It’s the New Year, and while I have never really been the New Year’s resolution type, I am the goal setting type. At first glance there is a fine line between setting goals and making resolutions. Or maybe you resolve to improve something, and set a goal to accomplish that resolution. Be that as it may, I was looking for some goals to set for the upcoming year that PlastiCert could strive for.
The first place I turned was the results of our Top Shop designation. Back in October Plastics Technology named us a Top Shop based on benchmark data covering financial, operations and quality related data.
While we fared very well in the assessment, there is always room for improvement. We did fall below the 25th percentile on a handful of criteria. When I went to evaluate those areas and assess how we might improve, I determined that some of those metrics were low because of who we are, rather than how we perform.
PlastiCert is a low volume, high mix injection molder. We cater to OEMs that need highly technical capability, but also require responsiveness and flexibility.
For example, we were only in the 47th percentile for having zero molds with 16 or more cavities. With an average lot size in 2019 of around 3,000 pieces, yeah we’re not going to have many (read that as any) 16 cavity molds sitting around.
We were only in the 23rd percentile for having an operation hours number of 80/week. You had to be at 120 hours/wk. to hit the 25th percentile, and nearly 24/6 to hit the 75th percentile. As a low volume, high mix molder with a lot of value add work going on, as well as the aforementioned lot sizes, 24 hours a day is not only unnecessary, it’s a logistical problem based on how frequently our work orders complete.
So, I will be setting some goals for 2020, and the Top Shop data will come in handy, but I’ll be taking some of our other data we’ve collected into account as well.