When you’re so bored you’re ready to scream, try this little financial exercise:  Look up the cost of any mold in your shop that has a ‘high’ volume.  Because material prices are so flakey simply look at the running time and pump in a press rate per hour.  Now with a little spreadsheet magic you can calculate the TOTAL cost of the part by factoring in the lifetime volume of the part.  OK, So What?  First conclusion – the mold cost isn’t a large percentage of the overall project cost. Continue Reading »

Yes, COST IS (sometimes) IS KING but material is darn expensive.  For a buyer this is simple:  “Gimmie low cost parts” he croaks and places the job off shore.  Then as time wears on he finds his parts are brittle or not the proper dimension and ultimately his engineers say the parts are made of Poly-what-do-you-call-it AKA Mystery Polymer Blend.  Was it low cost?  Yup.  Is his supply chain full of them?  Yup.  Can he do anything?  Nope, he is sooooo busted. Continue Reading »