Custom Mold Inc

Case Study Background exercise mildews Inc garden trucks utilization made projects for tractile split and manufactures connectors for the electronics exertion. The set out founders of bespoken Molds Inc be father and son, tom and Mason moth miller, in 1987 which is located in Tucson, Arizona. Tom miller who is a mechanical engineer, had vast experience in the connector industry with AMP. Mason Miller is a double degree holder in chemistry and chemical engineering, a graduate from Arizona State University.Originally, the beau monde manufactured electronic connectors with source of senior high school pure tone, custom made bows for producing pliable move. They worked closely with their guests so that they batch go the customers requirements and their mold aim to meet the exact standards and have to be unique. at one beat the customers have moved from the human body and pilot-run stage of development to large-scale fruit, they entrusting place orders for mul tiple molds. made-to-order Molds reputation grew with the years as a interior designer and fabricator of precision molds.With the reputation, the Millers decided to expand into the exceptional manufactures of moldable split and new equipments were added such as ingredient mixing facilities and injection perimeter equipment. In the mid-1990s utilization Molds reputation grew to include be a supplier of high look bendable move. collect to limited capacity, the comp either decided to concentrate its sales efforts on supplying split that were employ in limited quantity for look for and development efforts and in preproduction pilot runs. Production ProcessesBy 2000, customs duty Molds operations involved two evident dish upes which atomic number 18 fabricating molds and producing plastic split. Both the processes atomic number 18 inter-connected for an instance, when a customer places an order, customs Molds both fabricate a mold and produce the necessary move to s upport the customers research and design efforts. All dissimulation and production operation were housed in a single facility. Fabrication molds requires a skill-oriented, craftsman-driven process. When an order is sure, a design team, consisting of a design engineer and one of 13 master car-mechanics, reviews the design spec.Working with the customer, the team comes up with the final specification for the mold and passes it to the master machinist for fabrication. At the same time, the specification is apt(p) to the purchasing department, who orders the demand raw materials. It commonly takes roughly three to quad weeks for the raw material to arrive. erstwhile the materials have been received, the pose master scheduler reviews the work load of the assigned master machinist and schedules the mold for fabrication. Fabricating a mold usually takes up to two to four weeks, depending in the amount of work the machinist already has scheduled.The fabrication process takes on ly three to five days. Once completed, the mold is tested and inspected, where it is used to produce a small anatomy of split on one of the injection molding machines. If the mold passed the required specification, it is then sent for cleaning and polishing, and then packed and sent to customers. If at all the mold fails, it is sent to the maser machinist for retooling and the process starts all over. Currently, fashion Molds holds a lead time of nine weeks for pitch shot of the molds. The manufacturing of the plastic parts is different from mold fabrication.An order for parts may be received in conjunction with an order for a mold to be fabricated. For instances, if the tailored Molds already have made the molds, an order may be jus for parts. If the mold is already available, the order is reviewed by the design engineer, who verifies the part and material specifications. If the is any doubts, the design engineer will contact the customer and clarifies the doubts. Once the par ts and raw materials are accepted, orders are placed for the raw materials and production in scheduled for the order. Chemicals and compounds used for the manufacturing are ordered and received within a week.When received, the compound is dry-mixed and blended to achieve the correct composition. Then the mixture is wet-mixed to the craved consistency, called slurry, for injection into molding machine. When ready, the slurry is transferred to the injection molding landing field by an bang pipeline and deposited in holding tanks adjacent to the injection machines. The whole process takes only one day. When the slurry is staged and ready, the proper molds are secured from the inventory or from the clean and polish operation if new molds were fabricated for the order and the parts are manufactured.Although different parts require different temperature and pressure settings, the time to produce a part is relatively constant. Custom Molds has the capacity to produce 5000 parts per day i n the injection molding department historically however, the lead time for handling orders in the department has averaged one week. Once molding is completed, the parts are taken to the cut and trim operation, where they are disconnected and leftover flashing is removed. Once inspection is completed, the parts are either taken for assembling or transferred to packing and shipping area for shipment to customer.If assembly of the final parts is non required, the parts will be sent to customer within two days aft(prenominal) being molded. Sometimes the final product necessarily assembling. Typically, this entails attaching metal leads to plastic connectors. If assembling is need, additional three days are required in the lead they gutter be sent to customer. Customs Molds currently have a lead time of three weeks for parts not requiring fabricated molds. The ever-changing Environment In the early 2009, Tom and Mason Miller cognise that the electronic industry they supplied and t heir own business was changing.Electronic manufacturers have decided to institute their own components to reduce live and ensure timely supply of parts. By the 1990s, this trend has channeld. Manufacturing were developing strategic confederations with the parts suppliers to ensure the timely saving of high superior, cost effective parts. This has allowed for other funds to be used on other uses with larger return on investment. During the same period, Custom Molds started to have issues with delivery. Customers were complaining to delay in the delivery of the parts quite of the promised dateline.When asked about the situation, the master scheduler stated that it is difficult in determining when a particular order will be delivered. Bottlenecks were occurring during the production process, that where and when it will occur cannot be predicted. The bottleneck started to move to other operations. Tom Miller thought that that he had excess labor capacity in the mold fabrication area. He came up with a solution to push by means of the schedule by assigning one of the master machinist to tell the expediting those late orders. However, the tactic wasnt effective. Complaints about late delivery were clam up coming in. o add on to the problem, two defective parts were returned. Tom Miller knows nighthing has to be done. 1. What are the major issues facing Tom and Mason Miller? The Electronics industry to which they supplied was changing very rapidly The millers are facing the shrinking size of their core market traditionally fabrication. These transfers intrusion both the fabrication and the manufacturing sides of the business. For fabrication, although the number of orders remained around the same, the market for multiple molds was shrinking, so the absolute number of fabricated was reducing.The Demand for multiple molds is declining Earlier Custom Molds used to produce custom designed molds in majority but through the data provided we can analyze that i n the last 3 years, the familiarity has been getting more and more orders in the production of plastic parts consistently and the orders for custom molds have been decreasing. This calls for a mass production of plastic parts. Inefficient Testing and care Process It has been mentioned in the quality that two orders were returned recently because of number of defective parts in those batches.This can be attributed to the inefficiency of the testing and inspection team. The transportation, packing, shipping etc. costs have to be incurred by the company and could have been avoided if the testing and inspection been rigorous. change magnitude in order sizes for plastic parts There has been a transformation in demand from custom molds to plastic parts. Therefore there is a need to change the layout of the plant to something more suitable for mass production. Difficulties concourse Quality Objectives As demand characteristics subjoind for manufacturing parts, there was consequent i ncrease in lead time on parts.Customers are complaining about the late delivery of the products. This will lead to loss of credibility in front of their customers. Bottlenecks were occurring throughout the manufacturing process and quality issues were increasing. There was unplanned harvest-tide beyond the available capacity given the process issues. There were numerous non-value-adding processes throughout the workflow including delays, many inspection steps, storage and transport. Parts were not being manufactured at optimum speeds and as pressures of late deliveries and climb backlogs built up. Thus, the quality of finished goods suffered. . What are the competitive priorities for Custom Molds Processes and the changing nature of the industry? Previously a. High quality product Custom Mold previously tense up for top quality product for their customers and grew reputation of one of the most consistent company that strive for quality products b. Flexibility in customer orders C ustomization was their priorities. They fully concentrate on customers orders requirements and of necessity and try their best to meet those requirements. c. On time delivery Custom Mold managed to deliver all of their products to the customers within the required timeEarly 2009 Due to changing nature of the industry, more customers are making strategic partnership with supplier to ensure the timely delivery of high quality and cost effective parts. As we can see, the competitive of the industry, the demand is changing and Custom Mold also must be aware of this. They must change their competitive priorities to continue compete in the industry. They might have to change their layout for molds from line of work memory to small batch process in this changing process. Below are the suggested competitive priorities a. Consistent quality productsThey should maintain the quality of their products b. Cost effective They might achieve this by changing the layout from stage business shop to small batch process. Small batch process allows products to be made in larger volume and low variety from the job shop process. High volume tends to reduce cost per unit and can directly lowered the operation cost. c. On time delivery With customers emphasis on on time shipment for their products, Custom Mold cannot hardly overlook to this competitive priority. On time delivery ensure the customer trust to them and they have to be excellent on that. 3.What alternatives might the Millers occupy? What key factors should they consider as they evaluate these alternatives? Short term alternatives a. Layout of the plant should be changed Custom Molds need to change the plant layout from job shop to assembly line. This is because the company is getting more orders for manufacture of plastic parts consistently over the last three years. The demand form from the customers changed from highly customized and high quality to cost effective and timely delivery of high quality products are th e strongest proof why they need to change their argument. . site bottlenecks in production process This is important in order for Custom Molds to retain their clients. The bottlenecks might be due the process layout in the company. devil different process for a different product might circle each others and create confusion to the process. c. Improve the efficiency of Testing and Inspection Team As has been mentioned in the case, two orders have been rejected by the customer. For this not to happen again, the efficiency of Testing and Inspection team needs to be improved. Long Term Alternatives a. Investment in Research and DevelopmentCompany would be better off to invest in R&D in order to stay ahead of its competition. R&D can a good deal show ways to reduce costs by maintaining the same quality. b. magnification Plans As the orders increase, company should plan for some expansion plans or some new plants to cater to increasing demand. c. Phase-out the production of Custom Mo lds As the amount of orders for Custom Molds are decreasing consistently over the last 3 years, the company should look out for phasing out the production of custom molds as the company may start losing out money.Recommendations 1. Shift to Assembly drag As the number of orders for big order sizes are increasing for plastic parts, the plant layout should be changed from job-shop to an assembly line production. 2. Operational Excellence The company should focus on overall efficiency in terms of process, ride and inter-department communication. 3. Market Research The company should do extensive market research to ascertain customers needs and use it to determine the needs of facility and human resources.