Molders understand the amount of pressure applied to their buyers. Small changes can have large impacts on the pricing. Use these 6 tips to help your molder provide you the best possible price.
Choose the right molder for the type of part that you are trying to source
Selecting the right molder for your RFQ’s may take a little time, but it pays to do your research and ask the right questions.
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Does the size of your part fall within the molders manufacturing capabilities?
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Does the molder have experience working with the resin that your part will require?
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Is the molder capable of handling the complexity of your part? Have they produced similar parts or parts of equal difficulty?
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Is the molder able to perform every manufacturing step in-house? Molders with in-house design, mold building, and value-added services may be able to offer cost and timing advantages.
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Is the molder able to meet your quality and documentation requirements?
Involve your molder early in the design phase
The best opportunities to reduce the cost of tooling and component piece price comes before design freeze. Allow your molder to make recommendations before the RFQ’s are even sent out. The elimination of costly undercuts, alternative methods of achieving part strength, material flow considerations and resin selection are just a few areas that your molder can help.
Provide complete and detailed information in your RFQ.
This step is often overlooked but is critical to getting your best price. Incomplete data may result in costly assumptions being built into the quoted price. Key pieces of information include: Start of production (SOP) date, estimated annual volume (EAU), program life span, estimated release quantities, part function, material specifications, key characteristics, special quality/documentation requirements, and packaging considerations.
Offer your molder flexibility when it comes to material choices whenever possible
Prints or RFQs that list a specific resin by manufacturer and grade will limit the molder’s ability to take advantage of more cost-effective resins options that may be available. Ultimately you must make the call, but give your molder the freedom to provide you with material alternatives.
Make sure you are comparing apples to apples.
Sounds simple enough, but cavitational variances, differing quality, delivery capabilities, landed costs and tooling details are often overlooked. Failure to consider these items may result in erroneous price comparisons and unexpected costs.
Provide honest feedback
The molder most likely spent considerable time responding to your RFQ. Providing honest and meaningful feedback is a professional courtesy that your molders will appreciate and provides them with the information they can use to identify quoting errors and/or find potential areas of improvement.
Molders understand the pricing pressures placed upon today’s buyers. Implementing the steps above will help build good supplier relationships, streamline the quoting process, reduce costs and improve the overall experience for buyers and suppliers alike.
