You’ve got to choose the right partner from over 15,000 injection molders offering their services in the United States. How do you make the right choice? This handy procurement checklist can help you avoid costly supplier misalignment issues that lead to unexpected delays.
Standardize how you evaluate your potential molding vendors to find the best fit for you based on dozens of different factors. You may just find that Crescent Industries checks all of these boxes and more, making it the right partner for your injection molding needs. Or read our complete buyer’s guide for injection molding.
Company Credentials & Industry Fit
The injection molder that specializes in low-cost plastic parts isn’t prepared to offer the quality that a medical device manufacturer needs. It’s not enough to find a reputable injection molder with a strong general background. Specialized services will provide higher-quality plastic parts at a lower development cost.
When choosing the provider, therefore, seek the following:
☐ Proven financial stability and long-term operations
☐ Experience in medical, defense, original equipment manufacturer (OEM), or pharmaceutical sectors
☐ General longevity, which indicates a strong and thriving company
☐ Strong business partnerships with suppliers, preferably demonstrated through supply chain transparency
☐ Tech investments and ongoing training for injection operators and mold designers.
Certifications & Regulatory Compliance
Standards set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) are a great place to start, especially if you’re seeking a partner for medical device manufacturing. However, you may need to go deeper to find the procurement compliance needed for more demanding industries.
☐ Certification as an ISO 13485 molder for medical device manufacturing
☐ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) registration when applicable for pharmaceutical purposes
☐ International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) compliance for military and defense manufacturing projects
☐ Other related quality standards, such as American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) certifications for mold design dimensioning and tolerancing
☐ American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) compliance for material selection
☐ The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) quality requirements, if the finished products will be used in manufacturing or industrial settings
Engineering & Tooling Capabilities
This part of the procurement checklist focuses on tooling capabilities. It’s perhaps the most important part of the injection molding process due to the potential for high design and production costs. Choosing the right partner can save you tens of thousands of dollars while rewarding you with molds that last longer and produce higher-quality parts.
☐ Design for Manufacturability (DFM) support from concept
☐ Mold flow analysis and resin selection assistance
☐ In-house tooling capacities to lower costs and reduce delays
☐ Master Action Frames, a proprietary system developed by Crescent Industries, to simplify the ejection for complex part geometries and reduce lead times on lead design and builds
☐ Opportunities to use other tool sets and master unit dies for rapid prototyping
☐ Production capacity for SP1 Class 101, 102, and 103 molds
☐ Engineering experience with complex part geometries, including undercuts and reinforced windows
Production Capabilities
Ask your potential injection molding partners about their manufacturing capabilities, including lead times, production rates, cycle times, and any cooling processes they might use. A reputable molding company will have plenty of production data to share from projects similar in scope and manufacturing steps to yours.
☐ Full range of molding machine sizes
☐ Cleanroom molding capabilities
☐ Scaling options if you experience a sudden spike in demand
☐ Rapid injection rates for compatible resins
☐ Proven ability to meet demanding part standards, especially for tolerance
☐ Scrap rates to give you an idea of how many parts fail quality checks
☐ Familiarity with specialty resin and mold types
Post-Molding Services & Lifecycle Support
Once you invest in high-volume production, you’ll need a plan for finishing all those injection-molded parts and preparing them for use. Some partners can offer full support with post-molding services at the end of the manufacturing process. It’s often the best way to achieve tight tolerances and cleanroom standards required by the medical and defense industries.
☐ Assembly, machining, and part finishing offered
☐ Packaging, labeling, and sterilization support
☐ Overmolding to create more complex multi-piece parts
☐ Thermal and ultrasonic inserting
☐ Ultrasonic cleaning
☐ Lifecycle support, including mold repairs and eventual replacement
Quality Management
Quality management is the heart of risk mitigation when manufacturing sensitive products. Look for a partner that has a complete enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for tracking details like caviation, regrind usage, and the use of family tools.
☐ Documented quality validation and process controls
☐ ERP system ensures traceability and inventory accuracy
☐ Part layout optimization
☐ Pre-production inspections to reduce mold damage and plastic waste
☐ In-process quality control checks
☐ Tracking of resin response issues like deformation and shrinkage for addressing with suppliers
Communication, Fit & Project Support
Don’t be afraid to ask questions for injection molders to verify the company’s communication skills and response times. If you’re expecting lifecycle support and on-time delivery, you’ll need a partner who can get back to your emails or calls in a timely manner as well.
☐ Clear, proactive updates during production
☐ Single-source project management to prevent miscommunications
☐ Integrated communication options
☐ Ongoing product support beyond the first production run
Cost Transparency & Contract Flexibility
Don’t overlook essential details in your contract like tooling ownership, plastic material selection, and changes to production costs. While you need contract flexibility, you also need transparency about the costs that go into the production process and how they play a role in the final price.
☐ Transparent, itemized cost breakdowns
☐ Scalable pricing to meet different volume needs
☐ Opportunities to substitute similar resins at a lower cost
☐ Tooling purchase options if you need to switch injection providers
Explore Further: Crescent’s Complete Buyer’s Guide
Disruptions in the global supply chain can make it hard to find a reliable injection molding company these days. Use this procurement audit checklist to find a company that can provide the tooling services, cleanroom certifications, and automation options you need to succeed.
Crescent Industries is happy to be one of your potential partners. Contact us today to learn more about what we can do for the medical, defense, and manufacturing industries. Read our full Injection Molding Buyer’s Guide as well to prepare yourself for the process of getting started with this flexible and reliable method of plastic production.
