Manufacturing plastic injection molded components in-house as part of a customer’s end product can prove to be a significant challenge from an efficiency, quality, and cost perspective. Many companies have seen the relative ease with outsourcing and have decided to incorporate that process into their business model. Over the years, Rodon has garnered many of our largest customers who were doing their best to manufacture their injection molded components in-house, but found the process too problematic and inefficient.
Why Outsource Your Plastic Injection Molding?
Cost Savings
While a small part may seem easy to make, it is what you don’t see that makes the difference. Detailed specifications require sophisticated infrastructure and expertise to manufacture. Those specialized skills and machines take a financial investment, for which many aren’t prepared. Leveraging someone else’s investment in startup, operations, and maintenance costs is one of the main advantages of outsourcing.
Improved Quality
When a business practices a craft over many years, there is a clear difference in quality compared to novice companies. It also takes a team of experienced people trained in different disciplines, such as design, engineering, tooling, operators, equipment, and support to ensure that everything from the design to the manufacturing to the quality testing is done to spec and in accordance with quality best practices and standards. Having seamless processes, minimal rejects, and high-quality production is the by-product of experience.
Streamlined Inventory
Having adequate inventory for unforeseen demands can prevent supply chain interruptions, missed deadlines, and unhappy customers. However, keeping surplus inventory also comes at a cost for warehousing. Choosing an experienced plastic injection molding contractor experienced in demand-driven planning capabilities means that they can provide what you need when you need it and at a reasonable price.
Economies of Scale
Volume is critical to realize economies of scale. Startup injection molding setups often don’t have the personnel or capacity to fill large requests, nor do they have the critical supplier relationships necessary to drive prices down for large material orders.
Experience
There is more to plastic injection molding than manufacturing the part. There is resource planning, project management, quality assessment, packaging, and distribution, to name a few. If you decide to bring your manufacturing in-house, you must still adhere to the same rigorous standards you would expect from an experienced outsourced manufacturer. That can be a difficult standard to reach and maintain as a startup.
Focus on Core Competencies
Outsourcing your plastic injection molding allows you to continue doing what made you successful in the first place without additional staff, training, and infrastructure. Continue to focus on your core competency and let your outsourcing company focus on theirs.
Avoid Risk
The high initial investment to start your own injection molding operation is already daunting. When you consider that you are dependent upon order volume, demand, sales, economies, and other metrics that can influence your business’s return on investment, that adds a considerable level of risk. Outsourcing transfers that risk to the manufacturer.
Faster Start-Up
Outsourcing your manufacturing saves you the time and cost to set up an injection molding shop. Why reinvent the wheel when so many domestic manufacturers have already done it for you?
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