Four Things to Consider Before Jumping Into Plastic Injection Molded Part Manufacturing

There are many ways to produce plastic parts and if your anticipated sales volume is high enough, plastic injection molded part manufacturing can be the most cost effective way to get the job done.

If you’re ready to pull the trigger on your project, consider Rex Plastics.  Learn more about our plastic injection molded part manufacturing capabilities, here.

If you think plastic injection molding is the right process for you, there are multiple things to consider:

1. Sales Volume
2. Budget
3. Application
4. Time

Sales Volume

As mentioned above, sales volume is key determining factor in production method. As a rule of thumb, if you anticipate selling 1,000 or more parts annually (based on sound market analysis of course, not just because your brother-in-law said he would buy one!), injection molded part manufacturing is worth considering. The initial investment can be significant, but once the injection mold is built, the parts are very inexpensive to produce. You should get a quote and crunch your own numbers with respect to how long it will take to make a return on your investment (ROI).

Budget

Of course, even if the ROI from your anticipated sales volume pencils-out, you’ll need to be able to effectively budget for other items like the injection mold, the initial manufacturing production run, marketing efforts, etc. If you are not self-funding (and your brother-in-law doesn’t have the dough), you will likely need a business plan in order to attract investors. Just like any other investor, your plastic injection part manufacturer is unlikely to invest their resources in your project unless they have been convinced that everything pencils-out as well.

Application

The application of your end product is critical. While plastics are an amazing material used to save time, money and lives with increased sterilization, they are not always appropriate for every project. For example, if your product requires strength that plastics cannot provide, or will have impact or tensile stress placed on it for more than five or six years outside, injection molding part manufacturing may not be the best process.

Time

The typical time to build the mold for plastic injection molded part manufacturing can range anywhere from 4-12 weeks. Factors for this include last minute design revisions, communication lag, part complexity, the current load of the toolmaker, and any multitude of unexpected events like shipping delays, production part failures, etc. Because of these factors, you should try to leave as much time as possible to get the final production parts in hand. With this in mind, a September request for quote is not a good way to insure a successful holiday season of sales for your new part.

Consider Rex Plastics

If you’re ready to pull the trigger on a project please consider Rex Plastics. With our lifetime mold guarantee and 98% customer retention, we’re the perfect plastic part manufacturer for your product development needs.  Learn more about our plastic injection molded part manufacturing capabilities, here.