Top 5 Considerations for choosing your plastic injection molder
How do you make any good decision? We go around all day making choices…hundreds, thousands of them each day without much conscious effort. But, when it’s a rather big decision with far-reaching consequences, like choosing a molder, your investment and your business depend on an informed choice.
So, let’s start by breaking down the basics:
- What is your goal?
- What are your options?
- What is your decision and the consequential results?
You begin your journey in narrowing down the specifics by applying those fundamental questions to each deliberation point. You don’t have to go down this road alone. Metro wants to help you make an educated choice. Look at these considerations:
In-house tool shop? Inevitably, your mold will go through some alterations and needs regular maintenance. Can those changes be made on the spot or is it outsourced with an estimated lead time? Can the production of your parts afford a delay like that?
Automation? Automated processes, customized to your part, have become a standard. How can automation be integrated with your project to increase efficiency, and is your molder willing to do that?
Resin education? We get it, you have a ton of choices. Let those who study material interactions, deviations, and additives guide your footsteps in choosing the ideal resin for your project.
Engineering proficiency? Will the team you choose for your project have experienced engineers who always consider optimization for you? Every single tooling option from wall thickness to gate style and how those choices interact with the chosen material, for example, must be made for the most favorable outcome every time. These choices will determine if your project has the ideal result. Metro’s first-class engineering team has decades of knowledge and hands-on commitment to guide you through these intricacies.
In-house tool shop? Inevitably, your mold will go through some alterations and needs regular maintenance. Can those changes be made on the spot or is it outsourced with an estimated lead time? Can the production of your parts afford a delay like that?
Automation? Automated processes, customized to your part, have become a standard. How can automation be integrated with your project to increase efficiency, and is your molder willing to do that?
Resin education? We get it, you have a ton of choices. Let those who study material interactions, deviations, and additives guide your footsteps in choosing the ideal resin for your project.
Engineering proficiency? Will the team you choose for your project have experienced engineers who always consider optimization for you? Every single tooling option from wall thickness to gate style and how those choices interact with the chosen material, for example, must be made for the most favorable outcome every time. These choices will determine if your project has the ideal result. Metro’s first-class engineering team has decades of knowledge and hands-on commitment to guide you through these intricacies.
I think we can all agree that we desire the best for our planet. We may even give to organizations that promote ocean clean-up, trash pick-up along the highways, or upcycling materials for medicinal goods. But what is an action that we take daily to ensure less waste filters into our waterways and ecosystems? Choose a molder who is environmentally aware of the impact they play in preserving our planet. Many also give to local charities, sponsor community events, and give back to the marginalized. Those are the keepers.
In-house quality and metrology? The production of your part is just the beginning. Now, let’s focus on the quality of your part. The Metrology Lab at Metro Plastics works daily to provide customers with PPAP services, one-on-one attention to detail, and customized inspections.
Your part may also require post-production work like assembling, drilling, trimming, and packaging. Be sure to look for these additional services in-house, or else you could be paying a pretty penny to have them outsourced.
Same goes for the logistics of your parts. Once they are packaged, where are they heading? A molder with their own inventory management programs, warehousing options, and logistics services can help keep your part on the right path!
Once all the choices for tooling and material have been made, how will the molder actually manufacture your product? How many presses does the molder have, and do they have a large scope of sizes? Do they have a regular schedule and an experienced staff to handle maintenance of the presses?
Does this potential molder manufacture parts for your industry? In other words, if your part is for use in the food industry, you wouldn’t want to put it in the hands of a company who generally only deals with electronic and automotive parts; this type of narrow scope could also lead to being too reactive to economic peaks and valleys, potentially leaving you out in the cold with no molder. Eek, right?! These are the down-right dirty questions you have to ask before choosing who you trust with your projects.
Our customers thrive because we put their needs first. The world revolves around relationships and networking. We share our network of resources with our customers to provide them with the most experience-based knowledge. From this base of knowledge, informed decisions can flow. What resources are your molders providing? Do they have trusted relationships with their suppliers? Read about Metro’s supplier relationships here. They can be the difference between succumbing to a worldwide crisis and superseding the crisis.
Another consideration is looking into the company’s wholeness. Essentially, perform a wellness check. What do their customers say? What’s their level of experience? Will you get to speak with those directly handling your account, like an engineer, or is their customer service outsourced?
Don’t be left with the “what ifs.” Every business in need of a manufacturer, whether for plastic injection molding or not, needs to consider these criteria to make an informed choice.
Metro Plastics can offer you answers to the above considerations.
In fact, we would enjoy being your guide on that journey!
Strike up a conversation with us today at 317-776-0860 or contact us here.