As a rule, plastic Injection molders are thought of as making large volumes of products. Using a mold to make custom parts, it is not uncommon to categorize molds in relation to how many millions of parts the mold is capable of producing.
While such a scenario is common for customer industries like automotive and appliances, at PlastiCert lower volumes are often much more common. Early stage and small to mid-size companies face issues when they need smaller volumes in new product ramp-up. While 3D printing has emerged as an option for them, very often they are using engineered resin composites or require functional test parts which eliminates 3D printing as an option.
Many times, if they can get a molder to listen to them at all, molders require you to buy expensive molds and minimum buys of parts. Sometimes customers will “estimate” their buy quantities much higher (in prior companies I was on product development teams guilty of this) to at least get quotations for molds and piece parts for future planning.
PlastiCert recognized this dilemma and evolved itself to fit that small to medium volume market. We no longer just accommodate small and medium quantity customers; we market to and welcome small and medium volume quantities.
As a testament to how we operate, here are some of our metrics from 2015 operations.
Total # of work orders in production: 516
Average manufacturing lot size: 3315 pcs
Average customer order size: 1756 pcs
Average manufacturing work order length: 2.9 days
Minimum work order size: 10 pcs
Number of Work Orders under 100pcs: 28
Number of work orders under 1,000pcs: 245 (48% of total)
Maximum Work Order size: 99,600 pcs
So when we say we know small and medium sized runs, we live it every day. When it comes to high volume, we hate it. High volume robs us and our customers of timeliness and flexibility. Our experience at low and medium volume allows us to make what you need when you need it.
Are you a smaller to mid- volume manufacturer but want quality input on design, mold optimization and piece price? Contact us today, tell us what your needs really are, and we will do the same.