You should draw a flowchart for the production process at Custom Molds (the production process is attached at the bottom). The overall production process includes two underlying processes linked together: Fabricating Molds and Producing Plastic Parts. Your overall flowchart should include both processes and how they are linked. This exercise aims to have you convert a written description of a process into a flowchart format.

Custom Molds, Inc. Production Processes

By 2000, operations at Custom Molds involved two distinct processes: one for fabricating molds and one for producing plastic parts. Although different, these two processes were linked in many instances, as when a customer would have Custom Molds both fabricate a mold and produce the necessary parts to support the customer's research and design efforts. All fabrication and production operations were housed in a single facility. The layout was characteristic of a typical job shop, with like processes and similar equipment grouped in various places in the plant. Figure 3.18 shows a layout of the plant floor. Multiple pieces of various types of high-precision machinery

FG 3.18

Dock		Dock
Receivingrawmaterials inventory	Lunchroom	Packing and shipping finished goods inventory
	Cut and trim
Dry mix		Testing and inspection
Wet-mix
	Injection machines
Assembly
	Mold fabrication
Offices

Including milling, turning, cutting, and drilling equipment was located in the mold-fabrication area. When an order is received, a design team, comprising a design engineer and one of 13 master machinists, reviews the design specifications. . The time needed to receive the ordered materials is usually three to four weeks. When the materials are received for a particular mold, the plant master scheduler reviews the workload of the assigned master machinist and schedules the mold for fabrication. Fabricating a mold takes from two to four weeks, depending on the amount of work the machinist already has scheduled. The fabrication process itself takes only three to five days. One day is spent inspecting and testing the mold, and a second day cleaning, polishing, packing, and shipping it to the customer. Currently, Custom Molds has a published lead-time of nine weeks for the delivery of custom-fabricated molds. The manufacturing process for plastic parts is somewhat different from that for mold fabrication. Order for parts may be received in conjunction with an order for a mold to be fabricated. In instances where Custom Molds has previously fabricated the mold and maintains it in inventory, an order may be just for parts. If the mold is already available, the order is reviewed by a design engineer, who verifies the part and raw material specifications. If the design engineer has any questions concerning the specifications, the customer is contacted, and any revisions to specifications are mutually worked out and agreed upon. Upon accepting the part and raw material specifications, raw mate rial orders are placed, and production is scheduled for the order. Chemicals and compounds that support plastic-parts manufacturing are typically ordered and received within one week. Upon receipt, the compounds are first dry mixed and blended to achieve the correct composition. Then the mixture is wet-mixed to the desired consistency (called slurry!) for injection into molding machines. When ready, the slurry is transferred to the injection molding area by an overhead pipeline and deposited in holding tanks adjacent to the injection machines. The entire mixing process takes only one day. Custom Molds has the capacity to produce 5,000 parts per day in the injection-molding department; historically, however, the lead time for handling orders in this department has averaged one week. Upon completion of molding, the parts are taken to the cut and trim operation, where they are disconnected, and leftover flashing is removed. After being inspected, the parts may be taken to assembly or transferred to the packing and shipping area for shipment to the customer. If the assembly of the final parts is not required, the parts can be on their way to the customer two days after being molded. Sometimes the final product requires some assembly. Typically, this entails attaching metal leads to plastic connectors. If assembly is necessary, an additional three days are needed before the order can be shipped. Custom Molds is currently quoting a three-week lead time for parts not requiring fabricated molds. Sometimes the final product requires some assembly. Typically, this entails attaching metal leads to plastic connectors. If assembly is necessary, an additional three days are needed before the order can be shipped. Custom Molds is currently quoting a three-week lead time for parts not requiring fabricated molds.

The Changing Environment

The impact on Custom Molds could be seen in sales figures over the past three years. , orders for multiple molds were declining, as shown in the following table:

Number of Orders.

Order Size Molds 2006 Molds 2007 Molds 2008

	80	74	72
2	60	70	75
3	40	51	55
4	5	6	5
5	3	5	4
6	4	8	5
7	2	0	1
8	10	6	4
9	11	8	5
10 Total orders	_JQ 230	_J_Q 238	--Q 231

The reverse was true for plastic parts, for which the number of orders per year had declined, but for which the order sizes were becoming larger, as illustrated in the following table:

Number of Orders

Order Size Parts 2006 Parts 2007 Parts 2008

50	100	93	70
100	70	72	65
150	40	30	35
200	36	34	38
250	25	27	25
500	10	12	14
750	1	3	5
1,000	2	2	8
3,000	1	4	9

5,000 _] _

Total orders 286 280 277

During this same period, Custom Molds began having delivery problems. Customers were complaining that parts orders were taking four to five weeks instead of the stated three weeks and that the delays were disrupting production schedules. When asked about the situation, the master scheduler said that determining when a particular order could be promised for delivery was difficult. Bottlenecks were occurring during the production process, but where or when they would occur could not be predicted. The bottlenecks always seemed to be moving from one operation to another. Tom Miller thought that he had excess labor capacity in the mold fabrication area. So, to help push through those orders that were behind schedule, he assigned one of the master machinists the job of identifying and expediting those late orders. However, that tactic did not seem to help much. Complaints about late deliveries were still being received. To add to the problems, two orders had been returned recently because of the number of defective parts.