The complete guide of low volume manufacturing service for plastic parts

Global consumer demands are driving the manufacturing industry to innovate and find new ways of meeting large production orders. This is why modern manufacturing best practices and theories are focused on how businesses can produce thousands or millions of similar products at very low costs. Low volume manufacturing services also involve customization requests from the customer. This is a specialized production method that is different from traditional approaches. It therefore needs a unique set of production methods and workflows. This is why many manufacturers find it difficult to create a mass production system that fits varying customer requirements.

The modern manufacturing market

The advancement of technology has made it possible for many manufacturing materials and methods to be available. With multiple technologies now available in the market, product makers can easily produce low volume and custom products and parts. It means that manufacturing businesses can now easily meet on-demand customer orders quickly and at low costs. This was almost impossible with traditional manufacturing systems. With low volume manufacturing services, manufacturers can meet low-volume customer orders in the fastest times while saving up on a lot of resources.

 

Low volume manufacturing in the marketplace

Low volume manufacturing is a production process whereby identical products are produced in low volumes. This production size is usually between ten and tens of thousands of similar parts. It is also possible to customize the product specifications and produce multiple variants of a certain product design. Many traditional systems in the marketplace like forming or molding are used for mass production. This is where similar products are produced in high volumes. This usually means producing more than 10,000 similar items. In a high-volume production facility, this is cost-efficient. But there are downsides to this high-volume production method such as:

• You will need to invest in expensive machines
• The manufacturing facility needs standardization
• Comes with production tools that make customization and rapid production difficult

 

What are the benefits of the low volume manufacturing systems

If your business is looking to provide a low volume manufacturing service, then it can enjoy some benefits of this production method. These benefits include:

Reduce production costs: The low volume manufacturing service is a production model that allows you to reduce costs. It promotes innovation and also removes all the barriers to quickly launching your product in the market.

 

Shorter production times: Businesses that shorten their production times are nearly always profitable. Low volume manufacturing services will help you to significantly reduce your production timelines. This means that you can compress your longer lead times (which could take months) to just weeks or days. This helps you to quickly launch your product in the market before your competitors do.

 

Make your production processes highly flexible: Businesses with flexible production processes are usually profitable. They enjoy maximum revenue because they can meet fast-changing customer requirements. A low volume manufacturing system can help you solve so many production challenges. This means that you can quickly respond to product feedback from your customer(s). A flexible production system means that you can quickly iterate the production process as well as implement changes to your design. All of these can be done in a flexible manufacturing system without any extra expenditure.

 

The freedom to customize all products: A low volume manufacturing service will allow you to customize products for your customer. This means that you have a very high degree of design freedom to create any product that you want. You can customize products with complex parts by using a wide range of shapes and designs without any extra cost.

 

Promotes innovation with your products: Low volume manufacturing services usually feature the use of innovative tools. This is why manufacturers can easily innovate with their products. They can advance their design complexities and optimize the use of materials to create innovative products. They can simply produce unique and high-precision products that are impossible to produce with traditional services. And the best part is that all of these come at no additional costs.

 

Supports bridge manufacturing: Low volume production systems can be used to support bridge manufacturing. This is a stage in the production process whereby the prototyping and the production stages are merged. Businesses from different industries can use low volume manufacturing to produce smaller batches of products at a faster rate and with no extra costs. This is usually used as a bridge to help them proceed to mass production of the products or the parts. This is a benefit that enables them to reduce all types of risks that come with mass production before committing huge budgets for mass production.

 

Increase supply chain resilience: Low volume manufacturing services can be used to enhance your supply chains. This is because the manufacturing model allows for short and temporary production runs. If there is a market shortage of certain products, you can quickly manufacture these in-house at very low costs. This means that your business can reduce its dependence on third-party vendors and suppliers. In addition, low-volume production also helps businesses to safely navigate geopolitical problems and logistical disruptions while answering quickly to a change in the market.

 

Create new and custom aftermarket parts: This low volume production model can easily boost the fortunes of aftermarket manufacturers. It eliminates excess tooling to adjust aftermarket parts to on-demand requests for design changes and production sizes. This means that aftermarket manufacturers can build parts with complex geometries to enhance product performance. It also allows them to tailor product designs to the needs of customers. This makes it easy to continue the relevance of certain products by updating their parts through designs and new geometries.

 

Reduce inventory and storage costs: With low volume manufacturing services, businesses can reduce inventory. This is a production model that allows them to quickly cater to the demands of customers. It is different from high volume production where a storage space is needed for all the products. Hence, low volume production makes it easy for businesses to reduce inventory and not have to pay extra for storage spaces.

For more about the complete guide of low volume manufacturing service for plastic parts,you can pay a visit to Djmolding at https://www.djmolding.com/low-volume-manufacturing-service/ for more info.