Lean manufacturing is a hot trend in the manufacturing industry and it’s one which custom plastic injection molding companies have fully embraced. It enables manufacturers to render a higher standard of service and achieve higher efficiency and productivity. If the principles of lean manufacturing are implemented properly and consistently, the result is a streamlined plastic injection molding process.
So how exactly do custom plastic injection molders implement the principles of lean manufacturing in practice? What does that mean for the manufacturers in terms of resources?
What are the goals of lean manufacturing?
Lean manufacturing helps companies achieve the following goals:
- Improve product quality
- Reduce production times
- Eliminate or minimize unnecessary waste
- Eliminate or minimize unnecessary labor
- Cut down on total costs
For a lean manufacturing process to be executed effectively, it must go hand-in-hand with quality management and strict quality control of the plastic injection molding process.
What does lean manufacturing in custom injection molding help you achieve?
Lean manufacturing is an integrated, forward-thinking approach that a manufacturer needs to adopt and implement consistently and on a day-to-day basis, while putting time and effort into ongoing improvement of these practices.
Lean manufacturing offers the following benefits:
- Enhanced product quality and reduced risk of defects
- Minimized disruptions of the manufacturing line
- Better lead times and fewer delays
- Sustainability, waste reduction and improved adaptability to customer demands
- Employee productivity and job satisfaction boost
- Increased profits and a stronger position in the market
How can injection molding increase productivity?
Injection molding is virtually the ideal industry in which to apply the concept of lean manufacturing, as the idea behind the concept is to lead to an increase of productivity, which in turn helps drive down the per-unit costs. Here’s how:
- Cost-effective raw materials
- Minimizing downtime with preventative maintenance of machinery performed during downtime
- Scrap reduction and direct waste reduction
How does lean manufacturing eliminate waste?
From the point of view of lean manufacturing principles, direct waste has a direct impact on production inefficiency. It can take many forms, be it unproductive work hours, long production cycles and slow production lines or underutilization of machinery and supplies. Lean manufacturing helps you eliminate the common forms of waste:
- Waiting
- Excess inventory
- Defects
- Overproduction
- Unnecessary motion and the related higher-than-necessary labor costs
- Transportation-related waste
- Waste from overprocessing
In a manner of speaking, lean manufacturing is the process of getting rid of what can best be described as unnecessary extra steps in the manufacturing process. Manufacturers often suffer losses they might not even be aware of due to having to rectify issues resulting from poor decisions, mistakes or improper practices. Lean manufacturing is a helpful and straightforward strategy to prevent these and other issues which lead to a considerable waste of various resources and cost you time and money in the long run.
Adopt and apply lean manufacturing principles to learn more about your business. Learn to identify the key issues in your business operations and the manufacturing process in order to identify and eliminate waste.
We are proud to be one of the top-tier American custom plastic injection molding companies
Wunder-Mold boasts a long and successful track record in the custom plastic injection molding industry and responds to customer specifications for plastic injection molding volume of any scale. We follow the highest industry standards throughout the process, from design assistance and development, to manufacturing and quality control, to shipment and delivery. To find out how we can help your business, reach out to us at (707) 448-2349 or at sales@wundermold.com.