From Mold Design Apprentice to Entrepreneur: Richard Evans

Mentorship, Mold Design, Entrepreneurship, and Overcoming the Distractions Along the Way

There isn't one road into manufacturing. For some people, it's a family business. For others, it's a technical program, a friend already working in the industry, or simply taking a job because they needed one. For Richard Evans, founder of Reaction Plastics Solutions, it started with a high-school guidance counselor who introduced him to the trades.

That conversation eventually led to an apprenticeship, a career in CNC machining and mold manufacturing, leadership positions within the industry, and ultimately the decision to build a business of his own.

A manufacturing career doesn't have to begin with a perfect plan. Sometimes it begins when somebody simply shows you that an opportunity exists.

Sometimes One Person Can Change the Direction of a Career

There is a lot of discussion in manufacturing today about attracting the next generation. How do we get more students interested in machining? How do we recruit future moldmakers? How do we get young people to consider manufacturing instead of automatically assuming a four-year degree is their only path? Richard's story gives us part of the answer.

Someone has to introduce them to it.

Richard was introduced to the trade by a guidance counselor while he was still in high school. From there, an apprenticeship gave him the opportunity to begin developing the skills that would eventually shape his career. It sounds simple, but think about the impact of that interaction. Without someone taking the time to say, “Have you ever considered this?” the entire trajectory of a person's career can be different.

That's why mentorship and advocacy matter so much in manufacturing. We can't expect the next generation to choose an industry they've never experienced. Manufacturers need to be present in schools. We need internships, apprenticeships, job shadowing, plant tours and conversations with students. Sometimes the first step in developing a future moldmaker isn't teaching them how to run a machine.

It's simply showing them that the career exists.

Apprenticeship Builds More Than Technical Skills

Richard's first apprenticeship helped build the technical foundation he needed to move forward in the industry. But apprenticeships do something else that's equally important. They put people around experienced professionals. That's where the unwritten knowledge of manufacturing begins to transfer.

How do you approach a difficult problem?

What do you look for when something isn't working?

How do you communicate with a customer?

How do you recover when you've made a mistake?

How do you become somebody others can depend on?

Those lessons don't always come from a textbook. They come from spending time alongside people who have already made the mistakes, solved the problems and developed the instincts that only experience can create.

That is one reason mentoring remains so important to our industry.

The Career Ladder Isn't Always Straight

Richard's career eventually took him from CNC machining into engineering and leadership. Reaction Plastics Solutions says he worked his way up to engineering manager at a mold shop and later became managing director for a Fortune 500 corporate subsidiary before deciding to launch his own company. That progression tells another important manufacturing story.

The skilled trades don't have to be a dead end. A person can start on the shop floor and go almost anywhere. Machinist, Programmer,  Designer, Engineer, Project manager, Sales professional, Operations leader,  Business owner, the list goes on and on. But no matter where you end up, the technical skills developed early in a manufacturing career can become the foundation for opportunities that weren't even visible when that career began.

Richard's journey is a perfect example. He didn't leave manufacturing to advance his career. Manufacturing became the platform that allowed his career to advance.

Learning the Entire Process Makes You Better at Solving Problems

There is also tremendous value in moving through different areas of manufacturing before stepping into leadership.

Richard's background includes hands-on CNC machining as well as mold design, engineering and business leadership. Today, his company provides services including product development, DFM, mold design, Moldex3D simulation, detailing, electrode extraction and tooling engineering. That combination matters.

A designer who understands machining thinks differently. A machinist who understands mold function approaches a component differently. An engineer who understands what happens on the shop floor designs differently. And a business owner who has actually lived through those roles understands the challenges facing the people doing the work.

One of the biggest opportunities we have in manufacturing is breaking down the walls between departments. The best results often happen when design, machining, molding, polishing, welding, maintenance and the customer aren't working as separate islands—but as parts of the same process.

Then Comes the Entrepreneurial Question

After years of developing skills and moving into leadership, Richard made another major decision. He started his own business.

Reaction Plastics Solutions was founded in 2020 to provide mold design and engineering services to manufacturers in the plastic injection molding industry. Anyone who owns a manufacturing business understands that technical ability is only part of that transition. Knowing how to make something and knowing how to build a company are two very different skill sets.

Suddenly you're not just the machinist, designer or engineer. You're also sales, Marketing, Customer service, Accounting, Scheduling, Business development, IT, Purchasing, Collections, and many times the guy taking out the garbage.

Entrepreneurship has a way of exposing every weakness while simultaneously forcing you to develop new strengths. But that is also part of what makes the journey rewarding.

You're building something.

Overcoming Setbacks and Distractions

That's something nearly every manufacturer and business owner can relate to. Growth rarely happens in a straight line.

Customers disappear.

Projects get delayed.

Machines break.

Employees leave.

Opportunities don't work out.

Good ideas fail.

Markets change.

And sometimes the biggest distractions aren't business problems at all. The challenge is learning to distinguish between an obstacle that requires your attention and a distraction that is stealing it. That ability becomes increasingly important as responsibilities grow. You can't chase every opportunity. You can't solve every problem yourself. You can't allow one difficult day to determine the direction of the business. The goal isn't to eliminate setbacks.

It's to keep moving despite them.

Relationships Still Matter

One of the themes running through Richard's career is relationships.

Reaction Plastics Solutions says Richard has been building relationships within the plastic injection molding industry since 2002, and the company's stated approach emphasizes becoming part of the customer's team rather than functioning simply as an outside design vendor. That philosophy resonates deeply in manufacturing. For all the technology entering our industry, manufacturing remains incredibly relationship-driven.

Customers remember who answered the phone. They remember who helped when the deadline seemed impossible. They remember who told them the truth when there was a problem. They remember who stood behind the work. Technology creates capability. Relationships create trust. And trust is what keeps customers coming back.

Mentorship Creates a Responsibility to Give Back

There is another lesson in Richard's story that shouldn't be overlooked. At some point, the apprentice becomes the mentor. The young machinist becomes the experienced machinist. The employee becomes the manager. The student becomes the teacher. And when that happens, we inherit a responsibility.

Someone helped us. Now who are we helping?

Manufacturing has an enormous amount of knowledge stored inside the minds of experienced people across this industry. If we don't intentionally transfer it, we lose it. That makes mentoring one of the most important investments manufacturers can make. Take the young employee along when you're troubleshooting. Explain why you're doing something instead of simply telling them what to do. Let them make decisions. Allow them to fail safely. Teach them how you think.

That is how manufacturing knowledge survives another generation.

The Next Manufacturing Leader May Not Know It Yet

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Richard Evans' story is how difficult it would have been to predict where his career would eventually lead when he was sitting in a guidance counselor's office.

A conversation led to an opportunity.

The opportunity led to an apprenticeship.

The apprenticeship developed skills.

Those skills created more opportunities.

More responsibility created leadership experience.

And eventually, that experience helped create a business.

That's how careers are built.

Not all at once. One opportunity at a time.

Right now, there are students sitting in classrooms today who have never considered manufacturing. Some of them could become extraordinary machinists. Some could become toolmakers. Some could become engineers. Some could someday own manufacturing companies. They just don't know it yet.

Our responsibility as an industry is to make sure somebody tells them.