IMM Magazine Article Archive

What OEMs look for in a custom molder

By: Clare Goldsberry
What do OEMs look for in a molder? Recently, several of them had the opportunity to voice
their expectations of their molded parts suppliers to a group assembled for the SPI Western
Regional Conference. Gina Cordeiro, global plastics procurement manager for Hewlett-
Packard in Palo Alto, CA, stressed to attendees that quality is an increasingly important issue.

She notes that in 1994, prior to H-P's implementation of a Supplier Development Team to
work on quality issues, 80 percent of the downtime at H-P's Vancouver, WA assembly
operations was attributed to nonconforming plastic parts. H-P is now taking advantage of
contract manufacturing at its suppliers' plants and at companies specializing in subassembly.

"H-P's printer future is in consumer retail rather than in business printers," says Cordeiro.
"Product life cycles are short and we need to drive price down and quality up. Flexibility in
supply is crucial to our success."

To be a successful supplier to H-P, Cordeiro advises that molders must have extensive
knowledge of material performance in computer and business equipment applications, access
to supplier R&D, applications development expertise, and manufacturing expertise.

With H-P's global manufacturing operations, Cordeiro tells resin suppliers that reduction in
material variability and long-term assured supply is crucial. "We hope to never have the
polycarbonate shortage we went through a couple of years ago," she says. "We need
customer-focused suppliers who understand and respond to H-P," she adds. "Not just suppliers
who think U.S., but who think globally."

Spencer Barnes, plastics engineering manager at H-P's Vancouver plant, emphasizes that
molders must realize how critical assurance of supply is to H-P's operations. The company
can lose $3000 to $4000 per minute in production time if there is an interruption of parts in
the supply chain. Therefore, supply chain management and flexibility in supply are critical to
being a successful vendor to H-P.

Also, molded components must be on time and at the right price because of ever-present
market demands. "There are tremendous cost and manufacturing pressures on all of us," says
Barnes.

For example, when H-P introduced the Thinkjet printer 12 years ago, the company anticipated
making 6000 units per month. Last month, the company manufactured a record 1.2 million
inkjet printers worldwide.

"We have multiple cavities running in molds worldwide and all parts must fit together,"
Barnes says. "That means we need process controls so that every part that is molded is fit for
use."

Barnes explains that he looks for molders with quality and capacity to grow with H-P. Many
of H-P's molders provided "too little too late" when ramping up to meet the company's printer
components needs a few years ago.
"There is a direct relationship between adding molding machines and the quality, and it's
inverse," Barnes tells the group. "We got more parts from suppliers, but we also got fewer
usable parts."

Audit Results
To help solve those problems, the Vancouver division assembled a Supplier Development
Team in 1994, consisting of a full-time engineering person, a purchasing business manager,
and a quality person to work with suppliers to bring them to H-P's standards. The group did a
baseline audit on its suppliers, evaluating them in 16 areas. The audit resulted in the following
information:

Molders had no discipline in the area of process control. "There would be a process controller
on the press yet someone would be out there turning the knobs," says Barnes. "I want some
indication that somebody knows the process is out of control, I want the process stopped and I
want the process fixed. I don't want anyone tweaking the mold," he continues. "I don't want to
see the company owner out there turning knobs."
Barnes stresses process monitoring as the key to reducing molding costs and increasing
profits. "Getting control means you can make money," he tells molders. "Don't kid yourself.
Monitor the process until you find the root cause for variation and kill it!"

Molders didn't know their costs to manufacture. "If you don't know your costs, you don't
know where to put your efforts," Barnes emphasizes.

Quality was terrible, averaging 10,000 to 20,000 bad parts per 1 million produced.

Mold and machine maintenance was "hit or miss."

Molders didn't measure well.

There was a lack of control in the areas of scheduling, material purchasing, and inventory.
"The molders thought we were nosy and didn't trust why we were doing this audit," Barnes
explains. "But we were willing to work with the suppliers to help them become the type of
supplier they needed to be for H-P. Now we're learning together, providing mentorship.
There's no more smoke and mirrors."

The result of the audit was that H-P went from 21 to 14 molded parts suppliers, a quality ratio
of 200 to 1000 parts per million, and molding capacity increased 10 times.

Oscar Miramontes, engineering manager for Philips Consumer Electronics' Philips

Components Div. in El Paso, TX, told the molders in the group that Philips introduces a new
product every three months. Reduced prices and increased competition have resulted in
compressed lead times for molds and molded parts and, additionally, enhanced quality
requirements.

With consumer electronics growing into more complex products and technology, Miramontes
says the molded components have more value added to the parts and the quality is increasing
from parts-per-million to parts-per-billion. "We need to move below Six Sigma," he says.
Tony Matlock, plant manager for the Camsco Manufacturing division of Rain Bird in Azusa,
CA, says that plastics components account for 70 percent of the company's deliveries. He
stresses that in the irrigation industry, customers want quality first. "They want the sprinkler
systems to work right, be reliable, and perform to specification," he says.

Rain Bird looks for molders who have a 100 percent quality yield, on-time delivery,
competitive pricing, and shorter lead times, and who provide support for Rain Bird's
inventory strategy. "We want the best, most successful suppliers in the industry," Matlock
says. Rain Bird requires full-service suppliers who are focused on good business management
and manufacturing process controls. "We're looking for more than ISO suppliers," says
Matlock. "We want suppliers not just to comply, but to excel."

IMM - July 1997