Creating Qualified and Beautiful Products with Efficient Technical Actions to Win My Customers' Hearts

Sharing some insights from an injection molding company owner in the injection molding service industry. Here is his story:

I am the owner of an injection molding company with a background in business.

In the past few years, I thrived in the plastic accessories supply chain, but recently, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and lackluster company R&D, the products we developed were subpar, making things even more difficult.

Internal complaints from the injection production department about the poor quality of molds produced by the R&D engineering team were frequent. They claimed that the molds were so bad that we couldn’t produce aesthetically pleasing and practical products, which in turn made it hard to attract strategic cooperative customers.

The R&D engineering team, on the other hand, blamed the injection production department for not understanding how to adjust the machines or use their molds, claiming that the lack of orders was not their problem.

By chance, I had the opportunity to visit and learn from a fellow company, Firstmold. Charles from Firstmold hosted me and gave me a brief yet impactful lesson. His lecture was so inspiring that it cleared up many of my previous doubts. He helped me understand many classic concepts and technical principles of managing an injection molding factory, pointing me in the right direction to increase my injection molding business orders.

From this visit, I summarized 10 classic and practical management measures and technical concepts that my factory could immediately improve and implement:

1. Customers’ product designs are not always correct or reasonable and may not be suitable for lean production. I can communicate with customers to change their design plans to achieve lean production. Charles shared an example from his time working at an injection molding factory in Taiwan. During a DFM, it was determined that a product could not be efficiently produced and had to have its design changed. After five private discussions with the client, explaining the benefits of injection molding production, the client agreed to Charles’s plan. A mold budget of 2 million was reduced to 800 thousand by Charles, making injection molding production easy and efficient.

2. Many mold factories push responsibilities downward, which leads to low wages for employees, inefficient work, and a depressing workshop atmosphere. This lack of scientific management leads to operational difficulties, and many owners do not understand why.

3. 70% of injection molding product issues are caused by mold design, product design, and precision in mold-making. 20% are due to process adjustments, and 10% are material issues. During the mold trials phase, all mold issues should be identified to produce molds that are capable of mass production and efficient production.

4. Water entry in molds is crucial; 40-50% of issues with abnormal products are due to poor water entry design. New technology like in-mold cutting can solve many problems that old technologies cannot, reducing the intensity of injection molding operations, even to the point of automation.

5. Defects in injection molding products are a matter of three flows: material flow, airflow, and thermal flow. Introducing new technologies like visualized injection molding makes the material flow clearer and troubleshooting more grounded.

6. To sell products well, R&D design, mold design, and mold production must be scientifically designed and executed for scientific injection molding production.

7. Rich knowledge in scientific injection molding is a prerequisite for lean production: scientific runner design, gate design, wall thickness design, pillar design, mechanics, polymer rheology, cooling thermodynamics, etc.

8. If everyone in the factory is a “master,” why is production efficiency low and factory benefits poor? Charles’s excellent lean empowerment and joyful production approach was an eye-opener, showing how to inspire passion in the workers of a molding factory.

9. A scientific explanation of the rights and responsibilities in an injection molding factory can fully unleash the potential of factory positions. A scientific compensation and performance system in the factory ensures that all staff are rewarded for their hard work and passion, eliminating the management style of a “retirement home.”

10. If a molding factory is not profitable, it is not scientifically injecting. The profit margin of a molding factory reflects the scientific nature and effectiveness of your management and technology.

Charles’s “Scientific Injection Molding, Ground Execution Training Camp” is very down-to-earth and highly suitable for the current state of many injection molding factories in the market.

Let’s further improve our factory’s product and mold design. Let qualified and beautiful products and efficient technical actions move my customers and make them love us more.

And for my company: efficient and profitable factory production, profitable business operations, becoming a happy and benchmark enterprise in the industry.

These are the heartfelt insights of an injection molding business owner.