How to become a world-class plastics manufacturer

The question generally comes from managers in plants that are striving to be the best they can be, and invariably there is something they are doing really well that we can discuss. 

Two excellent stories about workforce development by senior staff reporter Karen Hanna in this issue made me think about the processors’ question once again. 

While there are plenty of very good processors, a general observation is that there are very few leaders who ever take a step back from the grind of day-to-day firefighting to think about how they can be a world-class manufacturer. Few ever mention that they have read a book about manufacturing excellence. 

It has been easier in the past to get by just making good plastics parts. But the recession in the manufacturing sector of the past 18 months as well as the troubling economic landscape ahead may put the very best processors further ahead with the rest struggling to survive. 

Grant Richards, a professor at Purdue University’s School of Engineering Technology, told Hanna that there is a growing gap between the skills that have been required in the manufacturing sector and what might be needed in the years ahead. 

I have no doubt that Richards is correct. 

Finding the right person to fill a job opening you have today solves today’s problem, but building a world-class workforce prevents future problems.  

The workforce is a small but critical component of manufacturing excellence. 

Here are questions you need to ask if you want to be a world-class manufacturer: 

• Are my processing machines the correct size for the products we are making, or do I have them jerry-rigged to get by? 

• Do I have the correct auxiliary equipment? For plastics processors, the first evaluation should be their material handling system. Quality and efficiency starts here. 

• Has there been continuous investment in automation? Many processors still see automation as nice to have, or necessary only when they cannot fill a job. But part quality and plant safety depend on good automation.  

• Data, data, data. Manufacturers of primary processing machinery and auxiliary equipment have already solved the problem of collecting data. But what are you doing with it?  

• Are you hiring tomorrow’s workforce or just filling today’s job?  

• Does everyone on your shop floor understand and strive for lean manufacturing? 

• Do leaders have a strategic vision? 

Why worry about being a world-class manufacturer when your plant is profitable now? Demographic trends provide a scary answer. 

The financial crisis of 2008-2009 changed the demographics of the United States, according to Richards. “If you go look at the birth rate around there, it just plummeted off a cliff,” he told Hanna. “So, if you go and extrapolate that out 18 years, which is college-age, you start to see that massive drop in population there is now entering college. So, the numbers are only going to get worse.”  

Richards said that unless a company has a strategy and a plan and is willing to put some resources behind it, finding workers is going to become more difficult. 

Who is going to get the best and brightest workers in the future? My bet is on those world-class manufacturing plants that have modern machinery, collect good data, and put it in the hands of workers who can use it to make the process better.  

There is a belief among some manufacturers that AI-powered machinery is going to solve all their problems. I wouldn’t hold my breath for that.  

Thirty years ago I was certain that plastics manufacturing was at the dawn of the age of lights-out manufacturing. Back then, there were a couple of processors operating mostly lights-out and a few more that had specific departments — such as their clean room — running mostly lights-out. 

Those numbers are not much higher today. You rarely hear about lights-out.  

So, step back and take a look at how you are making parts. Read a book, listen to a podcast, maybe go to a conference. You owe it to your company’s future.