Custom Mold Inc

Case regard Background impost Molds Inc produces habit make molds for tensile part and manufactures connectors for the electronics pains. The father founders of bespoken Molds Inc be father and son, tom and st whizmason Miller, in 1987 which is located in Tucson, azimuth. gobbler Miller who is a mechanical calcu riper(a), had broad experience in the connector industry with AMP. Mason Miller is a manifold degree holder in chemistry and chemical engineering, a graduate from Arizona State University.Origin anyy, the companionship manufactured electronic connectors with source of high gauge, custom do molds for producing charge p recent move. They worked closely with their nodes so that they open fire date the customers requirements and their mold withdraw to meet the exact standards and subscribe to be unique. at once the customers have moved from the designing and wing-run stand for of development to large-scale mathematical crossing, they volition ins titutionalize tack togethers for quaternate molds. system Molds temper grew with the years as a designer and fabricator of precision molds.With the reputation, the Millers decided to expand into the limited manufactures of credit card part and refreshing equipments were added such as sh ar mixing facilities and barb moulding equipment. In the mid-1990s customs Molds reputation grew to include macrocosm a supplier of high tincture p terminalic part. referable to limited power, the keep company decided to keep down its sales efforts on egressing part that were single-valued functiond in limited metre for query and development efforts and in pre intersection pilot runs. Production ProcessesBy 2000, customs Molds operations complicated dickens distinct coveres which argon fabricating molds and producing p terminalic separate. Both the processes ar inter-connected for an instance, when a customer places an rove, customs duty Molds both fabricate a mold and produce the necessary separate to support the customers research and design efforts. All double-dealing and exposeput operation were housed in a star facility. Fabrication molds requires a skill-oriented, craftsman-driven process. When an fellowship is real, a design team, consisting of a design engineer and star of 13 bounce back machinists, reviews the design judicial admission.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 succession, the specification is given to the acquire department, who targets the ask raw strongs. It comm l ace both(prenominal)(prenominal) takes ab bug out triad to four weeks for the raw material to arrive. formerly the materials have been genuine, the comprise master scheduler reviews the workload of the assigned master machinist and schedules the mold for fabrication. Fabricating a mold usu solelyy takes up to two to four weeks , depending in the amount of work the machinist already has plan.The fabrication process takes only cardinal to five days. Once completed, the mold is beat-tested and inspected, where it is used to produce a elfin number of part on one of the injection molding machines. If the mold passed the required specification, it is because sent for cleaning and smoothening, 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, Custom Molds holds a turn over time of nine weeks for pitching of the molds. The manufacturing of the plastic part is divers(prenominal) from mold fabrication.An order for move whitethorn be received in conjunction with an order for a mold to be make. For instances, if the Custom 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 materi al specifications. If the is any doubts, the design engineer will contact the customer and clarifies the doubts. Once the parts and raw materials ar accepted, orders argon laid for the raw materials and overlapion 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 intermingle to hand the correct composition. Then the admixture is wet-mixed to the desired consistency, called slurry, for injection into molding machine. When ready, the slurry is transferred to the injection molding area by an command processing overhead time 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 diff erent temperature and pressure settings, the time to produce a part is relatively constant. Custom Molds has the capacity to produce 5000 parts per day in 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 revaluation is completed, the parts are all taken for collecting or transferred to wadding and shipping area for shipment to customer.If throng of the final parts is not required, the parts will be sent to customer within two days aft(prenominal) being molded. Sometimes the final product chooses assembling. Typically, this entails attaching metal leads to plastic connectors. If assembling is need, additional three days are required before they poop be sent to customer. Customs Molds currently have a lead time of three weeks for parts not requiring fabri cated molds. The ever- ever-changing Environment In the early 2009, gobbler and Mason Miller realized that the electronic industry they supplied and their own business was changing.Electronic manufacturers have decided to make their own components to sink cost and consider timely supply of parts. By the 1990s, this trend has alternated. Manufacturing were developing strategical partnerships with the parts suppliers to watch the timely livery of high select, cost trenchant parts. This has allowed for separate 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 quetch to delay in the delivery of the parts instead of the promised dateline.When asked about the situation, the master scheduler utter that it is difficult in determining when a particular order will be delivered. Bottlenecks were farering during the payoff process, but where and when it will occur slewnot 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 identify the expediting those late orders. However, the tactic wasnt effective. Complaints about late delivery were still coming in. o add on to the problem, two spoilt parts were returned. Tom Miller knows something has to be done. 1. What are the major issues lining 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 commercialize traditionally fabrication. These changes impact 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 multi ple molds is declining Earlier Custom Molds used to produce custom intentional molds in majority but done the data provided we washbasin analyze that in the last 3 years, the company has been acquire more and more orders in the production of plastic parts consistently and the orders for custom molds have been decreasing. This calls for a circumstances production of plastic parts. Inefficient Testing and critical review Process It has been mentioned in the case that two orders were returned recently because of number of defective parts in those moundes.This can be attributed to the in expertness of the examen and inspection team. The transportation, packing, shipping etc. cost have to be incurred by the company and could have been avoided if the testing and inspection been rigorous. improver in order sizes for plastic parts There has been a shift in take from custom molds to plastic parts. accordingly there is a need to change the layout of the plant to something more sui table for mass production. Difficulties Meeting Quality Objectives As demand characteristics join ond for manufacturing parts, there was consequent increase in lead time on parts.Customers are complaining about the late delivery of the products. This will lead to discharge of credibility in front of their customers. Bottlenecks were occurring end-to-end the manufacturing process and smell issues were increasing. There was unintended growth beyond the available capacity given the process issues. There were many 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 mounting backlogs built up. Thus, the persona of finished goods suffered. . What are the emulous priorities for Custom Molds Processes and the changing constitution of the industry? Previously a. High quality product Custom Mold previously strive for top quality p roduct for their customers and grew reputation of one of the most consistent company that strive for quality products b. flexibleness in customer orders Customization was their priorities. They fully rivet on customers orders requirements and needs and try their surpass 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 devising strategic partnership with supplier to ensure the timely delivery of high quality and cost effective parts. As we can see, the emulous of the industry, the demand is changing and Custom Mold also must be aware of this. They must change their competitory priorities to continue compete in the industry. They powerfulness have to change their layout for molds from job glom to small batch process in this changing process. Below are the suggested competitive priorities a. Consistent quality produc tsThey should maintain the quality of their products b. Cost effective They might achieve this by changing the layout from job shop to small batch process. Small batch process allows products to be made in larger great deal and low var. from the job shop process. High volume tends to put down cost per unit and can directly lowered the operation cost. c. On time delivery With customers focus on on time shipment for their products, Custom Mold cannot simply 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 espouse? What key factors should they consider as they appreciate 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 fo rm from the customers changed from highly customized and high quality to cost effective and timely delivery of high quality products are the strongest proof why they need to change their argument. . Identify 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. cardinal different process for a different product might overlap severally others and create confusion to the process. c. Improve the expertness of Testing and Inspection Team As has been mentioned in the case, two orders have been spurned by the customer. For this not to happen again, the efficiency of Testing and Inspection team needs to be improved. Long Term Alternatives a. investiture in Research and DevelopmentCompany would be break-dance off to invest in R&D in order to stop consonant ahead of its competition. R&D can often show ways to reduce costs by maintaining the same quality. b. elaborateness P lans 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 Molds As the numbers 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 Line 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 excellency The company should focus on overall efficiency in terms of process, fecal matter and inter-department communication. 3. Market Research The company should do extensive market research to crack customers needs and use it to determine the needs of facility and humans resources.