Keeping up with rapid growing demands through automation

Many customers who already deal with 4B Plastics have asked, "How can you get items out so fast?" It’s a fact that 87% of all orders leave within three days of receipt of a purchase order.

The answer that most would guess is automation.

Yes, automation plays a part. A company must also have clear work processes, raw stock on hand for production and the right people with a solid understanding of the job, including manual lathe work, Computer Numerical Control (CNC) routers, CNC mills and 3-Axis CNC lathes with full live tooling capabilities.

This is a direct result of taking a huge step back and truly organizing your workflow. In my previous career, I used to do business consulting across the country, but when it came to auditing my own company, 4B Plastics, I consulted an outside firm. By having a fresh pair of eyes look at your organization, you would be surprised at how changing the simplest things will increase your productivity and profitability.

At 4B Plastics, we first consider the supply of raw product. We are one of only 26 companies in the U.S. that start with raw PTFE powder, do our own molding and sintering, and make finished machine parts for OEM replacements or simple pipe spacers. Supply is key, and we keep several thousand pounds of raw powder on hand to meet this demand. This keeps our master molder busy on the presses, molding rods and tubes up to 30 inches. To keep up with continued growth, we’ve also added a fourth press to meet our compression molding needs.

Once raw stock is out of the ovens and ready for machining or resale, there is no delay in adding it to inventory. For simple pipe spacers, we keep approximately $350,000 in raw tube stock, thus allowing us to be ready for that after hours or emergency call. In most of the smaller sizes we also have a rotation of stock spacer sizes in PTFE, Polypro and Kynar Polyvinylidene Fluoride, ready to supply the many petrochemical plants and middlemen vendors we deal with.

Valve kits or OEM replacement parts are made to order. For these types of jobs, we also have certain popular sizes of raw tubes to choose from. This sounds like a lot, but here at 4B Plastics our entire staff understands the workflow and needs of supply across the U.S. Recently, we’ve added the automation of two new 3-Axis CNC Lathes with live tooling that can spin up to 16 inches. These enable us to keep up with your large count production runs.

"… Automation plays a part. A company must also have clear work processes, raw stock on hand for production and the right people …"

With the right people in place, 4B Plastics transforms raw materials into finished PTFE parts efficiently, accurately and consistently. Reach out today to put our expertise, advanced CNC capabilities, and in-house molding and sintering to work for your next project.

For more information, visit 4bplastics.com, email steven@4bplastics.com or call (225) 272-7454.