Problem explained
Scrap piles up on a few molds, likely because each shift sets the press differently.
How it works today
The plant molds plastic parts, and each mold runs at settings listed on a sheet at its press: temperatures, pressures and times.
If each shift sets the press its own way, the settings drift and parts come out unfilled, dented or warped.
Each scrapped part has already used its plastic, its press time and its labor.
What we saw
- On the visit we saw scrap bins far fuller at three presses than at the others.
- We saw settings sheets at two of them with numbers crossed out and rewritten by hand.
- We did not see why the parts were scrapped, so a worn mold may also be the cause.
What it costs
- The plant's records put 38 percent of all scrap on six of about 140 molds, about $143,000 of resin per year.
- If the settings are the cause, fixing them on the worst molds could save about $29,800 per year, by our estimate.