Know-CoM 191Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without writtenHowever, an average die- and mold-making company has a number of PCs that are
distributed in all departments (production, design, management, commercial, after-sales)
and are connected by a LAN.
Computer-aided systems such as CAD (computer-aided design), CAE (computer-
aided engineering), and CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) are widely used in the
business. Although many companies have licenses for three-dimensional CAD tools,
two-dimensional basic tools are still used for designs and drawings of the parts and their
assembly. However, a full migration to three-dimensional tools seems inevitable, because
of its advantages in terms of design flexibility and visualization. Software for the
simulation of injection molding is useful, but requires a high investment in terms of
personnel. Therefore, many companies avoid these costs by subcontracting this task to
consultants or relying on their experience and test protocols. Additionally, many
European DMCs use ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems to store data concern-
ing products, their structure, production routes, orders, suppliers, customers, and so
forth.
A substantial part of the data is stored in an unstructured way on individual PCs
of the employees. This can range from worksheets or data created and maintained with
tailor-made programs that support, for example, the offer creation process, tools for
solving technical problems, or project management applications.
Concerning the communication infrastructure, telephone, fax, and face-to-face
meetings still dominate information exchange within the company, with partners, as well
as with suppliers and customers. E-mail is increasingly gaining acceptance, especially
when complex surface parts are the object of orders. However, for simpler 2-D parts, a
handmade drawing transmitted via fax is still popular.
In general, die- and mold-making companies are quite familiar with a number of IT
tools and systems, but there is a lack of integration of the different systems.
Challenges
The key challenges in the die- and mold-making industry gained from expert
interviews and questionnaires during our research (see section, “Setting the Stage”) are
as follows:
- Lack of experience management: Experiences are crucial in many process steps of
die or mold manufacturing. Missing documentation of experiences, lessons learned,
or good practices can lead to mistakes and design failures. Also, relevant experi-
ences from production and production planning are not available for the concep-
tual design of molds. Information about testing and redesign is also not provided
in the conceptual design step. - Insufficient knowledge about customer production facilities: Missing or insuffi-
cient customer machine and environmental data can also cause design changes
after delivery of a die or mold which worked fine in the test scenarios at the
toolmaker’s site, but does not work on the customer’s machine. Testing thus
requires exchanging experiences about these working conditions as well as
(planned) changes between representatives of the customer and designers. - Need for collaboration environment: Subcontracting and splitting of orders
require extensive coordination between the DMCs due to minimal tolerances of dies
and molds. In some cases, problems arise concerning assembly of the mold or die