But Smith isn't ashamed of that. On the contrary, he's purposely embarked on the go-slow approach.
In fact, TSI has found that waiting until customers have upgraded their computing technology before upgrading its own is not only economical; it can be good business. For example, TSI's PCs still run on Windows 3.1, even in the face of the newer, more capable, and heavily promoted replacements Windows 95 and Windows NT. It turns out that Windows 3.1, and the software that's written for it, match what's being used by the clients with whom TSI exchanges engineering and administrative files. "We still have a lot of older programs that simply wouldn't work with Windows 95," says Weller. "Our customers use them, and it would throw everyone off if we were to change."
And Tom Smith hesitates to demand that his tool designers and machinists--who create the high-precision molds used in the company's injection machines--change the way they do things just to accommodate more automation. So the company has been introducing design software and computer-driven metal-cutting tools gradually, letting the company's craftspeople figure out on their own how they want to use the technology. Right now, TSI's designers and machinists are using technology to create the rough cuts in the mold-making process; they continue to do the precision detail work by hand. And Smith stands completely behind them.
For instance, about a year ago TSI installed its first computer-numeric-controlled (CNC) machine tool, a tool that cuts each mold component according to a computer program--one program per component. Each program is created by one of the company's toolmakers at a PC that runs computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software. TSI uses a package called SurfCAM, from Surfware Inc., in Westlake Village, Calif. (The price ranges from $2,500 to $17,500; 800-787-3927.)
Toolmaker Rick Bruner admits, "When we first got it, I just took a side interest in it." Now his interest, and that of his colleagues, has grown to the point where TSI is ready to sidle to the next step: building a full-blown machining center that will use a highly versatile CNC machine tool requiring almost no human intervention. With features like the ability to change cutting heads automatically, a machining center can be programmed to run around the clock.
BUT PERHAPS the greatest contribution technology has made to TSI is helping the company go after its chosen niche: that is, converting metal parts to plastic alternatives.
TSI actually started courting that business in its precomputer days. In 1986 it converted a new metal diaphragm-pump design to a plastic model for a company called ARO (now a division of Ingersoll-Rand), in Bryan, Ohio. Knowing what it could get out of its processes and recognizing ARO's urgent need to come up with a lower-cost pump, Smith reworked a die-cast metal model into an all-plastic version that dominates its market segment today, according to Nick Kozumplik, senior development engineer at ARO. According to Smith Jr., the pump, which has medical, chemical, and industrial applications, saved ARO about $1 million in tooling funds.
But by 1989 it was clear to Smith that creating product designs with pen and ink on a drafting table was too slow. Worse yet, that old-fashioned process didn't allow TSI to participate in the design process with its customers, who were increasingly well versed in computerized design and engineering. So Smith went shopping for a computer-aided design (CAD) package and in a no-turning-back, lock-the-door-behind-me gesture, dropped the cigarette-filter business. "I went to R. J. Reynolds and said, 'You've got to find another molder; this is really not our type of business.' "
Today, with two CAD stations networked together so that engineers can job-share, TSI still uses its first choice for CAD: AutoCAD, designware from Autodesk Inc., in San Rafael, Calif. (CD-ROM: $3,750; disk: $3,995; 800-964-6432). Because it runs on PCs rather than on higher-powered workstations, both the AutoCAD software and the hardware to operate it generally require a lower investment in time and money than other CAD programs. Ease of use was Smith's number-one criterion in originally selecting the software: "You don't have to be a Ph.D. to run the thing."
The conversion to technology, delayed as it might have been, has paid off. Smith has locked up a supplier partnership with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s Air Spring Division, in Green, Ohio, which makes the balloonlike cushions that soften the ride for big trucks. (Air springs are actually the next step in shock absorbers--air and plastic replacing metal altogether.) TSI's contribution: the cake-size plastic drum parts that are key components in air-spring assemblies. The contract followed from the plastics maker's initiative in designing the parts, which formerly were made from machined aluminum.
Today TSI is running at 85% capacity. Sales are up tenfold from 1981, to $20 million, largely because the company's technological growth has led to more exclusive work for both Ingersoll-Rand and the automobile industry. (TSI's customer list now includes Toyota, Nissan, Chrysler, Ford, and GM.)
The 70,000-square-foot facility TSI built only two years ago already has three shifts of 20 injection-molding machines working five days a week. And the tool shop where metalworkers sculpt the molds for those 20 machines are on 12-hour days. So Smith is shopping for an acquisition. "The companies we're looking at would double our capacity almost immediately, and we'd use it," he says. "My biggest dilemma now is do I manage the growth, or do I slow it down?"
Jeffrey Zygmont is a freelance writer based in Salem, N.H.
