Production of an injection mold: analysis and improvements identification in the manufacturing process

Plastic injection molding industries demand high precision, accuracy, and advanced manufacturing processes, that are efficient and effective to minimize costs and comply with industrial standards and customer requirements. This article provides a descriptive and comprehensive approach aimed at identifying process improvements in the manufacturing of two product parts of a plastic injection mold. To this end, data has been collected to assess the relation between schedule times and actual manufacturing times, and devise possible actions to improve the processes' efficiency. The data was also used to understand the performance of the current production process, to detail the times per manufacturing process, and to identify possible problems in the production process of the two product parts. The information gathered, directed the advancement of improvement proposals to mitigate and minimize the issues leading to variations between schedule and actual manufacturing times. The approach was descriptive, based on empirical data, to characterize the operational processes, that the parts must go through, highlighting the variances between the expected and actual manufacturing times.