The Soapbox

With the times a slowing down in some shops due to the economics its time to comment… that being said we all have to be competitive but not give away the farm.
Over the years topics have been discussed yet when it comes to implementing them, who knows how many actually are? It is sort of like writing this column does anybody really read it.
So business is off, people are sticking you with product and unpaid bills… or worse yet the work is going away to off shore molders or so they say. Maybe it is time to look inward at your process documentation, procedures and standards.  By this, I mean are the molds running at the quoted cycle time or better. Are the machines running properly and with a robust cycle? Are all the cavities working properly or do we block them off and only run to 75% or less efficiency rate. Alternatively, did we buy the bargain materials and did not note that the cycle time dropped off or we had more rejects.

What the above means is that now is the time to step up to the plate and take charge, or hopefully further fine tune your operations. If times are slow why not educate your workers and get some training to where things run smoother. Change out that worn barrel and screw, use the resources available through your suppliers, evaluate the options, a melt uniformity screw well purge cleaner and mix better thus giving a homogeneous melt, possibly even reducing cycle time and rejects. Look at what you do for mold setups is there a way to make it quicker, using a universal set up sheet, or making the units on the set up sheet in engineering terms so they can be transferred to each press, for example volumetric for shot size and position transfers?  What about the length of the knockouts, can they be standardized for your molds and or location?  What it all comes down to is use this time to get ahead, clean up the junk, get ready for the busy times, and focus on the small stuff and the details. Review the costing procedures, are you sure of what stuff is costing? What do you really sell? Can you do it more efficiently, its called working smarter not harder.

What about your customer? Do you really know their market?  Do you buy the finished product? Can you make suggestions to assist in retaining market share by being more pro-active, with part design, materials and ways to cut costs?   Yes it may cost you as they save money. This could be possibly by using less costly materials and quicker cycle time, but maybe now there is a higher profit margin for you and the OEM with the end user receiving that quality product.

In answer to the question of what you sell the answer is your time. The time to make the part, buy the materials, and drink your coffee. If you shorten up the time, it gives you more time to sell. Think about that the next time someone saves a penny a pound on a thousand-pound order and it only took 2 hours of their time. On the other hand, we block off cavities and have to run an additional 2 hours to make up the parts for the order. When the press is down due to a mold heater unit not being available, thus losing the productivity of the press for the day or longer.  What is the contribution to the bottom line of that press running versus not running?

I will end with " thanks to all for the opportunity to contribute each month, have a great summer."
 
 
 

Steven L Silvey