After more than forty years, rotational molding is still not as well-known of a process compared to other manufacturing processes. As a result of this, when we try to make a change to our process we find that it can be difficult because there is less information widely available. These changes can end up being difficult, slow, and costly.

I believe that there is one thing – more than anything else – that gives us what we need to make these changes and improve our process: face-to-face meetings. When I think back on the Rotoplas shows I have attended, there has been a lot of value for me and my company from what we have learned by having personal meetings with our suppliers other molders.

The opportunity to meet many of your suppliers (and for suppliers to meet many of their customers) under one roof saves hundreds of travel hours and tens of thousands of travel dollars. Attending Rotoplas is the most efficient and effective way for our industry to do business.

Each of these meetings helps us make changes to our process, reduce scrap, and improve employee efficiency. Every single meeting can lead to great reductions in expense or growth in sales.

You can learn more about Rotoplas by visiting www.rotoplas.org. Registration will be open next week.  You will find that there are more opportunities to learn from rotomolders like Centro, Seljan Company,  and more during general sessions. There are industry experts speaking from North America and all around the world quality and design, content for experienced managers and newcomers to rotomolding.

Make your plans now to attend Rotoplas. No one in the rotomolding industry can afford to wait for 2020. I know the great value of attending Rotoplas and I believe that you cannot let it pass you by.

Conchita Miranda is the President of ARM and the Director General of Operadora MPK.

The ARM Blog is written by a variety of leaders in the rotational molding industry. We encourage you to share your input in the comment section. If you’re interested in writing a post for the blog, email ARM staff at info@rotomolding.org.

As you train your rotomolding team, your scrap rate will decrease. This is why ARM provides online education free to our members.

ARM has recently added Troubleshooting Your Rotomolding Operation from a Shop Floor Perspective and Improving Rotational Molded Insert Performance to our webinar library. Other great training titles for your shop floor include: Burner Maintenance, Safety in Rotomolding & OSHA Compliance, Solve Cosmetic Part Problems, and Understanding the Molding Cycle. 

The webinar library now includes 25 titles available free to members on demand.

Log in to the Members’ Section of www.rotomolding.org and then click Webinars for complete access.  Click Presentations and Papers to review our new 80+ page document of example work instructions from rotomolders and to search thousands of papers presented at ARM conferences. Click Classic Training Videos to access ARM videos from the 1990s and 2000s, which all feature Spanish subtitles.

Not a member? Join for access to these benefits and more.

This article by Paul Reilly is a follow up to his presentations for ARM in 2016. As a result of his high marks from attendees at the 2016 Executive Forum, ARM invited Paul to present a seminar at the Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

In an airport, I saw a trash receptacle that made me think twice before throwing away my trash. Rather than labeling the garbage container with the word “trash,” they used the more compelling word, “landfill.” Changing one simple word reminded me of the impact of the decision.

Buyers don’t care what your product does. Buyers care about the impact of your product. Too many salespeople sell the buyer on what their product does. Too many salespeople pitch features and technical attributes, but they don’t pitch the impact. Salespeople fail to realize that these attributes are a means to a greater end.

What your product does is called the utility. Buyers are less interested in utility and more focused on the impact of your product. The impact of your product is how it affects the buyer.

Buyer’s don’t buy your product for what it does, they buy the outcome. The impact of your solution is what compels a buyer to buy. To understand the impact of your solution, ask yourself a simple question, “What does the buyer stand to gain when they experience our value-added solution?”

Paul Reilly is the founder and president of Reilly Sales Training. He began his training career by joining Tom Reilly Training. Reilly Sales Training offers a complete range of training programs, consulting services, and training assessments. Reilly Sales Training is a St. Louis-based, privately owned company that specializes in training sales professionals, sales managers, and service professionals. Reilly Sales Training offers public seminars, in-house sales training programs, consulting services, and hiring and training assessments.

ARM’s Executive Forum has ended and it was a successful and unique meeting that we shared with the Association of Rotational Molders Australasia. More than sixty executive-level attendees and their spouses learned from one another about business, manufacturing, and culture. I would like to personally thank everyone who attended and all of our speakers: Daven Claerbout, Corey Claussen, Garth Galloway, Simon Gough, Graeme Hall, Roger LaSalle, and Pat Long.

This meeting represented an idea that has been very important to our rotomolding community for more than forty years now: building bridges. This year we were able to create a bridge between the rotomolders of North America and Australia. This allowed ARM members to learn how rotomolders operate in Australia, it also allowed us to learn from people who do not typically attend ARM meetings. We were all able to make new friends while we see our old friends!

Here are a few of the important ideas that we kept coming back to at the Executive Forum:

• Welcome new technology to your business but remember that relationships are more important than technology.
• Use networking opportunities and travel as an opportunity to improve your business. Ask someone in the industry who is better than you for their advice.
• Be the fast second (even on your own product). You can do this in park by using your staff to identify problems in products.

The ARM Executive Forum began in the Spring of 2009 as a purposely smaller meeting that would bring together rotomolding business owners, allowing them to share insights on how they resolved rotomolding business problems in the same way that ARM has always shared ideas on improving our process. We have been building these bridges for many years. If you ask our suppliers, many say that rotomolders share and work together like no other industries they know.

You can save the date now for next year’s Executive Forum, to be held March 25-28, 2018. We will return to the beautiful Hyatt Grand Cypress in Orlando, a favorite of our members!

We will be building bridges throughout the rest of the year at regional meetings in Buena Park, CA, Williamsport, PA, and Toronto, ON. And of course at the great Rotoplas we have planned.

Conchita Miranda is the President of ARM and the Director General of Operadora MPK.

The ARM Blog is written by a variety of leaders in the rotational molding industry. We encourage you to share your input in the comment section. If you’re interested in writing a post for the blog, email ARM staff at info@rotomolding.org.

ARM is excited to announce the keynote speaker for the 2017 Annual Meeting at Rotoplas is Anthony Robles, who will kick off our general sessions on September 27 with a motivational talk you will never forget.

Anthony is a three-time all-American wrestler who won the 2010-11 NCAA individual wrestling championship in the 125-pound weight class despite being born with only one leg. A graduate of Arizona State University with a degree in Business Communication, he was also awarded the 2011 NCAA “Best Wrestler of the National Tournament Award”. Continue reading →

ARM Technical Director, Nick Henwood, is drafting a publication for the ARM Education Committee on rotomoldable polymers other than PE, PP, and PVC. Early drafts of each chapter will be published here every two weeks.

Our legal counsel notes: Dr. Henwood speaks for himself and not for ARM as a whole. We encourage feedback on this project but comments should be on technical matters raised. Dr. Henwood’s responses are solely his responsibility and not ARM’s.

I hope that regular readers to this blog series are not getting too depressed.  So far, I’ve looked at two polymers (ABS and PC) that both have – let’s be kind – “challenges” when you come to mold them.

This time I’ll talk about two related polymers that you definitely CAN rotomold.   Continue reading →

I’m a fan of the hoodies made in North Carolina by American Giant, an apparel brand that shouts its Made-In-America message in its marketing.

CNBC recently interviewed the owner of the company, who shared some comments about manufacturing that I thought rotomolders might find interesting or counterintuitive. Continue reading →