One of the Best, AGAIN
Last week we were notified by Plastics Technology Magazine that we are, for the 3rd time, being recognized as one of the Top Injection Molding Shops in the United States.
The final report with data as to where we sit compared to the respondents is still pending. We eagerly await the report, not to see how well we did, but to see where we can continue to improve.
A few of the “room to improve” metrics last year were framed around acting like a more traditional high-volume molder. Which of course we are not. Compared to our other Top Shop designees, we were low in Capacity Utilization and Machine Usage. As a molder that not just specializes in low and medium volume but lives by it, we purposely plan for availability for our customers. Of the many customers we service each year, only two provide us a forecast of expected deliveries. Over 95% of our customers just call when they need parts, and typically ask for delivery as soon as we can make them. For us, meeting financial metrics AND having excess capacity is a VERY good thing!
The report’s other area of “opportunity” has been resin usage or resin processed per employee. Primarily processing high dollar engineered resins, coupled with low and medium volume, means few robots with less but expensive resin. We are not going to be cranking through train cars of material, just the GOOD stuff!
The metrics covered by the Top Shops assessment end up getting divided into Strengths, On Track and Opportunities. Having our Strengths out number our Opportunities (for Improvement) by almost 3:1 makes us feel we are on the right track with our business model.
Perhaps our goal should be to get more On Track metrics converted into Strengths?
When we learn more about how this year’s metric shape up, I will blog about our plans to get even better.
Does your molder have the Strengths you are looking for? Made you should give us a call?