Plastic manufacturing

An industry-specific solution for plastic and rubber production

Plastic and rubber products are manufactured through injection molding, extrusion, blow molding or compression molding. Each production line is built around a core machine – an injection-molding machine, extruder or blow-molding machine – that runs with a specific mold, raw material and additives (colors and master batch). Cycles are short and standardized, and the machines typically run continuously in two or three shifts.

Each product has multiple variants depending on raw material, color and additives. Changing a mold or switching between variants of the same product requires setup and warm-up time, which must be reflected in the schedule. Batch traceability – from the raw material batch, through the operator’s shift, to the finished product – is critical, and for the automotive, medical and food industries it is a regulatory requirement.

The actual cost of a product is made up of raw material (60–70% of the cost), machine time, electricity, mold depreciation and labor for auxiliary operations – deflashing, assembly, packaging. The gap between actual and standard cycle time, the recording of downtime with its causes, and accurate scrap reporting determine the financial outcome of every order.

Managing this kind of production requires real-time planning by production line, a direct connection to the machines for automatic reporting of cycles and output, and a unified database where the movement of raw materials, finished goods and batch traceability are tracked in one place.

TECHNOCLASS® plans production down to each individual machine. Data exchange between TECHNOCLASS® and the machine takes place through the TECHNOCLASS Terminal Data Collection System. It collects data on the machine’s status, cycle counts, output and downtime, and processes it automatically in real time. The machine operator communicates with the production management system through terminals.