Growth is good, but gotta look at the numbers

We are due to receive a new 55-ton injection press at the end of the month. Capacity numbers dictated the decision, but other numbers muddied the decision-making water.

Of the many KPIs we follow, hours run, and capacity percentage are two of them. Revenue per part shipped is another one. With us augmenting our larger press numbers in the last few years, we look to see how growth at the high end presses affected revenues.

Over our press entire tonnage range, 35 – 500, press hours are up 26% year-over-year (YOY), yea us! Expanding our large press numbers and making more larger parts seemingly would mean an increase in revenue per part. Our Revenue per part shipped across all our presses is up 20% YOY, (vs the 26% increase in hours). Those comparisons dictated closer analysis of what is taking place.

Press hours for those larger presses, 100-500 are up 18% YOY. Press hours for 100 ton and smaller are up 39% YOY.

Our desired market growth was toward larger, more complex, engineered resin parts, and with them larger price tags.

In the end, our successes in making smaller, higher (for us) volume parts, resulted in growth at the smaller end of the market.

You can plan for and target growth, but you also take business as it comes and run with it.

So, while we buy yet another smaller tonnage press, we continue to pursue larger, more complex, engineered resin parts. Oh, and continue to excel at smaller ones.

Is your molder diverse in their offerings and good across the spectrum? If not, give us a call. We can wear multiple hats, big part, or small part, (even micromolding).