How to Transition from Low Volume to Production - Efficient Short Run Strategies

Key Highlights

• Businesses need to move from low production to full-scale production. This helps them meet the growing needs of the market.
• Additive manufacturing is good for low production. It offers design flexibility and allows for quick prototyping.
• Smart short-run methods, such as automation and batch production, make things simpler and lower costs.
• To grow well, you need to understand economies of scale. You must also manage costs and control inventory.
• Working with a trusted manufacturer like REV A MFG can help you face the challenges of raising production.

Introduction

In today's fast-paced business world, companies strive to make their product creation better. Switching from small-scale production to larger production requires detailed planning. This blog post discusses effective methods to manage short-run production. It emphasizes the need for efficiency, cost savings, and process improvements to ensure steady growth and stay ahead of others.

Efficient Short Run Strategies

In today’s fast-changing manufacturing world, it is important to have good short-run strategies. These strategies can help you get to market faster and thus stay ahead of your competitors. If you are starting a new product or if you run an established company in a small market, making your product out faster can really increase your market share.

You can use lean manufacturing methods. These ways can improve production steps. You can also use automation. These actions help businesses be more flexible. They can reduce wait times. This way, businesses can meet customer needs quickly like never before.

Moving from Prototype to Low Volume Manufacturing

Moving from a prototype to producing smaller amounts of products needs careful planning and action. This change needs a smooth transition from the first design to creating a few parts. Manufacturers often face challenges when they try to move from one prototype to several products. Using smart methods like plastic injection molding or selective laser sintering can make this shift easier. If small businesses start using these effective techniques early, they can benefit a lot. It helps them bring their creative designs to market quicker and improve their process.

How to Leverage Additive Manufacturing / 3D Printing for Low Volume Production

Additive manufacturing is a low-cost method to create small quantities of products. It helps businesses enhance their production lines using methods like Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). These techniques allow for making complex designs with special mechanical features to meet different industry needs. By using the unique perks of additive manufacturing, small businesses can stand out, cut down on wait times, and improve their ability to change production as needed.

Is the Cast Urethane Process an option to consider?

For small businesses that want to move from prototypes to a pilot run, the cast urethane process is a potentially a great choice. This method allows for parts with complex designs to be made at a good price, using a 3D printed part as a mold. Making between 20 and 100 parts usually works best for cost savings. This process uses silicone tooling in conjunction with thermoset urethane plastic materials for your parts. These materials can look and function very similar to real production thermoformed plastics.

The quick turnaround and dependent upon the design, low cost for tooling make Silicone Tooling with cast urethane parts a potentially great option for businesses ready to launch a new product with a quality pilot run.

Considering Class 103 Injection Tooling

Class 103 injection tooling offers high-quality production at a lower cost compared to Class 101 and 102 tooling. It provides a good mix of precision and affordability. This makes it ideal for small-run manufacturing. Small businesses or startups can save on initial costs while still making quality parts. With Class 103 injection tooling, you can create cost-effective production tooling and utilize production thermoplastics.

Understanding the Transition Dynamics

In today's changing manufacturing world, short-run strategies to understand your options is crucial. Ultimately they can help you get your product into customers hands faster. Whether you are a new business launching a product or a well-known company targeting a small market, your access to short run technologies can be a gamechanger.

Economies of Scale in Production

Economies of scale in production can lower costs as production increases. When businesses produce more items, the cost for each item often decreases. This is because they can make better use of their resources and improve how they make things. With lower costs, companies can share fixed costs over more products, making more profit for each one. Plus, when companies take advantage of economies of scale, they can invest in better technology, improve the quality of their products, and make their processes work better. By focusing on scalability, they can provide better prices, boost their profit margins, and improve overall efficiency.

From Low Volume to Full Scale Production

Transitioning from low-volume to full-scale production needs a smart plan. The focus should be on optimizing production time, reducing lead times, and using the benefits of Lean manufacturing with larger scale production. You will need to work with your supplier, look at their production capacity at the time within that strategy in order to make the push move along smoothly.

Batch Production vs. Continuous Flow

In manufacturing operations, deciding between batch production and continuous flow is important for being efficient. Batch production makes a specific number of parts in a set time. It offers some flexibility, but if not managed well with your supplier, can lead to issues between your customers demand and your lean inventory.

Continuous flow, however, keeps a steady process with little pause between each unit. This is better for producing larger inventory of parts for steady customer demand. By understanding the differences between these two methods, you can help make your production processes better with your supply chain, which in turn can help improve costs and productivity.

Cost Management and Budgeting

Changing how much a business produces, from low to high levels, needs careful planning up front. When defining a production routine, even small cost changes can build up and impact profits. Businesses must carefully examine every step of their production with their supplier. They should look for ways to lower costs and improve what they do while keeping the quality strong.

• This could mean speaking with suppliers to get better prices when buying in large amounts.
• It might also involve using lean manufacturing to waste less.
• Looking at automated processes can help lower labor costs.
• Good cost management and careful budgeting are important for a smooth and successful move to large-scale production.

Budgeting for In-House Production: What to Anticipate

If you already have manufacturing capabilities within the organization, have you considered bringing the tool making and Injection Molding as things that can be brought within your scope of work? Budgeting for a potential insourcing of your production might be something to consider.

Here is quick exercise just for you to consider what this process could entail.

Looking closely at these categories, particularly in finding the right human capital to run the operation can be worth effort in analyzing. By planning ahead, you can potentially lower your costs in the long term and support your products’ growth within your organization directly. An exercise worth the effort but the vast majority of companies choose to outsource their Injection Tooling & Molding requirements.

For a deeper dive, have a look at this informative article from Ibis World on the topic.

Inventory Management for High Volume Protection

Effective inventory management is important for high production levels. Using modern tools and data systems can simplify the process. This reduces waste and increases efficiency. Utilizing a good 3PL provider can offer you access to these strategies.

With good inventory tracking software and smart methods in place, businesses can maintain a "Goldilocks" amount of product in stock. Having access to this Real-time data can reveal trends in demand, which helps businesses decide on manufacturing strategy, quickly.

Paying attention to accurate forecasting and organizing the warehouse is crucial for good inventory management in high production. A proper balance between supply and demand is the key to success.

Simplify the Transition from Prototype to Production with REV A MFG

We know your prototype means a lot; it shows your vision. Our team will work closely with you in developing a design that works as your team intends it to while also being highly manufacturable. We will give you the proper feedback within a custom and efficient Design for Manufacturing (DFM) Report and use our experience to make sure your design is ready for launch. By choosing REV A MFG, you make it easier to go from prototype to production which will help you launch your product faster and smoother.

Navigating the product life cycle can sometimes be tough. It starts with a prototype and then moves into some type of production cycle. REV A MFG is here to help you as a trusted manufacturing partner. Between all of our team members, we have many years of experience and know the challenges you may encounter. REV A MFG offers complete solutions to support you at each stage of your product's journey.

Conclusion

Efficient short-term plans are crucial for boosting production. You can improve manufacturing by using automation, picking the right materials, managing costs, and budgeting well. These steps help you save money and increase production efficiency. In working with the team at REV A MFG, we can add value to your project by helping you have a view at all of your potential short-run options. Not only do we have the experience in the world of Additive Manufacturing processes and materials, we can also offer you options in where to start with your production manufacturing needs including CNC Machining, bent sheet metal and a host of options with tooling and molding thermoplastics.

Reach out to the team at REV A MFG to begin your discussion on short-run strategies today!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the first steps in transitioning from low volume to production?

Start by doing a complete market study to understand the demand for your product. Get your first prototypes made and utilize this CAD model to begin exploring your options with tooling for short run manufacturing as well as larger production runs. After your choices have been made it's important to do a pilot run, focusing on quality control, before moving on to full production.

What Additive technology is a good fit for Production?

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is a commonly employed technique recognized for producing robust components with excellent material properties, making it effective across various industrial applications over the 15 years. The MJF - Multi Jet Fusion had made a big impact in the last 5 years with many companies utilizing the better aesthetics and lower cost of builds to their advantage, using MJF for serial production additive manufacturing. The design freedom allowed, particularly early in a designs life is another benefit of AM.

How can small businesses efficiently manage the transition to high volume production?

Small businesses should look to adopt strategies that allow them to scale up and find cost-effective solutions within that strategy. Spending the time to understand your different options with your Production Manufacturing resource allows you to walk into a project, eyes wide open with the knowledge of where you are starting and what options are available as you scale up.

Reach out to go over your low and high volume options with REV A MFG today! https://www.revamfg.com/contact