Tooling Manager

Silgan Dispensing•Grandview, MO

About The Position

The Tooling Manager owns the condition, repair, cavitation, and availability of every injection molding tool at Grandview, along with the machine shop that supports molding and assembly. The role reports to the Plant Manager and is accountable for restoring and sustaining required cavitation, maintaining a failure-history-based preventive maintenance program, documenting tooling knowledge, and developing the tool room’s ability to support new platform work without third parties. The position owns availability loss from tool-coded stoppages and presents tooling availability and blocked-cavity information at Tier 2a and Tier 3. It leads the tool room and machine shop across two shifts and is available for critical tooling failures on all shifts. The role owns the injection mold tool room, CNC machining, and machine shop. Its internal customers include the Operations Manager, for molds released to production, and the Maintenance Manager, for machined rebuild parts and spares. The position does not own molding press, auxiliary, or assembly equipment maintenance; production output, process windows, or cycle time; or quality standards and metrology. The Tooling Manager leads mold condition assessment and cavity recovery, hot runner and manifold diagnosis and improvement, tool preventive maintenance, CNC machining and machine shop delivery, tooling documentation and supplier management, and people, cost, and reporting. It formally releases molds to production with documented condition and verified cavitation, maintains current drawing packages and tool records, manages the operating budget, and communicates the cost of lost capacity. Records are maintained to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015. The position works in a tool room and general manufacturing environment with machine tools, injection molding presses, hydraulic systems, hot surfaces, overhead cranes, and powered industrial trucks. Noise is usually moderate to loud; hearing protection and other personal protective equipment are required in designated areas. The role supports two shifts, requires availability for critical failures on all shifts, and may require approximately 5% travel for mold vendor and supplier support.

Requirements

Journeyman toolmaker or mold maker certification, a bachelor’s degree in engineering or a related technical discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and directly applicable injection mold experience.
At least 10 years of multi-cavity injection mold tooling experience in a high-volume environment, including at least five years leading skilled trades.
Hands-on experience diagnosing, repairing, and requalifying hot runner and manifold systems.
Demonstrated recovery of cavitation or tool availability, with a documented baseline, countermeasures, and measured results.
Experience building a tool preventive maintenance program based on failure history rather than the calendar.
Experience managing outside toolmakers with drawing packages as a condition of acceptance.
Experience supervising a tool room across two shifts, with availability for critical failures.
Demonstrated ownership of an operating budget and construction of capital business cases.
Knowledge of multi-cavity injection mold construction and repair, including venting, gating, cooling circuits, ejection systems, parting-line condition, and dimensional restoration.
Knowledge of hot runner and manifold diagnosis, repair, balancing, requalification, and spares strategy.
CNC milling and turning, EDM, and grinding experience, with sufficient CAM knowledge to direct and check machinists’ work.
Knowledge of GD&T, shrink and dimensional correction, first-article inspection, and working with metrology to prove a correction.
Ability to measure tool steel sufficiently to distinguish tool wear from process drift using evidence.
Uses A3, 5-Why, and fishbone problem-solving methods as part of normal work.
Experience with MaintainX or an equivalent CMMS; ERP experience; CAD viewing; and advanced Excel.
Ability to read and interpret mold and engineering drawings, GD&T, machining programs, safety rules, and procedure manuals.
Ability to write repair records, corrective action responses, and capital justifications and present tooling condition and capacity data to plant and corporate leadership, vendors, and customers.
Ability to calculate rates, ratios, percentages, shrink and dimensional correction, cavitation, MTBF, MTTR, PM adherence, tool availability, and the dollarized cost of lost capacity; able to work in inches and millimeters.
Ability to determine and demonstrate whether a defect originates in the tool, machine, process, or material.
Ability to prioritize repair by production impact, explain deferred work and its cost, take accountability for tool condition and availability, publish and explain tooling data, develop tool room bench strength, and communicate the business impact of cavitation and tool availability.
Must be able to perform essential duties satisfactorily, subject to reasonable accommodation.
Regularly stand, walk, talk, and hear; frequently use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach, climb or balance; and sit, bend, stoop, twist, kneel, squat, or crawl. May occasionally lift or move up to 50 pounds.
Close vision, distance vision, and ability to adjust focus are required.
Availability for critical tooling failures on all shifts; approximately 5% travel may be required for mold vendor and supplier support.

Nice To Haves

Experience with packaging, dispensing, or closures high-cavitation tooling.
Mold qualification and launch experience under APQP and PPAP.
SMED implementation with a measured changeover reduction.
CAD/CAM experience.
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.
ERP experience with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne.

Responsibilities

Own the condition of the full tooling asset base, including condition assessments, refurbishment plans, life cycles, and replacement horizons for active molds.
Recover and sustain mold cavitation to plant requirements; document each blocked cavity with root cause, lost-capacity cost, repair plan, and committed return-to-service date.
Perform or oversee cavity and core work, venting, gating, ejection, cooling circuits, parting lines, and dimensional restoration to print.
Formally release molds to production with documented condition, verified cavitation, and first-article support; do not return molds to service based on verbal approval.
Own hot runner and manifold diagnosis, repair, requalification, spares strategy, and improvement work in the plant recovery plan.
Build a preventive maintenance plan for every active mold based on failure history, record tool-coded work in MaintainX, publish the plan weekly, and eliminate repeat tool failures.
Own CNC machining for spares fabrication, tooling modifications, sub-assembly manufacture, and machining rebuilds for assembly equipment, delivering to Maintenance against the agreed service level.
Ensure machined spares and sub-assembly stations are prebuilt, inspected, and staged for SMED events; measure tooling’s contribution to changeover time.
Maintain a current drawing package in the plant for every active mold and write tooling standards, repair playbooks, and other documentation that captures knowledge in the plant.
Manage outside toolmakers, requiring drawing packages as a condition of acceptance; support new tool acceptance and launch with Quality and Operations under APQP.
Build the tool room’s capability to perform new platform work without third parties.
Lead the tool room supervisor and lead toolmakers across two shifts; hold weekly one-on-ones, document coaching, and develop bench strength through cross-training, apprenticeship, and knowledge capture.
Own the operating budget and report monthly cost against plan with variance explanations; quantify and publish lost-capacity costs from blocked cavities and tool-coded downtime.
Build capital and cost-reduction cases with a documented baseline and stated alternatives.
Maintain tooling records to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015; prepare and present the tooling scorecard at Tier 3 and present tooling availability and blocked cavities at Tier 2a.
Follow work rules and policies and support a safe work environment by implementing safety principles, following safety policies, coaching to correct unsafe behavior, attending employee safety meetings, and recognizing safe behaviors.
Support environmental stewardship in accordance with the company Environmental Policy.
Perform other job-related duties as assigned.