Business Intelligence in Plastics Manufacturing

Okay, this is not just for Plastic Manufacturing, but given the competitiveness and growth of plastics, I’d suggest that this statement is absolutely true. Consider some of these typical comments: “Geez, if we’d only known earlier…” “Who could have predicted that?” “Why aren’t we doing that?” “It seems so obvious now…” “We could be rich…

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Expiration Dates in Plastics Manufacturing

While using a First In, First Out (FIFO) inventory management method in Plastic Manufacturing is well known and helps control time based degradation by constantly rotating raw materials, it doesn’t necessarily address differences in raw material quality deterioration associated with this aging. Resin, colorants, and other additives obviously do not have the same properties (different…

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Apps, ERP and IoT in Plastics Manufacturing

Plastic Manufacturing is growing, and it remains a cutthroat industry. It’s no longer enough to simply have good products or an efficient manufacturing operations – you now need the proper systems and technology in place to succeed. Your ERP runs your business, houses your master data, and is your primary system of record. On the…

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Demand Forecasting Plastics Manufacturing

Whether your Plastics Manufacturing Business is volatile or stable, continued growth in the top and bottom lines is expected. Presumably, everyone knows the myriad of reasons and impact that accurate demand planning has on carrying costs attributed to overstocked inventory, Return on Capital, Cash Flow, and Earnings. If underestimated, it can obviously adversely affect revenues…

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Mobile Devices in Plastics Manufacturing Warehouses

The warehouse continues to be a focal point for performance improvement in Plastics Manufacturing. Equipping personnel with RF guns or other mobile devices is an important factor in picking and putaway performance. Microsoft continues to understand mobile device advantages by developing mobile applications, using HTML5, or specifically targeting RF devices. There are still pros and…

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Continuous Improvement in Plastics Manufacturing

As Plastics Manufacturers continue to improve yield percentage, operational speed or uptime, it is important to track the events or draw insight for root cause. Quality issues related to high scrap rate can be due to materials, process, calibration or human factors. It’s important to capture these non-conforming events and report on them, so corrective…

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Gain Financial Insights for Plastics Manufacturing

As Plastic Manufacturers evaluate opportunities and threats, it’s easier to look inwards to investigate ways to optimize processes. Removing non value-added processes is one possible step. Evaluating cost across lines, customer, product, projects, groups, regions or cost centers is important to confirming profitability or possible cost leaks. Whether you’re an extruder, molder, or thermoformer, capturing…

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