This program is for importers who need to get tooling for plastic injection molded parts fabricated in China, Vietnam, or India.
You need someone local to keep close control over the tooling design and fabrication process because:
- Tooling is often an expensive investment, especially for plastic injection molding
- Delays in the tooling have a knock-on effect of delaying your entire production
- Good tooling = good quality products
Furthermore, you may want to feel secure that once the tooling is in use by your Chinese suppliers it is being kept in good condition and only used for authorized productions.
Our team includes engineers who’re tooling experts and work on your behalf to detect risks and issues throughout the tooling’s design & fabrication, as well as during plastic part productions.
The program is often a combination of design reviews, supplier vetting, testing, and inspections on parts coming off of the tooling.
Here’s a breakdown of the common milestones reached during tooling fabrication and use in manufacturing (in black) and the activities undertaken by Sofeast to support you (in orange):
In this program our local experts in China assure that your tooling design is sound and can be manufactured, qualify the fabrication company, assess the quality of the tooling as soon as it starts being used by your supplier, organize product testing and prototyping, and pull out and store your tooling safely in our own secure facility between productions.
Various teams from Sofeast are involved here, including the Product Engineering team, the Quality Assurance team, and dedicated project managers.
Tooling is an investment that could cost you tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is not easy to fix, nor is it cheap. Also, any issues cause delays which hold up your entire manufacturing project and throw delivery times into chaos.
Therefore, if you need plastic injection mold tooling designed and fabricated for use in creating your product or components such as plastic enclosures this program gives you the peace of mind that the entire process is handled by specialists on location in China.
Furthermore, during the program, we monitor the quality of parts coming off of the tooling and secure it between productions.
Our team is here to support your project and leave nothing to chance, as the process of designing, fabricating, and using tooling is complex.
If you go for a full program, and depending on your needs, here are the benefits you can expect:
- As a user of plastic injection mold tooling your risks will be reduced at every stage, including the key risks of ending up with poor quality tooling, non-conforming products, and suppliers who use your tooling without your permission.
- Having a local partner on the ground to handle delicate tooling fabrication and assure product quality is satisfactory is valuable given that access to China from overseas may be difficult.
- Our tooling engineers support you to review designs and confirm tooling that can be manufactured and will create great quality products.
- We work with the tooling shop to perform trials and we inspect the parts off of tooling, and we may suggest changes if issues are found.
- We document a setup process for your supplier and supervise that they set up and use your tooling correctly.
- Your IP is kept as secure as possible and your supplier will be monitored and unable to use your tooling to manufacture your products to sell to any other customers.
- You’re never out of control of the project, as your dedicated project manager will update you in English on its progress at every step of the way.
To learn even more about the risks you face when designing, fabricating, and using plastic injection mold tooling, read this post: Tooling Management for Plastic Injection Molds in China
Yes, we can.
After your tooling has been created and is in use by your supplier, we can also store your tooling safely in our warehouse after production runs.
We pick it up or receive it after a production run (noting what condition the tooling is in), store it securely, and then return it back to your supplier before the next one.
Why is this important?
Pulling tooling out from your supplier and storing it carefully off-site maintains its condition, reduces the risk of IP theft, and allows you to switch suppliers without the extra stress of negotiating the release of your expensive tooling from your old supplier (who may be tempted to hold onto it if they know they’re losing your business).
Click here to learn more about our tooling custody and management service.
Jack L (China)
Mechanical Engineer
One of our senior mechanical engineers, Jack, has been with our QA team for 5+ years.
He’s widely experienced and has spent many years at some of the world’s largest companies, such as his role as a tooling specialist for 7 years, including 4 years at Samsung and 3 years in an engineering company. He also spent 3 years in a faucet factory as a process engineer and another 3 years at Leviton Electronics as supervisor of a plastic injection molding workshop.
Evelyn T (Malaysia)
Supplier Quality Engineer
Evelyn is a highly-experienced quality engineer specializing in supplier and manufacturing quality.
Her past experience includes almost 20 years at Dell — first as a process engineer and later in supplier quality engineering. She also worked at Honeywell as a Senior Quality Manager. Over the years she has led supplier improvement projects, trained quality engineering teams, and managed suppliers for key materials and components for these giants.
Mridul S (India)
Mechanical & Process Engineer
Mridul is one of our Indian quality, process, and management experts and holds a degree in mechanical engineering.
He has deep experience in Lean manufacturing and has worked for various companies in heavy industry, energy, and quality services, as well as at TÜV SÜD South Asia. He works on projects where experience in process planning and improvement, industrial engineering, new product development, and more, are key focuses.
How much does it cost?
Setting up and running your plastic mold tooling management program costs between 300 and 850 USD per day, depending on the nature of the work. To be quoted based on the real situation.
