Editor's Note: Soon after this interview was published, RJG Inc. announced Birchmeier would be joining the company as senior client solutions consultant.
As a kid, Brandon Birchmeier found his calling, as his love of baseball drew him into the world of statistics. Now an injection molding consultant and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and the father of two, he hopes to apply analytics to help the industry he loves achieve the sustainability it so often touts. In a conversation with Karen Hanna, senior staff reporter for Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing, the former Procter & Gamble (P&G) injection molding expert explained what led him to make YouTube presentations about molding and why he thinks ugly packaging should be hip.
Tell me about your plastics career prior to becoming a consultant.
Birchmeier: My first job was with Johnson Controls. I was the processing lead for a team of experts that would get the entire line of auto door panels developed. Then, I [worked] with [irrigation company] Rain Bird for a little while, but I knew I wanted to get back into plastics. In 2014, Procter & Gamble called me about their Imflux technology. I have a history of doing unusual molding and really enjoy process theory/innovation, so it was a great fit. My job was to fly out to wherever, watch this part run for an hour or two, then we’d stop it, we’d pull all of our equipment out. I'd have the rest of that week to try to make a better part faster. Our industry is so massive. Through this, I got to see the whole spectrum. I had 23 patents involving injection molding machine controls. I had an amazing lab. I had a blast. Through this, I got to see the whole spectrum. I got about 100 years of experience in 10 years.
What was your favorite patent?
Birchmeier: Probably my LECR. It stands for Largest Empty Corner Rectangle. It’s a method of figuring out your processing parameters using constant pressure control. What pressure and how much time do you mold for? You would build this polygon of that relationship. The center of that rectangle is actually your most robust spot.
What led you to plastics?
Birchmeier: I grew up on a farm in Michigan. My dad was a tractor mechanic. He’s just a master problem-solver, can just close his eyes, listen to a tractor and tell you exactly what’s wrong with it and how to fix it. I learned a lot from him. I was always a hands-on person. I was out in the barn with him messing around with stuff. I knew at a young age, I wanted to do engineering. When it came time to go to [college], I visited Ferris, they were on my list ... saw the lab and was like, “This looks awesome.”
You didn’t want to follow in your family’s farming roots?
Birchmeier: I also love statistics and refuse to rely on Mother Nature for my success.
Draw a line for me from baseball to plastics.
Birchmeier: I grew up with two sisters, one older and one younger, and they never wanted anything to do with me. I was pretty bored. I read books and played with my baseball cards. I played Little League. The numbers on the back of the cards always drew me in. That’s how I got real into numbers and statistics, especially with baseball cards, with the numbers on the back. I became obsessed with tracking everyone’s stats. It was an obsession that carried over into actual play. I would pit teams against each other and have this way of flipping the cards over and determining, with the pitcher or the batter, based on their statistics and create all the formulas and stuff. There wasn’t even Excel sheets to help me out.
You didn’t know about Strat-O-Matic?
Birchmeier: I found that [out] later. I was like, ”Oh my God, this actually existed.”
How does all that relate to where you are now?
Birchmeier: Looking for numerical patterns. What’s neat and probably underappreciated in the injection molding world is how mathematical everything is, from how you set up your machine to how you think about the part you’re processing. There’s a lot that goes into the geometry and physics side of things, and all those relationships are mathematical. Early on, I was introduced to the Six Sigma methodology, and I became completely engrossed with statistics for injection molding, and thinking about it differently. That’s where things like DOE and correlation analysis and all that stuff is super-exciting and why I always get pumped up to this day. The molding process is pretty chaotic and complex, but when you really break it down to its elements, there’s a ton of math you can use in your strategies.
What advice do you give to manufacturers looking to get started with lean?
Birchmeier: Start collecting data, and make sure you what you’re using to measure is adequate. A lot of folks can’t answer basic questions. You can’t measure improvement if you can’t measure where you are today. You really need to understand your current process limitations and issues, and understand how to measure that, so then you can go in and test your hypothesis against that. Even if you don’t like the result, you’ve got to face it.
Is there a way to make data more accessible to users?
Birchmeier: I would just put a clipboard out, “How many good parts did we get this hour? How many bad parts?” If I know that on an hourly basis, I can start figuring out uptime, downtime, efficiency. Even a small start like that, that’s valuable. I love asking the manager: “What’s your overall effective efficiency?” They don’t know.
How might lean strategies help manufacturers with problems related to labor?
Birchmeier: I could do my dream scenario, having my own factory [with] 10 machines run by five people. That’s doable. I don’t think a lot of people have that mindset. [You] can run a very lean organization, if you set up a way to monitor yourself.
What led to the whiteboard presentations you do on YouTube?
Birchmeier: I didn’t start with YouTube. I thought I was going to write about the injection molding world. I was like, “This is boring.” I love injection molding, but, man, even I have a hard time reading a dry injection molding technology book. Like, this doesn’t fit me or my character. I love this stuff, but I can’t get that across in this text. YouTube feels more natural for me, and I can make it entertaining.
How do you explain molding at the whiteboard?
Birchmeier: Instead of saying, do A to solve B, it is learning how to break a problem down and create a strategy for kind of attacking it. I’d like to make it easier to handle. The process technician standing next to a machine on third shift, banging his head against a machine, my goal with YouTube is to give these guys information that they can use to solve their problems.
When you break things down to that level, it’s a lot easier for folks to digest.
It allows me to introduce new technologies coming out in the industry and how they compare to other technologies. There’s a lot of new [technologies] coming out, but they’re all kind of siloed.
A lot of my old professors are kind of the inspiration behind this. I’m not one to stand behind a PowerPoint and read slides. I like to move around. It allows me to act out my thought process. That’s the beauty of the whiteboard, there’s mastery of topic. You have to know your stuff. Teaching something gives you a different appreciation for, do you really understand the conceptual elements? If I can’t make it easier to understand on a whiteboard with a marker, that’s my problem.
Do you use the same type of approach to address issues outside of work?
Birchmeier: I love looking for patterns, especially when something doesn’t follow the pattern anymore. I apply that to all kinds of things in my life, from the thermostat to managing my lawn.
How did being able to make presentations at NPE this year help you?
Birchmeier: I did three talks for the mold building track. That probably averaged around 30 to 40 people. My whiteboard sessions, which I did every afternoon at the Bottling stage, was standing room only.
NPE was so good to me. It’s been great. I got an absolute ton of exposure. They asked me to be part of the planning committee for NPE2027.
As a member of the NPE2027 planning committee, do you have ideas for improvements?
Birchmeier: Unless there’s a way to give everyone roller skates or roller blades to get around easier, I don’t know that I have a lot to improve upon. One thing I loved was not only the booths but all the educational opportunities. You learned about things you probably wouldn’t have otherwise.
What do you think about the emphasis on sustainability?
Birchmeier: I don’t think we’re doing enough. Yeah, people love to talk about it. Let’s be real: Plastics is a problem. We all have microplastics in our bodies. We’ve failed in handling this problem. We’ve got to talk about it and take this head-on.
You walk into a grocery store or CVS, you’re hit with all this pretty packaging. I want to see a difference from a consumer experience standpoint. I don’t, and that’s the big next step if we’re going to get serious about this.
There’s [some] problems with our recycled supply today: One is there’s not enough of it. When there’s enough, it’s too expensive. It is hard to convince a molder to go to a recycled material that has more question marks around it from a quality standpoint and then have to pay more for it. There has to be incentive economically. If we can’t make [recycled material] that’s cheaper than virgin, we need to rethink our strategy, and this is where I worry about things like chemical recycling. If you can’t make that resin cheaper than what they can buy today, it's not solving the issue.
I think consumers are open to packaging that isn’t as pretty as it used to be. I would be the first to buy ugly packaging made out of recycled material. I think we need to make those options more readily available for the consumer.
I would love ugly packaging to be cool.
What about all the pledges the big corporations have already made?
Birchmeier: So much focus is put on profit, I don’t know that the appropriate focus — and the appropriate spending — is being put in these areas to make the change they need to make as fast as they need to make it. I would love to see more regulation in this area. Are they really goals, or is it just more talking points? What happens if they fail? There should be more audits in the supply chain.
I’d love to see more honest and clear explanations on packaging. You buy a piece of food, and you have your nutritional label that breaks down what’s in that food. I’d love to see packaging that says, “This is the propylene used at X percent. This is the amount of recyclate use and those things in the package" ... and hold these companies a bit more accountable.
This may seem extreme, but it should be illegal to make a flowerpot out of virgin plastic. You want to talk about an opportunity for nearshoring stuff; If you put these requirements on a lot of these cheap products, some manufacturing may make its way back from other parts of the world ... because they’re going to get fined for not meeting those material requirements. You have to force companies to [change], and I don’t know any way other than through regulation because, otherwise, it’s just marketing ploys.
What might molders be able to do differently?
Birchmeier: Doing real-time, batch plastic management at the molding press, compounders today try to turn all that recycled plastic into a virgin equivalent. They put a lot of heat history into it, they put additives into it, and that’s what’s driving up costs. I would like us to get away from that, would make it less perfect. Can we manage that at the press, where you’re titrating in a little bit of [recycled material] or some additives to manage your heavy recycle [stream]? I think more of that can be done.
There’s the medical side of the industry. I don’t want my syringe made out of questionable material, I totally get that. But, a flowerpot, so many other things, could be made — they should be made — of recycled material. We need to push harder on those product types that absolutely should be.
There’s a lot of instances where you could probably be titrating in 10 percent regrind and probably won’t have too much of an impact on your process. But can you put it in at 10 percent? 50 percent? What’s the limiting factor?
Injection molding machines aren’t smart enough to handle variation in real time without some added technology, which is what I did a lot of my last 10 years at Imflux. I think more can definitely be done. I would like to see compounders and large manufacturers work more closely together.
How could you promote “ugly packaging”?
Birchmeier: I’ll pick a little bit on P&G. Every other commercial is a P&G commercial. That could be a huge media push, “Hey, I want the black Tide bottle or black Dawn bottle,” and make it cool.
I think consumers are willing to do more, but make it easy for them. It’s not easy today. You go to Amazon, I wish I could [pick a] recycled package or the premium package. We could be a lot more creative. I would love to see that creativity push to the consumer to make them part of the solution.
What other ideas do you have to promote sustainability?
Birchmeier: Wouldn’t it be cool to get something from your local recycler? You put everything in the recycling bin, it would be sweet to get some Frisbees back or something, an incentive to close the loop with customers.
Why are you so passionate about this?
Birchmeier: Because I know it’s possible. I’ve done it. I’ve made 5-gallon buckets out of fractional-melt HDPE from milk jugs. That’s not supposed to be possible. When you push things, some things I’ve been told are impossible actually are possible. So we need to get out of our own way a little bit and start pushing things. But also the companies that have the big spending pools — I’ll pick on P&G a little bit — they need to speak with their dollars. I'd love to see some of these bigger OEMs pony up and work together, “Let’s sit down and figure this out, guys.” I’m not seeing that, and it’s frustrating.
If anyone’s going to solve this problem, it’s us.
I’m an outdoorsman. I like to hunt and fish.
Our youth inspires me. I know a lot of folks feel the opposite way. Gen Xers and Gen Zers, I think the environment and climate are important to them, as [they] should be, so, I’m hoping you'll see more energy and excitement and innovation from our youth.
They should be talking about plastics recycling at elementary schools all the time. Plastics has a bad reputation, which we deserve a little bit. We have to figure this out.
What would you like to be your legacy?
Birchmeier: You look at the whole injection molding machine, even to this day, I still am blown away. I’d love to be able to add to that knowledge base and continue to grow what the injection molding world can do, to make us more innovative, especially on the sustainability side of things.
It’s going to take a lot of effort from a lot of different areas. Everything seems so slow. I’d love to see a lot more speed and try things that may not work. Let us be innovative, and give the consumer more options.
How do you think about the molding process when you know your raw material is going to change? That’s a new problem. And it’s something that I’ve really taken as my own personal challenge to try and solve because that is probably one of our biggest hurdles right now ... equipment that can handle material variation.
It’s been a wild ride, but I’m having a blast. I love our industry. I know we can do better.
