Reducing decisions to black and white

As a provider of highly specialized services, i.e. mold design/build and composites injection molding of low and medium volume parts, we work with everyone from multi-national corporations to entrepreneur start-ups. Working with that wide an array of organizations, we see a lot of different systems and approaches for performing engineering work.

Here at PlastiCert, we pride ourselves on our expertise and skill in providing you the best service we can in design and making molds along with molding complex composites. We take the moniker of engineering literally meaning we are using our knowledge and experience to give you the best input we can whether it is design for manufacturability and moldability or actually making your composite components.

We use tools to help us do those; one example is mold flow software. While it is an immense improvement over times past, there are a number of caveats inherent in it. We use our acquired and skills and knowledge to arrive at a solution we think is tenable.

We are encountering a growing number of situations where customers are trying to reduce engineering decisions into a pass/don’t pass scenario. Meaning there is no subjective determination or assessment, the data makes the decision for you. Such systems are often VERY elaborate and in the end, the amount of time and investment involved in servicing the system grow costly and invariably errors are in filing out the form rather than part issues.

Such approval systems are designed to eliminate inconsistencies and oversight, but I find in many cases they are looking to make the decision of approve or not approve a black and white one. In essence, neutering the engineering staff and having the form(s) make the decisions for them. Whether to make up for the lack of quantity or quality in engineers, I find most of these systems more expense than they are worth.