June 8th, 2021 – Even with the pandemic, Xcentric Mold & Engineering continues to see consistent growth across all business sectors. In the continued mission to provide an Amazing Customer Experience, Xcentric is expanding the capacity of the Shelby facility by over 40%, allowing the company to domestically produce hundreds of thousands of additional pieces for our customers. In addition to the expansion, the organization has implemented a more strenuous Quality Assurance program ensuring each piece shipped meets the needs of our customers.
“With the massive increase in our Shelby facility, we’ll be able to produce more parts at faster speeds all right here at home. The increased efficiency will help designers iterate quicker, getting better products to market faster,” said Matt McIntosh, CEO at Xcentric. “We’re proud to invest more into the local Michigan community as we expand our injection molding and rapid prototyping services.”
With 25 years of experience, Xcentric has always taken a customer-first approach to rapid prototyping, injection molding, CNC machining, and 3D printing to designers and engineers across all industries. As part of the company-wide commitment to consistently deliver an Amazing Customer Experience, Xcentric is working to implement operational improvements and install quality programs to support customers in any global climate seamlessly.
“Throughout the last year, we have increased our Quality Assurance, Project Management, and Customer Success teams to ensure we’re driving towards higher quality services every day,” said Tom Neill, Vice President of Operations at Xcentric. “This improved focus has allowed us to decrease lead times while improving service allowing our customers to iterate and go to market faster.”
Additional improvements include optimizing agile manufacturing processes, utilizing digital systems, and transparent communications.
Operational Excellence and Efficiencies
Agile Practices to Quickly Scale Rapid Manufacturing Services Agile manufacturing uses processes, tools, and training that enable employees to quickly respond to customer needs and market changes with a significant amount of financial efficiency.
According to Neill, agile manufacturing played a crucial role in supporting customers’ diverse needs during the pandemic.
“We are optimizing our agile processes to deliver rapid manufacturing services that are more nimble, more responsive, and more capable of supporting our customers’ changing production requirements,” Neill said. “Employees have quickly adapted to new operational procedures and increased communications across departments to ensure everyone stayed aligned.”
Digital Systems
The pandemic revealed vulnerabilities in the global supply chain and showed us how easily we could become disconnected from suppliers and business partners. Xcentric’s digital systems are essential to connecting data and mitigating the risk of disruptions to the supply chain.
“Even though we have moved into the post-pandemic phase, logistics are still difficult to navigate. Teams are still scattered, and in-person meetings are still a novelty. Digital systems help us to connect data – from our mold designers and production technicians to assembly and shipping, to ensure a seamless transaction and optimal visibility for customers,” Neill said.
Communications
Communication is at the root of many success stories. For Xcentric, listening to customer feedback, implementing operational improvements, and installing quality programs to ensure on-time delivery is part of an ongoing process to meet customers’ needs.
“Our employees’ continuous efforts to always deliver an Amazing Customer Experience is what sets us apart from other rapid prototyping companies,” McIntosh said. “Other companies can manufacture plastic parts. But they don’t have Xcentric’s employees. And that is the greatest differentiator and measure of excellence for our customers.”