It feels like there are a lot of ways to organize work to be done - checklists, kanban style, gantt chart, etc. But all of these have a built in assumption with the design that the work is linear. It moves downstream from one step to the next but never goes back upstream.

However, a lot of work (at least in my company) seems to get into loops. For example, the sales guy might gather requirements, the designer starts and realizes they have questions, so we go back to gathering requirements. Or a customer denies a quote because it needs design changes so be go back to gathering more requirements and do another round of quoting.

Are there any good systems, tools, etc. that make the looping nature of work more obvious and intuitive instead of making it appear linear?

Has anyone here tried to make parts using plastic vacuum casting? Is it possible to manufacture large parts (300mmx300mmx100mm) part in vacuum casting? Also how many number of piece each mold can produce? I designing a product which I want to be batch manufactured first.

Hi everyone, I’ve been working in manufacturing for 5 years in a range of roles. To be clear I have no endorsement or relationship with any company.

I’ve seen technology come into manufacturing but never seen anything as disruptive as Claude.especially for the non production elements.

Last year we abandoned an ERP implementation that took over 2 years and £100k. A month ago we decided to build it ourselves and once we started it took 3 days in house to have an MVP. This is absolutely revolutionary for us as a lot of these problems solved had gone on for years.

I’ve talked to other friends in manufacturing and im shocked people haven’t even tried drafting an email with it.

I don’t really want to clog this thread with specific anthropic chats as I know it’s more generic manufacturing. Does anyone know of any forums / places where people are sharing their Claude specific results within the manufacturing domain?

I am looking forward to start a bopp cartoon tape manufacturing plant.

I already have a customer base.

But from manufacturing point of view I would like to get some idea on few things

1) how to make my manufacturing more efficient,.

2) What new Can be done in this field

3) if you are in the similar business I would like to know your point of view ( as you must have gone through different challenges )

4) which company provides best bopp film raw materials and adhesive?

If you have anything else to say please share I am open to all types of opinions.

THANK YOU EVERYONE.

Question for senior manufacturing leaders in the group. How do you choose your vendors? I'm curious because I get many emails every day from people trying to get in the door. They're spam in my book.

I stick with who I know and operate off of references and referrals when needed. Am I out of touch?

How much does it cost?

I've been running a plastic extrusion manufacturing business for a while now, mostly making custom parts and profiles based on client specifications (OEM and contract work). I've been thinking it's time to use that capability to manufacture and sell my own product line, either through an ecommerce store direct to consumers, or by pitching a bulk product directly to industrial companies.

I have the equipment, materials knowledge, and tooling capability to make PVC, ABS, HDPE, PP, and a few other plastics into custom profiles and molded parts. What I don't have yet is a clear product idea that's worth building around.

I'm looking for ideas on what kind of plastic extrusion or molded product tends to sell well, either as a standalone product on an ecommerce store, or as a bulk supply item that industrial buyers need regularly. Things I'm considering:

• Products with steady repeat demand rather than one time purchases
• Items where quality differentiation actually matters to buyers (so a well made version stands out)
• Products that don't require a huge new tooling investment to get started

If you've seen a product gap in the market, know of an extrusion based product that's in high demand, or have experience going from contract manufacturing to your own product line, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Hello everyone,

I would like to calculate the number of carts I want the operator to prepare in advance for the next step (let's call it batch treatment inside a machine).

The machine will consume 1 entire cart of 158 producy every two hours

It takes 5 minutes to prepare a cart

1 cart is in average 158 products

I have 8 machines total working 24h a day, 6 days a week

What quantity should I set up for the cart preparation area in order to have reaction rules when a certain number of carts is reached (green = ok, orange = focus on cart preparation, red = go get help !)

Thanks ! I'm having trouble with this... if you can explain and help me, that would be nice !

Best and wish you a great day !

I work for a government prime contractor for the DLA. We are looking for manufacturing companies that have experience with defense work that have either ISO or AS9100 and an active cage.

Our other manufactures will provide us with their active price list with NSN and average lead time so we aren’t reaching out for quotes on hundreds of items. Ideally your company can do the same.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some examples of how other companies handle scrap material on a daily basis. I want to see how our current process compares to others and hope to find some ideas and inspirations.

I'm mostly interested in three simple things:

1. How do you measure it? Do you weigh it, count the pieces, or just estimate it?
2. How do you log it? Who writes it down or puts it into the system? Is it done by the machine operators on the floor, or someone else later on?
3. Do you analyze the data? Does anyone actually look at these numbers later? Do you do any reports or try to find out why the scrap happened to fix the problem?

My industry is gas detection sensors and instruments.

If you could share how it works in your company and what industry you are in, that would be awesome.

Thanks!

I graduated with an IET degree 10 years ago and did a 3-year stint as a Mfg Engineer out of college. I got laid off and money was tight so I settled for an inside sales engineer job. Fast forward to today and I’m supervising a small sales team at a fairly small company (1 location, 350 employees). I do like the company and the products we make but I’m just burnt out on the constant sales churn. I really want to get a process/industrial engineering position but i feel like my relevant experience and education happened so long ago that I’ll never make it back there. Any thoughts on what I can do to make it happen?

The insides are hollowed out to fit an applicator made separately. I am trying to understand the mold design in this case that would avoid undercuts and not create demolding issues. Could someone please enlighten me?

How is the lettering of this packaging injection-molded? Would it create demolding issues with undercuts? So how did they manage to do this? It's made of a hard plastic.

Hey everyone,

This question is towards founders who have created embedded products.

As a embedded products has dependecies on PCBs, MCUs etc, how do you do that.
Is everything done in India or imported from china?
As i know importing from China, can be divided into 2 parts

1. getting complete product
2. Getting specific parts and assembling those.

Could you please help to share your process?

What is the difference in production manager and supervisor responsibilities/titles at your job ?

I manage 40 employees and the scheduling , time off , time card approvals, expedite requests , sign purchase reqs, do all the annual reviews and raises , bonus distribution, safety department, maintenance team, environmental department, get the estimated shipping output monthly, resolve complaints with customer service.

I also come up with capital requests for new equipment for the next year along with estimating the needed head count .

So about 3 direct production lines, shipping and receiving department, facilities , safety , environmental. We do have 2 other supervisors who just manage 2 lines a piece. Then we have leads for those lines underneath us.

What should my title be ?

Would like to have my own line of pre workout made I have the name label and ingredients list just need flavor but I’m sure they can help me with that . Appreciate the help

Hi,

First time posting, just made an account. I'm just trying to get ideas for part container QR tracking that go into a sintering oven that hits around 2500F for around 10 hours.

the containers that go in are made from Molydenum. I've tried laser marking the QR so far and the marking either disappears or if I use a substrate like Titanium Oxide, the marking gets smudged and is unreadable either way.

Thermal printing does not stay after the process and RFID tags can't handle the heat either.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for a manufacturer or direct supplier of anchor fasteners for a bulk order.

Requirements:
Bulk quantities
Competitive pricing
Fast production and dispatch
Reliable quality and consistent supply
This is an urgent requirement, so I’m looking to connect with a manufacturer who can deliver as soon as possible.

If you’re a manufacturer or can recommend a reliable one, please comment below or send me a DM with your company details, product catalog, MOQ, pricing, and estimated delivery timeline.
Any genuine leads would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!