The Rodon Blog - A Focus on Plastic Injection Molding and American Manufacturing

There are many risks involved in selecting an OEM suppliers.Understanding them is essential to running a successful business.In our white paper "Hidden Risks in Your Offshore Supply Chain", we'll examine three strategic areas to include in your supplier selection process: Cost, Scheduling, and Compliance.

Cost

Cost is not just the final price you pay for a part.Cost also includes shipping, time to market delays, quality control checks as well as labor.Cheap foreign labor is becoming more expensive.  Offshore suppliers face a more demanding workforce.And, today's consumers are demanding that suppliers provide improved working conditions and pay.All of this is driving up the unit cost of goods sold.

Point-of-purchase display components require rugged construction in combination with an attractive appearance.AtThe Rodon Group, we injection molded a range of products, including items such as pegboard hooks, shelf dividers, and product stops for one of the leading companies in the point-of-purchase display industry.This project highlights our ability to provide value-added services in conjunction with close tolerance injection molding that equates to cost savings over the entire product lifecycle.

Working with the customer supplied prints, we first focused our attention on mold design.Our goal, as always, was to construct molds that would lead to volume high quality while minimizing production costs.By paying detailed attention to aspects such as cavity dimensions, gate location, venting, cooling systems, and more, we achieved optimal cycle times while upholding tolerances as close as ± 0.005" across varying complexities in part geometry.One critical feature of these parts was a fine quality surface, so we leveraged the capability of our EDM equipment.This allowed us to create a very fine finish on the mold cavities to add clarity and quality to the surface of the finished part with no extra processing required.

Dr.Martin Luther King's contributions to the advancement of civil rights in this country defines the word "leadership".He wasa visionary leader who was deeply committed to achieving social justice through nonviolent means.

In celebration of Dr.King's birthday this past Monday, we thought we'd highlight past leaders in the manufacturing world who made very different but equally important contributions to today's advanced technologies.Each of them had their own unique leadership styles withone important trait in common!they were all visionaries.They each saw the potential of creating a better, more efficient system or machine to complete a task.While the official "Industrial Revolution" may be over, our society still benefits from the work of these current day visionaries.

In celebration of Father's Day on Sunday, we thought we'd focus on the men that helped make this country what it is today.What better way to celebrate this day than to recognize some of the founding fathers of manufacturing and their contributions to modern day technologies?There were many to highlight, and many that contributed to today's manufacturing growth and development.It wasn't easy to narrow down the list, but we picked some of our favorites.

We hope you enjoy reading about their contributions and wish all of the dads out therea very Happy Father's Day on Sunday!

As an American manufacturer and a family-owned business, we are constantly looking for ways to support the future of not only our company, but other American manufacturers.We know the impact of STEM education on today's youth and often provide high school and college tours to students who are interested in careers in STEM related fields.We bring students in with their educators, and often other administrators to discuss the importance of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

It's a wonderful thing to see their eyes light up as we tour them through our automated facility and listen as they ask questions about machinery, robotics, plastic, processes and more.The majority of the students are curious, interested, excited.The majority of the students are also male.As a mother to a daughter who is interested in a career in engineering, I know how important it is to get girls involved in these opportunities early on.So what can we do to help nurture these young women and help set them up for a successful career?

In celebration ofEarth Daythis week, we created an infographic showing how we tackle sustainable manufacturing at Rodon.The processes we use in our facility help to minimize packaging, transportation costs, waste, water consumption and energy.

Tell us in the comments section below what efforts your company uses to remain a sustainable business.