about 230 workers,
175 of whom are machinists. “We have a higher skill set. All
of our machinists must be able to read their own blueprints,
do their own setups,” Kinze said. “The rest of the people are
support people, manufacturing engineers, production control.
… We do our NC programming in house.”
With their large, highly-skilled workforce and varied techni-
cal capabilities, Milacron also does some machine refurbish-
ing in its contract manufacturing operations.
Planning Ahead
Managing the contract manufacturing business has not
been much of a change or difficulty for Milacron, Kinzie said.
That’s because the plants already operated on a contract-
or customer-focused basis internally, with different parts of the
business placing orders to the manufacturing operations.
“It’s not easy, but we try and treat every order as if it’s from
an external customer,” Kinzie said. “We have five different
internal customers because the businesses for the injection, ex-
trusion and other business units, they all submit orders to us.”
That makes the contract customers “just another customer,”
he explained.
Because most Milacron jobs are smaller and custom, ver-
sus large automated operations, Kinzie said, “We do an awful
lot of capacity planning. We move around the machinery. …
We have the ability to move people around. We have to be
very flexible.” And fast. “We’re able to provide that customiza-
tion as rapidly as possible.”
Milacron uses J.D. Edwards EntepriseOne ERP software to
manage its capacity and other operations.
Typically, the machinery side of Milacron forecasts its sales
about six months in advance, leaving the machining operation
to book its excess capacity. Virtually all machines are built to
order, with very few stock machines. ME
“Everything for EDM” Michigan :: North Carolina :: Massachusetts :: California :: IllinoisHeadquarters :: Phone 800.356.4811 :: Fax 800.486.4336www.belmont4edm.com :: ISO 9001:2008
Experience Does Count ... A Leader in EDM Drilling Since 1985.
Solution Evolution.
60 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | October 2013
Contract Manufacturing Profile
See us at SOUTH-TEC Booth #1611