New technologies have been put into place to enhance and optimize our overall capabilities starting at the design level and following through to the manufactured part.

At the design phase, Hobbs is using two of the most popular solid model packages available, Pro/ENGINEER and Solidworks, allowing us to design and create virtually any custom product with enhanced design flexibility. Using this software in conjunction with Rapid Prototyping (Fused Deposition Modeling) allows us to create non-functioning prototypes in a matter of days or weeks instead of months. This technology provides the customer a fast, economical prototype from which "form and fit" can be evaluated and rapidly reduces the production timeline.

At the pre-production level, mold flow analysis is used to determine proper mold design prior to building a tool and ensures a producable part by finding design flaws before the parts enter production.

Hobbs has begun a new transition to Scientific Molding; an approach very difficult to implement with only 3-5% of companies succeeding. It requires complete acceptance at all levels because of the dollar investment and the demise of existing methodologies. Scientific Molding is a systematic look at collecting data to optimize every function of the design process. Decisions are made strictly on the charts and pre-determined parameters. Hobbs has benefited with great improvements in cycle time and scrap reduction, improved quality consistency, and less overpacking in molding runs using the Scientific Molding approach.

The commitment to improving the entire manufacturing processes by providing the customer with innovative, cost effective products and the consistent quality and service they demand is what continues to make Hobbs' the supplier of choice in the 37 markets we serve.