Upstate advanced manufacturing start-up’s disruptive innovation is a hit in Silicon Valley

 

What once took nearly two weeks to quote and three months to deliver can now be done in less than half that time.

tForm, a local graduate of Silicon Valley’s esteemed Founder Institute and provider of thermoformed packaging, can transform custom packaging design to finished parts in the customer’s hand in less than three weeks.

The drastic improvement in both quote time and delivery prompted the Founder Institute to name the Anderson-based company as a disruptor to the $10 billion custom packaging industry.

Not only is the California accelerator program making bold statements, they have also distinguished the homegrown start-up by inviting the company to Silicon Valley to take part in FounderX, an elite selection of the organization’s top founders alongside the Founder Institute’s CEO, Adeo Ressi.

The South Carolina manufacturer is vertically integrated to handle design, mold manufacturing, and plastic packaging production for a variety of industries including automotive, electronics, medical, and industrial.

“By using our CAD quoting technology and mixed proprietary mold design and process, we can create custom plastic packaging in 75 percent less time than the industry standard,” said tForm founder and CEO, Ben Moore.

With a team of designers, machinists and mold makers on staff, the company houses all of its equipment and processes under one roof and includes engineering and design, machine shop and plastic forming lines, he said.

Located in a 6,000 sq. ft. facility in Anderson County, tForm benchmarked 168 thermoformed packaging companies before innovating their own processes.

“T-Form has been very helpful in designing and developing quick and effective thermoformed packaging prototype solutions for our automotive clients,” said Mike Heath, Packaging Sales Engineer at PackIQ.

The automotive community operates within very tight packaging development schedules and working with tForm’s design team has been very helpful in meeting the deadline,” he said. “We are looking forward to working with the company on more projects going forward.”

While embracing a “lean” philosophy and team approach, tForm employs CNC equipment and proprietary mold technology to reduce both mold manufacturing time and machine set-up.

Although tForm’s products and services extend beyond the automotive industry, the Upstate has become a hub for the sector since BMW’s arrival in the 1990s, and the leading car maker relies on an efficient and ever-ready supply chain working behind them.

Leading-edge innovation and a fast-forward strategy are essential in a just-in-time supply chain market, said Franz Linner, Vice President of Supplier Network America, BMW Manufacturing, Co., LLC.

“BMW’s future is determined, in part, by its suppliers’ creativity and competitiveness – that also requires consistency and flexibility,” he said. “Suppliers must be customer-focused with a strong alignment of cost, flexibility, quality and innovation.”