Mastering OEE in Plastics Manufacturing: A Guide to Faster Changeovers and Lower Scrap

In the capital-intensive plastics industry, every second of uptime and every gram of raw material counts directly towards your profitability. An idle press is a machine that is actively losing you money.

Mike, a Production Manager at an injection molding plant, is in a bind. A long and fumbled mold changeover on his main press has pushed back the start of a critical run.

Now, the initial shots are producing excess flash, leading to a high scrap rate and wasted material. He's losing time and money simultaneously.

In the capital-intensive plastics industry, every second of uptime and every gram of raw material counts directly towards your profitability.

An idle press is a machine that is actively losing you money.

Mike, a Production Manager at an injection molding plant, is in a bind.

A long and fumbled mold changeover on his main press has pushed back the start of a critical run.

Now, the initial shots are producing excess flash, leading to a high scrap rate and wasted material. He's losing time and money simultaneously.

The Diagnosis (The OEE Data)

Your OEE system provides the undeniable proof. Its data shows that "Planned Stops" are the single biggest drain on your Availability, and 95% of that lost time is due to mold or die changeovers.

You can instantly see which changeovers take the longest and which crews are the most inconsistent, giving you a clear target for improvement.

The Integrated Cure (The CMMS-Powered SMED Program)

The solution isn't just to tell your team to "go faster"; it's to give them a better, more systematic process.

This is the Fabrico workflow. Each mold change is managed as a planned work order in the integrated CMMS.

This work order contains a mandatory digital SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Die) checklist. This guides the technician through every critical step, from pre-heating the new mold to setting the final process parameters, ensuring nothing is missed.

This turns a chaotic scramble into a standardized, repeatable process, systematically driving down your changeover times.

The Diagnosis (The OEE Data)

Your OEE Quality metric shows a high scrap rate, but to fix it, you need to know when it's happening. A modern OEE system diagnoses two distinct types of quality loss.

First are Startup Rejects, the scrap produced right after a changeover. Second are In-Process Rejects, the scrap produced during a steady production run.

The Integrated Cure (The Right Cure for the Right Problem)

For Startup Rejects, the cure is a perfect setup. The digital SMED checklist in your CMMS is the solution, as it ensures process parameters are set correctly the first time, virtually eliminating startup scrap.

For In-Process Rejects, the issue is often machine health. The OEE system's real-time scrap alert, perhaps powered by Computer Vision detecting short shots or flash, is a maintenance trigger.

It allows Mike to create a CMMS work order to inspect for issues like a failing heater band or a worn-out mold component.

The Diagnosis (The OEE Data)

Your press is running, but is it running at its peak possible speed? The OEE Performance metric is the only way to see this hidden loss.

By connecting directly to your machine's PLC, Fabrico can track the actual cycle time in real-time. It then compares it to the ideal, instantly revealing any "slow cycle" losses that are throttling your output.

The Integrated Cure (The Proactive Maintenance Trigger)

A machine that is running slow is an early warning sign of a future breakdown. This performance diagnosis is a trigger.

It allows your team to proactively create an inspection work order in the CMMS to investigate the cause—be it a hydraulic issue, a temperature problem, or a mold venting issue—before it leads to a catastrophic, line-stopping failure.

How does OEE help with mold maintenance and tracking?

By integrating OEE with a CMMS, you can tie the performance of a production run directly to the specific mold being used.

This allows you to see which molds are associated with lower quality or slower cycle times, and use that data to prioritize your mold maintenance schedule in the CMMS.

What is a good OEE score for an injection molding plant?

While the world-class benchmark for OEE is 85%, the capital-intensive nature of injection molding puts a heavy emphasis on Availability and Performance.

Many top-tier molding facilities focus intensely on these two metrics to maximize the return on their expensive machinery.

Can you use OEE for extrusion or blow molding processes?

Yes. The principles of OEE are universal. For continuous processes like extrusion, the metrics are adapted slightly but still focus on uptime (Availability), throughput rate (Performance), and good output vs. waste (Quality).

For the plastics industry, OEE is most powerful when it's integrated with a CMMS.

It becomes a complete system for managing your most expensive problems: changeover time, scrap rates, and the health of your capital-intensive machinery.

Ready to see how an integrated OEE and CMMS platform can help you master changeovers and slash scrap rates?

Book a personalized demo of Fabrico today.