When US/EU companies purchase the plastic injection molds in China, you have to face the risk of quality, price and timing. How do you minimize the risk? Let’s share your opinions.

Personally, I think the quality is the major concern. Sometimes we had a great sampling in China mold shop but when the injection molds were delivered to US plant we met the problem during the mass production. I couldn’t say it’s all suppliers’ fault but it’s a real headache.

Another issue is that most of China injection mold shops cannot provide the on-site support and after-service in US or EU. It’s also a big problem even there is only minor change of the plastic injection molds.

Timing is another challenge. Considering the cost, air freight is the last option. For some industries, the short lead time is a must. How to get a qualified plastic mold for production shortly is challenge for both supplier and customer.

I know that some plastic injection mold companies in China easily promise everything like cheap price, good quality and short lead time. But I would say that you have to pay more attention when you source the injection molds in China.

Anyway, China is a great place for the LCC sourcing including the molding and die and there are many good injection mold shops. But more efforts should be made to improve the quality and service to reach the world class.

There are great mold makers and poor mold makers everywhere. Due diligence is required no matter where you source your tool. You increase your risks (cost, schedule, project) by not performing a thorough review including site visit. Make sure to add the man hours and travel costs to that really great price your purchasing agent received.
Oh, also not mentioned is resin. Not all resins are available in all countries! Check with your supplier or go to ides.com and verify availability.
The important things are always simple.
The simple things are always hard.
The easy way is always mined.
So, do your homework...or write another check...and wait...
J

Yes resin is a big issue. When we purchased the tools for US plant, we had to ship the resin from US to China tool shop every time to make sure the tool can be built correctly.

The only way to minimize the risk is to actually visit the shop you deal with and tour the facilities. There is a very wide variety of shops there. Some have dirt floors and some have floors you can eat off of. Unless you go there you don't know what you are ordering from.
You also have to build a relationship with the people in the shops there. It helps to have a fair amount of tooling experience. If you don't they will just tell you what you want to hear, whether it is true or not.
I have been buying molds from China for about 10 year and I oversee the mold designs of all the tools I import.

Hi Hao, as a plastic injection mold manufacturer, a on site visit is what most customers who have the sincerity to establish partnership with us do. Regarding the resin, we either send the material data sheet to customer for confirmation or customer supply it if they do not trust material supplier in China. In one word, to confirm with customers before every important action. Also, if you have any interests to purchase mold in China, please send me a message. i'd be very happy to see if there is any possibility to work together with you. Thanks a lot.

Working with a WOFE (Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprise) can solve many if not all of the issues that Hao mentions. These are US or Europe owned companies operating in China. They have to go through a thorough process to become established. Eliminates the need for constant travel; having a locally base source for follow up; language barriers and more.

One thing to have in mind is also try to have conference calls because of the hour difference. For sure you need to visit the tool shop before do business, during construction and during the trials, there are some cost related to this that you need to consider before, In fact the tracking is some difficult, there are some US/Canada companies (toolmakers) that gives you a good price with a Chinese tool, then the tool comes to America and they make the necessary adjust until the tool are Ok, in this case warranties apply and good results are obtained.

There is huge difference between just buying a tool in Asia (not only China) and managing a tool construction so if you want to minimize risk then you have to seriously consider project managing the the whole process starting by setting up supplier selection criteria that helps you identify the tool shop has the capabilities to build your tool (pay attention to the warranty clauses on the quotes you receive). After you select your supplier you have to plan to be involved in the mold design reviews to make sure the tool will meet your requirements and the you will have to monitor the progress of your project. Conference calls are important but you need to plan for them only if required as many people in China would not understand everything you say on the phone but they can read so you ma want to monitor your progress with regular written communication. After the tool is done, you need to get involved in the tool qualification process and supervise the mold trials and part measurements to make sure your specifications are met. Buying a tool in China can be cheap but you will have the take/pay the risk while managing a tool construction will not be cheap although it will be cost effective.

Besides reviewing other details, asking for a list of customers specially if they are international would be a great help. The critical issue as Vince mentioned is the tool maker in China should know that you understand tool making procedures.

Whether you use a North American shop building in China or a Chinese shop. there are other functional considerations other than steel size and shrinkage. One of the major issues that I have seen out of Chinese builds is the apparent disregard for the customers Internal standards. Often times odd mismatched bolt sizes and KO pattern placements or custom ko pins are used improperly. This doesn't necessarily fall under a functional quality issue from a production stand point but can make the tool difficult to service in production. From a molders stand point, I think it best to do a full tear down and a part by part audit of every bolt, spring, and other purchased components for standardization.

There is nothing worse than a custom made bolt holding in an insert, that breaks during production. Be sure your shop understands your standards and requirements. A specific type of return spring means no substitutions, and be careful if you don't check every part, you will eventually get a mismatched component that will be impossible to replace on the the fly.

This may happen in any shop but it's much more likely when your half a world away. My experience in this warrants caution

Experience/understanding of making a tooling for USA/Eur. is most important. The following point can reduce the risk:1. at least 5years of making export tooling. 2. can provide good mold design according to clients Spec. 3. can check every detailed the mold before shipment. 4. can do a good mold test for your tooling. 5. have a project manager in factory who is experienced in mold design/engineering/mold test to follow your project.

Hello, for me is very important that you go to the first try out, I was in China many times to follow all my molds, and definitely, in China are good mold makers, and bad mold makers, and depend to that the price that you want to pay, I've seen very good molds, but are expensive, but you need to go for check everything

Visit the facility and do your design reviews to ensure you know what you are getting. Start off with easy parts before you place a complicated design.

I think the combination of US and China is good. Some US shops outsource all the tool build to China. With our tool shop VEM, they are a German Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprise with local sales, program management and engineers here in the US. By building all of the tools in our own facility and our customers dealing directly with VEM in the US, it cuts down on some of the miscommunications that can occur with other shops. It is also great they VEM uses local tool shops to guarantee their tools and can make any changes that are needed here in the US.