Calculating Uptime in Your Plastic Assembly Process

To manufacture high quality plastic products within a reasonable time frame and budget, an efficient assembly process is key. However, several factors can prolong assembly time and cost your company time and money.

To make your assembly process more efficient and boost production, you must first calculate the uptime and identify potential time losses.

Four Common Assembly Time Losses

As the demand for plastic products increases, it is estimated that the industry will experience 750 billion dollars of growth by 2028. To stay competitive in this industry, it is essential to identify time loss factors and take appropriate action to reduce or eliminate them. Read on to learn about time losses that could be impacting your company.

1. Poor Tool Life and Frequent Changeover

Nobody can predict how long a tool will last. Tool life is often determined by factors such as speed, temperature profiles, and materials used. Tools with short run times may require frequent changeovers, which slows your overall production time. To save time and limit the number of changeovers, you should maximize your tool’s use or flexibility and utilize sound design for manufacturability processes in your product’s design. This also helps manufacturers save money by limiting the need for spares, replacement tools and labor costs.

2. Inefficient Machine Setup and Programming Time

Setup usually involves transferring machines from one product lot to the next, or one process to the next. Efficient programming is crucial for machine automation, consistency, and precision. Inefficient setup times are often caused by too many extra steps, a lack of resources, and miscommunication. By improving your machine setup and programming time, you can increase your revenue and lower labor costs. This will also give you more flexibility to meet client demands and the ability to accomplish your production goals with fewer processes.

3. Temperature and Pressure Stabilization

Temperature and pressure stabilization are critical factors when you are trying to manufacture accurate parts. For example, low thermal stability can impact your product’s quality by causing the polymer building blocks to break down prematurely. Additionally, poor pressure stabilization can cause your plastic products to be inaccurate and inconsistent.

4. Increased Product Quality

To improve your product quality, you may need to add more steps to the assembly process. These steps could include thoroughly inspecting the materials, creating detailed programming, and accurately measuring the components prior to assembly. Additionally, you must closely monitor the production process. However, these factors often result in increased assembly time, especially when they are applied to shorter manufacturing runs with frequent changeovers.

Thermal Press International Can Help You Find the Right Assembly Process Solution

Calculating uptime in your plastic assembly process doesn’t have to be a hassle. Thermal Press can help you reduce time loss and labor costs. We’d be glad to meet with you to help re-design your process and tailor it to meet your needs. Our clients will confirm that working with Thermal Press has helped improve their manufacturing processes and their bottom line.

Tags: manufacturing process, manufacturing process solutions, plastic assembly, time loss factors