AURORA – Wayne Sikorcin’s father started Craftsman Tool & Mold in 1965, the same year he was born.
One of four children, Wayne says that he grew up hearing about the things his father and partner were doing at Craftsman Mold – then located in Franklin Park.
Now Craftsman Tool & Mold is located in a 40,000 square foot facility at 2750 Church Road in Aurora, where 45 people are employed.
Craftsman Tool’s specialty is manufacturing large, high volume and close tolerance custom mold bases for the medical, electrical, nuclear, cosmetic, appliance and automotive industries.
They provide large capacity gun drilling, punch holders, die shoes and other specialty machining.
Tim Roth, Craftsman Tool’s shop floor supervisor, says it’s his job to keep projects moving and to meet deadlines, which isn’t easy as lead times become more and more demanding.
“For the past 15 years, customers have been pushing for shorter lead times. I often say that I’m in charge of keeping the promises,” Roth said. “Quality is expected right off the bat. Any negotiation is about the delivery date, based on our workload.”
Roth’s been doing his job, as Craftsman Tool’s production capacity is about to beat all time records, Sikorcin said.
“We’re on a record year – a ten to twenty percent growth,” he said.
Accuracy, quality and timeliness are crucial to meeting a record year’s demands, but so is Craftsman Tool’s array of in-house abilities.
“We can grind 50 inches by 144 – that’s a pretty large grinder,” Sikorcin said.
“We can hold .0002 tolerance. We can handle the very big plates in this industry and still keep the quality.”
Both Sikorcin and Roth are proud of current projects they’re working on: four-way stack frames with a center cube 24 by 24 by 25 inches, made from a solid block of 420 stainless steel that weighed 6000 pounds when it first arrived at Craftsman.
“The precision of two sides meeting at the same time and rotating in the center and all of your alignments at less than a thousandths tolerance as it turns, we have our work cut out for us,” Roth said. Then he added, “And we’ve proven ourselves.”
The solid steel cube with the adaptations made at Craftsman will be placed into a two million dollar tool for medical industry.
In addition, consumer packaging is also a focus of Craftsman Tool. Technology advancements are changing how products are presented.
“Packaging is big, because every time they make a water bottle thinner or they make the cap a little smaller, that’s more work for us to make the machines that make those bottles thinner, Roth said.
“Remember when water bottles never crushed? Now all of that has changed,” Roth said. “That was part of our uptick in business. Keeping up with the changes they made in packaging.”
Another packaging machine client is K-cups, Sikorcin said.
“We already have done five tools for K-cups. Now we’re doing one for the larger pots and possibly even the carafes,” he said.
Every time product companies want changes in packaging, it’s more work for Craftsman Tool & Mold.
“We’re good with the changes, “ Sikorcin said.
Both Sikorcin and Roth say they’re most proud of the team spirit Craftsman Tool offers its employees.
“We’re most proud of our culture, the camaraderie between the workers. They’re willing to help one another,” Sikorcin said.
And just how does a company develop an environment like that?
“One of the things is that we focus on hiring nice people,” Roth said with a smile. “Seriously, we can train almost anyone to understand the job we’re trying to accomplish, but you still need good people,” he said.
“We spend 50, 60, 70 hours a week together here. That’s more than you see your family,” he said. “Not everybody needs to be best friends, but hiring good, polite people has made a world of difference out there on the shop floor.”
Sikorcin agreed fully.
“To second that, we took a lot of power off the management and put it in the hands of the co-workers,” Sikorcin said. “They’re now making decisions out there, compared to front office management saying ‘Do it this way.’”
“Plus,” Sikorcin said, “Everything is transparent – our sales, our progress, our deliveries.”
Among the team members at Craftsman Tool is Carlos Santillan, who graduated from TMA’s 2015 class with the distinct honor of being chosen this year’s American Mold Builders Association Apprentice of the Year.
While some segments of manufacturing are hinting at a worrisome slowdown in orders, that’s not the case at Craftsman Tool. The team there is considering adding a weekend shift to their daytime and nighttime work shifts.
“Manufacturing is not struggling at 2750 Church Road,” Sikorcin said.
Find out more about Craftsman Tool & Mold at www.craftsmanmold.com
First published in TMA’s 2015 “People You Should Know” series by Fran Eaton, TMA News editor
