Settings study and one sheet

A technician finds the settings that make good parts on the three worst molds, and every shift starts from one sheet.

Cost	About $5,800
Payback	About 2 months
Limitation	Keeping the sheets takes a technician about 120 hours per year, which is already taken off the saving.

What changes

A process technician, the person who sets up a press, studies the three molds that scrap most.

Short trials at the press change one setting at a time and find the band where parts stay good.

The settings in the middle of that band go on one sheet kept at the press.

Every shift starts the job from that sheet, and any change is written on it with a name and a reason.

What it costs and could save

The study costs about $5,800 once, for the technician's time and the parts scrapped in the trials.
It could save about $29,800 per year, by our estimate, and pays back in about 2 months.

Why it works

Mechanism	A press fills the mold, holds pressure while the plastic cools and shrinks, then waits a set time. A mold makes good parts only inside a band of those settings, and on some molds the band is narrow. A change made on one shift to cure a fault can leave the press at the edge of the band. The trials find the edges, so the press can run in the middle. One sheet then gives every shift the same start, and a signed change can be traced.
Math	The plant molds about 5 million lb of resin per year, and each percent of it costs about $75,000. The six molds at the top of the scrap record scrap about 95,000 lb of it per year. We count 0.4 percent of the resin as no longer scrapped, about 20,000 lb and $30,000 of resin per year. That is about 21 percent of what those six molds scrap. The press time and labor in those parts add 20 percent, which makes about $36,000. A technician keeps the settings for about 120 hours per year, about $6,200, which leaves about $29,800. The study takes about 72 hours of a technician and scraps about 1,200 lb of trial parts, about $5,800 once. It pays back in about 2 months.
Industry evidence	Published cases of molders who set presses by measured trials report scrap down by one to three percent of the resin. Those molds were also fitted with pressure sensors, and the cases come from suppliers of the sensors and the training. So they show what the method did where it worked. No case we hold measures trials and a settings sheet alone. So the share we count is our estimate, set well below those cases.
Limitations	Settings do not fix a worn or damaged mold. If the rejected parts carry the same mark in the same place, the cause is in the mold. That is a repair for the mold shop. Some customers approve the settings a part is made with, and a change then needs their sign-off before parts ship. About $6,000 of the figure is press time and labor, which is cash only if orders fill those hours or overtime falls. The sheet works only while every shift starts from it.

Implementation plan	3 steps
Risks	3