Problem explained
On long jobs, one person per press trims and packs each part, and waits in between.
How it works today
The plant molds plastic parts on injection presses, which melt plastic and shoot it into a steel mold.
On a long job, a press makes the same part for days.
Each time the mold opens, a part drops out, still joined to the leftover plastic that fed the mold.
One person stands at the press, trims that leftover plastic off each part, packs the part and waits for the next.
The next press on a long job has its own person doing the same.
What we saw and heard
- On our visit we saw this at three presses, but we did not time how long each person waited.
- On our visit, plant staff told us that long jobs "always have a person".
What it costs
We estimate that fixing this could save about $55,400 per year in operator time.
Illustrative sample. The plant, the walk and the footage are synthetic. Figures from our analysis are estimates made with AI, not guarantees.