Money Pit. Throwing good money after bad. You think the original decision was bad? Think again… The problem with your original ERP decision wasn’t necessarily the initial decision; it was the series of bad decisions that occurred afterwards. For Plastics Manufacturers – with already tight margins, resin price dependence, and growing customer expectations – a…

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The Importance of an Easy-to-use ERP in Plastics Manufacturing

Full featured, consistent and easy to use? Good to have ERP goals, right? But, are they mutually exclusive? You’ve outgrown your current Plastic Manufacturing ERP system. Processes have also become more complex and it’s time to evaluate ERP systems that will not only consistently support these processes and functionality but also be simple to use.…

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In the Cloud, On-Premise, or Hybrid in Plastics Manufacturing

It’s easy to get caught up in all the Digital Transformation and Cloud discussions. But, in a competitive industry like Plastics Manufacturing, companies have had to be frugal in their IT spending and generally manage their servers and applications with a relatively small group of professionals. While Microsoft has spent an enormous amount of money…

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Plastics Manufacturing ERP System

There’s an age-old question that will likely continue for many, many years… In buying your next, incredibly expensive ERP system, how much should we customize the system?  First, some definitions: Configuration – Highly configurable systems offer tools and options that provide numerous permutations to meet the functionality and process of your business. Normally, these configuration options…

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Plastic Manufacturing Color Sensor

As Plastic Manufacturers continue on the “Yellow Brick Road” toward world class OEE performance, quality will remain an important element. Having to scrap parts or an entire production order due to poor quality is more prevalent than often reported. A few months ago, we showed a video with a temperature sensor, real-time streaming, and alerts…

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Personalizing an ERP for Plastics Manufacturing

Mass customization is a goal for many Plastics Manufacturers, and the concept is pretty simple. Differentiating through smaller runs that are differentiated by the custom nature and desires of your customer. Enriching the customer experience – great in theory, but not always easy to execute. This same concept extends to your ERP system. Out of…

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Digital Twins in Plastics Manufacturing

In the spirit of Digital Transformation (See our blog from last week – Why Are Plastic Manufacturers Embracing Digital Transformation?), Plastic Manufacturers continue to look for: Transformational changes to generate more revenue Initiatives to protect and grow their user base Ways to produce more with fewer resources Here are some additional ways that Digital Transformation…

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Digital Transformation in Plastics Manufacturing

As I sit through a digital transformation and technology oriented conference, there are some recurring themes that are relevant for plastic manufacturing. “Focus on the outcome”… ”Start with the end in mind”… While a tad cliché-ish, they remain true. By the way, each presentation is being automatically converted via voice to text, so every single…

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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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