-
5th March 2018, 02:10 AM
#1
Material consumption
Hello
i m new in the world of injection molding. i m the production manager of a plant where we have 49 injection machine. I don t have a lot of experience in injection.
we have an issue with our material consumption i try to solve. we are consuming 10% more material than it s supposed to be and i need to solve this problem because it costs a lot of money to the company. we have the big picture, but we dont know from where it s coming from
the only control we have today is to weight the part at the beginning of each shift and check discrepancy. but even with this, i still have problem.
i was thinking about a device that could meseasure the real consumption of the machine but it seems this kind of device does not exist. am i right ? i would then compare current production versus theoritical, then deduct which item is giving the issues
can anyone give me best practice to put the consumption of material under control ?
thanks
Fabrice
-
5th March 2018, 02:51 PM
#2
Re: Material consumption
Hey Fabrice,
Do you weigh and document your purge? I would start with the purge, if the machines go down and the Foreman purge the machine before they restart it (like they should be doing) then that could be where some of the material is going. I am not sure why you weigh your parts unless you are intentionally running without gate seal. If you have proper gate seal, your parts should weigh the same from shot to shot. If your parts are changing in weight from shot to shot then you don't have gate seal. Now the runner may not have gate seal and doesn't need it so there could be extra material packed into the runner, but I doubt 10%.
Also, what is your scrap rate? Are you properly documenting all of your scrap? How is your material handling? Are you material handlers documenting any and all spills and unused material (material left in the hopper after the run).
There is a lot of places material can sneak off too. Documenting everything is your best bet.
- Husky -
-
5th March 2018, 03:32 PM
#3
Re: Material consumption
Husky is on the right track. Analyze the whole picture. Scrap and purge often get overlooked or poorly recorded. Sometimes employees feel they will get in trouble for accurately recording scrap because they think they will be blamed for the loss of product. Reassuring them it is a tool to help improve the scrap rather than something to yell at them for helps. I worked for a company that would weigh all the material before a run. They allotted enough material for the run with a little bit of extra. At the end of the run they would weigh it and make sure to explain losses. If you ran out of material and needed more the supervisor had to request more material and figure out why they needed it. made it something that was dealt with right away rather than at the end of the month when inventory was done.
There is a few weigh scale blenders that have the ability to record how much material they use. Maquire and Conair I think have them, but there might be others I haven't seen.
-
5th March 2018, 05:00 PM
#4
Re: Material consumption
Maybe need to update the BOM
-
5th March 2018, 05:23 PM
#5
Re: Material consumption
If all new and existing project BOM information is correct, then find out if the scrap is during start-up or from quality issues.
If there's quality issues then work on minimizing those issues if possible.
Wouldn't be a bad idea to get a team together for a Kaizen event and understand material flow through your plant.
-
10th March 2018, 06:40 AM
#6
Tags for this Thread
Posting Permissions
- You may not post new threads
- You may not post replies
- You may not post attachments
- You may not edit your posts
-
Forum Rules