Process Overview –For Low Volume Plastic Injection Molding Customers

Midwest Mold has several hundred active customer relationships for low volume plastic injection molding services. We support customers in a wide range of industries and typically interface with R&D departments, product developers, prototype and pre-production teams and industries with inherently lower volume production requirements. Low volume production molding is generally 50-10,000 shots per part run and up to 100,000 parts annually with some exceptions.

The following outlines how Midwest Mold’s process works from customer inquiry to sample parts:

Customer Submission

The customer sends an email that is fielded by Midwest Mold’s data management team. The opportunity is assigned to the sales team for a pre-quote qualification via phone call or web conference. Application details are shared including part geometry, gate locations, parting line, ejector pin locations, resin, estimated annual part volume, and lifetime of tool. The customer clarifies their sourcing criteria and Midwest Mold confirms the application is within our expertise, the prospect is a fit and there is sufficient information to supply a quote.

Program Management

The customer issues a purchase order to Midwest Mold with release level part data. Midwest Mold's program management team reaches out to the customer for an introductory meeting to review the project scope and sets the schedule for design review and first shot samples.

Design & Engineering

An internal kickoff meeting happens at Midwest Mold between program management, engineering and the sales team. Once the job is assigned to a designer, they initiate feasibility and mold flow analysis to validate manufacturability. Assuming no issues, we finalize the design. Once design is finalized, we request customer approval to proceed with manufacturing.

MANUFACTURING

Our manufacturing team builds a process routing with a standardized bill of materials to support a quality part and the agreed upon lead time for sample shots.

MOLD TRYOUT & PRODUCTION

1stshot samples are supplied and, upon customer approval, Midwest Mold schedules a production part run and future release dates when applicable. Customers choose Midwest Mold because of our insights in mold design, mold build and plastic processing. We provide low volume injection molding customers a single source for project ownership from kickoff to first shots. We make it easy, so put us to the test!

Process Overview –For Plastic Injection Production Mold Customers

Production mold customers partner with Midwest Moldbecause of our roots in the design and build of production molds and the personal attention our team provides at every step of the process. We’ve developed a niche in 300-1500-ton molds with some smaller or larger depending upon customer requirements.  Additionally, our core competencies in 2 shot and conventional, single shot molds enable us to cover a range of plastic injection applications.

The following steps outline our process for production molds:

Customer Inquiry

The customer supplies part data to Midwest Mold and a request for quote (RFQ).

Sales

The Sales Team schedules a meeting invite with the customer for clarification of mold standards and to uncover information not provided in the RFQ. Assuming the project is a fit, we issue a quote.

Customer Issues Purchase Order

Upon project acceptance, the Midwest Mold Team works with the customer to finalize pertinent project details such as final part data, mold material, resin, shrink factor, shot size, mold cavitation, press size, and timelines before assigning the project to program management.

Program Management

Program Management schedules an introductory meeting with the customer to confirm project details, mold build criteria and project timelines. An internal kickoff meeting takes place between sales, program management and engineering. The application details are confirmed and discussed.

Engineering

A preliminary design review is established where the customer approves steel block sizes, part layout, water lines, ejection and gate locations. Once the customer approves preliminary design, steel and long lead time items are ordered. At the final design review, we seek customer approval to machine surfaces, lifters and slides per the design. Final design is scheduled to coincide with steel hitting the shop floor to streamline our manufacturing process.

Manufacturing

The job is released to the shop floor where our manufacturing team builds to the final mold design and schedules all 3D machining, 2D machining, EDM, detail machining, bench, spot and assembly.

Mold Tryout

An internal first shot approval takes place prior to mold tryout with the customer. Upon customer approval, the mold is shipped. Our relationships with production mold customers are strong, largely because we pursue partnerships rather than one-off projects. Our ideal customer invests in their supply chain partners with a long-term view. We encourage customers to visit our plant in Roseville, Michigan to see our operation and meet our team. Ultimately, we believe it’s our people that differentiate Midwest Mold from the competition and invite you to experience that firsthand.