Problem explained
A few molds make far more scrap than others, likely because each shift uses different settings.
How it works today
The plant makes plastic parts on injection presses, which melt plastic and shoot it into a steel mold.
Each mold has its own settings, such as temperatures, pressures and times, listed on a sheet at the press.
If each shift sets the press its own way, parts can come out unfilled, dented or warped.
What we saw and heard
- On our visit we saw three presses whose scrap bins were far fuller than the others.
- At two of them, we saw settings sheets 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 show six of about 140 molds make 38 percent of all scrap: about $143,000 of plastic per year.
- If settings are the cause, we estimate that fixing them on the three worst molds could save about $29,800 per year.