Tooling Manager

Silgan Dispensing Systems•Grandview, MO

23h

About The Position

The Tooling Manager owns the condition, repair, and cavitation of every injection molding tool at Grandview, as well as the machine shop supporting molding and assembly. The position reports to the Plant Manager and is accountable for restoring and sustaining cavitation to plant requirements, building a failure-history-based preventive maintenance program, capturing tooling knowledge in plant documentation, and developing the tool room’s capability to support new platform work without third parties. The role treats molds as capacity assets and quantifies the impact and return date of blocked cavities. The position oversees the injection mold tool room and CNC machining/machine shop across two shifts, with availability for critical tooling failures on all shifts. Direct reports include the tool room supervisor or lead toolmakers, toolmakers and mold technicians, and CNC machinists. Internal customers include Operations for molds released to production and Maintenance for machined rebuild parts and spares. The tool room is a cost center with full cost transparency and documented service-level agreements with Operations and Maintenance; internal chargebacks are not used. The role owns availability losses on tool-coded stoppages and presents tooling availability and blocked cavities at Tier 2a, as well as its section at Tier 3. The role leads mold condition assessment, refurbishment and life-cycle planning; cavity and core work; hot runner and manifold diagnosis and repair; tool preventive maintenance; CNC machining and shop work; tooling documentation and supplier management; and people, cost, and reporting. It formally releases molds to production with documented condition and verified cavitation. It maintains tooling records to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 and works with Quality and Operations on new tool acceptance and launches under APQP. The position does not own molding presses, auxiliary equipment, or assembly equipment maintenance; process windows, output, cycle time to standard, or scrap disposition; or quality standards and metrology. It works in a tool room and general manufacturing environment and requires approximately 5% travel for mold vendor and supplier support. Safety, health, and environmental stewardship are shared responsibilities, and leaders are expected to promote safe work practices and support employee safety engagement.

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 5 years leading skilled trades.
Hands-on experience diagnosing, repairing, and requalifying hot runner and manifold systems.
Demonstrated recovery of cavitation or tool availability, supported by a documented baseline, countermeasures, and measured results.
Experience building a tool preventive maintenance program based on failure history rather than a calendar schedule.
Experience managing outside toolmakers with drawing packages as a condition of acceptance.
Experience supervising a tool room across two shifts and being available for critical failures.
Demonstrated ownership of an operating budget and preparation 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 spare-parts 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 verify corrections.
Ability to measure tool steel and use evidence to distinguish tool wear from process drift.
Working knowledge of A3, 5-Why, and fishbone problem-solving methods.
Experience with MaintainX or an equivalent CMMS; ERP systems; 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 dollar cost of lost capacity; work in inches and millimeters; and determine and prove whether a defect originates in the tool, machine, process, or material.
Ability to perform the essential duties satisfactorily, subject to reasonable accommodation where applicable.
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; occasionally lift or move up to 50 pounds; and use close and distance vision and adjust focus.
Follow work rules and policies and perform other job-related duties as assigned.

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 reduction in changeover time.
CAD/CAM experience.
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.
Experience with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, noted as the preferred ERP.

Responsibilities

Own mold condition across the tooling asset base, including condition assessments, refurbishment plans, life-cycle planning, and replacement horizons for active molds.
Recover and sustain cavitation to plant requirements; document each blocked cavity’s root cause, lost-capacity cost, repair plan, and committed return-to-service date.
Manage cavity and core work, venting, gating, ejection, cooling circuits, parting-line condition, 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 on verbal approval.
Own hot runner and manifold diagnosis, repair, requalification, improvement work, and spare-parts strategy; document failures and root causes as capacity events.
Build and maintain 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 spare fabrication, tooling modifications, sub-assembly manufacture, and machining rebuilds for assembly equipment, delivering work to Maintenance against agreed service levels.
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 at the plant for every active mold and write tooling standards, repair playbooks, and repair records that preserve knowledge in the plant.
Manage outside toolmakers and require drawing packages as a condition of acceptance.
Support new tool acceptance and launch with Quality and Operations under APQP, and develop in-house capability for new platform work without third parties.
Lead the tool room supervisor and lead toolmakers across two shifts; conduct weekly one-on-ones, document coaching, and build bench strength through cross-training, apprenticeship, and knowledge capture.
Own the operating budget, report monthly costs against plan with explained variances, quantify and publish lost-capacity costs from blocked cavities and tool-coded downtime, and develop capital and cost-reduction cases with documented baselines and 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.
Promote safety by following site policies, coaching to correct unsafe behaviors, supporting employee safety meetings, and recognizing safe behaviors; contribute to environmental stewardship.
Be available for critical tooling failures on all shifts and support mold vendors and suppliers as needed.