Plastic injection molding is facing unprecedented challenges. While you focus on meeting demanding production schedules and maintaining quality standards, outdated management systems continue to drain your resources in ways you might not even realize. Do any of these sound familiar?
1. The Daily Struggle of Manual Processes
Every morning, your production managers spend hours reconciling yesterday’s production data. Material usage reports don’t match actual inventory counts. Your customer service team struggles to provide accurate delivery dates because they can’t see real-time production status. Meanwhile, your operators manually log machine parameters and quality data on paper forms that eventually get entered into spreadsheets—sometimes days later.
2. The Hidden Cost of Regrind Management
What about your regrind material handling process? Without proper tracking systems, valuable regrind often becomes lost inventory or, worse, waste. Many molders we’ve worked with estimate they lose 5-10% of potential regrind value due to inadequate tracking systems. For a mid-sized operation, this translates to thousands of dollars thrown away annually.
3. Quality Control Nightmares
When a customer calls you about a quality issue, how quickly can you trace the production history of that specific part? Without serialized lot control, this process becomes a frantic paper chase—examining handwritten logs, operator notes, and machine settings across multiple systems. Meanwhile, your customer grows increasingly frustrated, and your reputation suffers.
4. The Real Price of Double Data Entry
Your team spends countless hours entering the same information into multiple places and systems. Order details go into the sales system, then into production planning, then into inventory management. Each entry point introduces potential errors while consuming valuable staff time that could be directed toward growth activities. One plant manager told me they estimated losing 15-20 hours weekly to redundant data entry—that’s half a full-time position!
5. Decision-Making in the Dark
Without real-time data, critical business decisions become educated guesses at best. How can you accurately evaluate which products are truly profitable when your costing system doesn’t capture actual material usage, machine efficiency, or labor requirements? Many molders discover they’ve been running unprofitable jobs for years because their systems couldn’t provide accurate cost analysis.
The Path Forward
We have a modern ERP solution designed specifically for your plastics business that addresses all these problems by:
Providing real-time visibility across your entire operation.
Acumatica, the Cloud ERP, designed and configured specifically for plastics, transforms your visibility by integrating all operational areas into a single, cohesive system.
- Production managers gain immediate insight into machine status, cycle times, and production counts without walking the floor.
- Customer service representatives can see exactly where an order stands in real-time, allowing for accurate delivery promises.
- Financial controllers access up-to-the-minute cost data rather than waiting for month-end reconciliation.
This comprehensive visibility eliminates the information gaps that lead to reactive decision-making and firefighting. When a customer calls with an urgent request, everyone from sales to shipping can instantly see available capacity, material status, and delivery logistics simultaneously, enabling coordinated responses that were previously impossible.
Eliminating double data entry through integrated systems.
By having an integration ERP solution, you transform data management by creating a single source of truth. When a sales representative enters a new order, that information automatically flows to production scheduling, material requirements planning, shipping logistics, and financial forecasting without anyone touching a keyboard again. This integration extends beyond your walls—supplier portals allow vendors to update material delivery dates that automatically adjust your production schedule, while customer portals enable clients to place orders that flow directly into your system. The elimination of redundant entry doesn’t just save time; it dramatically reduces the costly errors that occur when information is manually transferred between systems, such as transcription mistakes in part numbers, quantities, or special requirements.
Tracking regrind material throughout its lifecycle.
Acumatica for injection molders provides specialized tools for managing the complete regrind lifecycle. From initial scrap collection to processing, testing, and eventual reuse, each batch receives a unique identifier that follows it through every step. The system tracks crucial metrics including contamination levels, moisture content, and melt flow rates, ensuring appropriate use in compatible products. Automatic calculations determine optimal regrind percentages for each application while maintaining quality standards. Historical performance data builds over time, creating valuable insights into which regrind sources perform best in specific applications. When materials reach the molding machine, the system automatically adjusts process parameters based on known regrind characteristics, ensuring consistent results regardless of material composition variations.
Enabling granular analysis of true production costs.
Parallel Solutions delivers an ERP system that will revolutionize cost analysis by capturing detailed data at every production stage. Beyond basic material and labor costs, the system tracks machine-specific energy consumption, tooling wear rates, maintenance impacts, and even quality control expenses allocated to individual products. This granularity reveals hidden cost drivers that traditional accounting methods miss. Powerful analytical tools allow you to examine expenses by customer, product family, material type, or machine group, uncovering patterns that affect profitability. Scenario modeling capabilities let you simulate how changes in material pricing, run sizes, or production scheduling might impact margins before implementing changes. This precision enables strategic decisions about pricing, product mix, and capital investments based on accurate profitability metrics rather than aggregate estimates or industry averages.
Supporting quality traceability with comprehensive lot control.
An advanced ERP system like Acumatica establishes unbreakable digital chains connecting every aspect of production. When material arrives, the system captures supplier information, lot numbers, certification data, and incoming inspection results. As production begins, the system automatically associates these inputs with specific production runs, machines, operators, and process parameters. Quality measurements taken throughout production become permanently linked to these records. When finished products ship, their complete genealogy—from raw material sources through production history—remains instantly accessible. This comprehensive traceability transforms quality management from reactive investigation to proactive prevention. When issues arise, detailed historical data reveals patterns and relationships that might otherwise remain hidden, enabling permanent corrective actions rather than temporary fixes.
Delivering customized information to each department through role-based dashboards.
We recognize that different roles require different information presented in appropriate contexts. Machine operators need real-time performance metrics, upcoming job details, and maintenance alerts directly at their workstations. Production managers require capacity utilization data, efficiency trends, and bottleneck analyses. Financial teams focus on cost variances, inventory valuations, and profitability metrics. With Acumatica, you get role-based dashboards out of the box that deliver precisely the information each user needs, configured to support their specific responsibilities. These personalized interfaces drastically reduce the time spent searching for relevant data, allowing team members to focus on analysis and action rather than information gathering. Our system intelligently highlights exceptions and deviations that require attention while filtering out routine data that contributes to information overload, ensuring that critical issues never get lost in the noise.
Making critical data accessible anywhere through mobile interfaces.
No matter where you are, or what time of day it is, modern manufacturing environments demand flexibility and responsiveness that traditional office-bound systems cannot provide. Acumatica give you all the critical functionality you need on your mobile devices. For example, plant managers can monitor production metrics while traveling between facilities. Maintenance technicians can access repair histories, documentation, and parts availability directly at the machine. Sales representatives are able to check inventory and production capacity during customer meetings, providing immediate answers to availability questions. Quality personnel can document inspections at the point of occurrence rather than returning to workstations. This type of mobility eliminates information delays and decision bottlenecks while enabling faster responses to emerging situations. Additionally, you have secure, role-appropriate access making sure that sensitive information remains protected while still providing the operational data needed for informed decision-making anywhere, anytime.
Your Plastic Injection Molding Transformation Journey with Parallel Solutions
What hidden costs might outdated systems be imposing on your operation right now? And more importantly, how much longer can you afford to pay them?
We can help. Parallel Solutions stands apart as a trusted partner for plastic injection molding companies seeking to overcome their operational challenges. With over two decades of specialized experience in manufacturing technology, Parallel Solutions doesn’t just sell software—we deliver solutions based on our deep industry knowledge. Our team of experts works alongside your staff to understand your unique processes, ensuring implementation addresses your specific pain points rather than forcing generic solutions. By partnering with Parallel Solutions, you gain not just powerful software, but a strategic ally committed to your long-term success in an increasingly competitive manufacturing landscape.
The most successful plastic injection molders today understand that modernizing their management systems isn’t just an IT expense—it’s a strategic investment that directly impacts profitability, customer satisfaction, and competitive advantage. It’s more affordable than you think.
Read how Hedstrom Plastics completely transformed their operations.
