When evaluating different injection molding services for your needs, location is important. While you may consider choosing an international manufacturer, partnering with injection molding companies in the USA can have unique advantages for your production process. Here are just five of the many ways selecting a USA-based injection molding partner can benefit your business.
Streamlined Communication
Working with injection molding companies in the USA will significantly streamline the communication process for American manufacturers. Advantages can include the supplier’s common understanding of the imperial system, American geography, or common United States idioms and sayings. However, communication factors extend even further.
Suppose you are an American widget supplier based out of Chicago. You research your options for manufacturing your product and narrow it down to two options: a Michigan-based manufacturing plant or a French manufacturing plant.
Suppose you choose to partner with the French plant. You give them all your specifications and set a timeline. However, when they reach back out with questions, you’re on a seven-hour delay with getting them answers.
Even without time-zone differences, you have to consider French holidays or vacations that are not celebrated in the United States. For example, most French employees take a significant amount of time off in the summer, especially in August, which could result in massive slowdowns for your project during that month.
Now, suppose you use the Michigan manufacturer. Detroit is one hour ahead of Chicago. Even if you sent 15 emails back and forth, you would still be under the minimum delay caused by communicating with the French supplier.
When you extrapolate these delays over a year for four emails a week, the contrast is even more significant. The French supplier would have 1,040 hours worth of communication delays (not including vacation time), which is 26 40-hour workweeks.
The Michigan supplier would only have 208 total hours of delays, which is 5.2 full-time workweeks and 20% of the delays caused by the French supplier. In this example, partnering with injection molding companies in the USA saves 80% of communication time. That is significant when it comes to getting your product to market on time.
Quality Standards
International quality standards and regulations can vary greatly from country to country. For example, some countries may still be using compounds that include lead in their processes, which is highly regulated in the U.S. On the other hand, some countries may have very strict regulations that impose a lot of red tape and do not apply to the functions of your product.
In either case, it can be difficult to ensure quality control is a priority without adding unnecessary steps to the production process. That’s why partnering with a company within the United States can be so helpful.
When you partner with a local supplier, you have a much better idea of their quality control standards and the common practices they engage in. You may even be able to tour their facilities and see what they do from start to finish. This provides an amazing opportunity to get a high-quality product to market promptly.
Reputation Matters
It is much easier to evaluate the local reputation of a US-based company. Injection molding companies in the USA will have worked with businesses similar to the size and scope of yours, many of which leave reviews.
This makes it much easier to consider the pros and cons of local companies based on who they typically work with, capabilities, and shipping times. There are also U.S.-based organizations like the Better Business Bureau that will give companies rankings and make the comparison process even easier.
Delivery Speed and Cost
One of the more obvious benefits of using injection molding companies in the USA is the quick shipping times. Additionally, shipping within the U.S. will be less costly than international shipping.
Over multiple decades of partnership, you could be losing millions of dollars and months that could easily be saved by working with a local partner. Not to mention the uncertain environment surrounding tariffs and the chaos they are imposing on ports and shipping.
Partnering with injection molding companies in the USA provides a lot of benefits to your business that help set you up for success. With improved speed, communication, and delivery costs, your selection of an American-based partner can have a huge positive impact on your production process.
If you’re interested in partnering with a Michigan-based injection molding company, look no further than Agape Plastics. With over 50 years of professional production experience, we are prepared to help you with the entire process, from prototyping and design to finishing. Contact us here to learn more about our capabilities today.