Manufacturing in Mexico

[NicolasMontelongo]

Hello everyone, I am a mechanical electrical engineer and have been involved so far, in metal working process and bussiness; now I am thinking in establish a plastic moulding operation in Mexico, either by myself or associatted with somebody with expertise and market, who is willing to produce down here.
Because my background I know that the molding making and design can be an easy to learn task, but at this stage my major concern is to know if it really makes sense to mold plastics in Mexico, and the starting point to establish that is to learn what are the 80%-20% of the plastics molding costs, to find out if there are competitive advantages to produce molded plastics down here. If so, what are the technologies that look more appropiate? somebody told that the roto moulding can be a good market niche because the low per capita use in Mexico compared with the USA´s, but I am not sure I want to depend in the domestic market. Any comments and ideas? Thanks.

[Will Call]

Hello everyone, I am a mechanical electrical engineer and have been involved so far, in metal working process and bussiness; now I am thinking in establish a plastic moulding operation in Mexico, either by myself or associatted with somebody with expertise and market, who is willing to produce down here.
Because my background I know that the molding making and design can be an easy to learn task, but at this stage my major concern is to know if it really makes sense to mold plastics in Mexico, and the starting point to establish that is to learn what are the 80%-20% of the plastics molding costs, to find out if there are competitive advantages to produce molded plastics down here. If so, what are the technologies that look more appropiate? somebody told that the roto moulding can be a good market niche because the low per capita use in Mexico compared with the USA´s, but I am not sure I want to depend in the domestic market. Any comments and ideas? Thanks.

Nicolas,

I appears that you really believe this is easy and I'm afraid you will be in for a huge shock and a lot of money lost.

Moldmaking takes someone that has a lot of mechanical appitude, intuition and talent let alone the four year apprenticeship and years of experience needed to be a true moldmaker.

Molding also takes a lot of the same traits but more centered on knowing your machine and it's capabilities and how to use those capabilities. The ability needed to properly setup and run these machines takes years of experience you can't learn it from a book.

In my opinion, there are no competitive advantages. In my experience, if the supplier in Mexico, (among several other countries), (be it plastics, die cast or any manufactured component), is not owned and directly operated by the end customer (typically U.S.A., but not always), the cost advantage is totally overshadowed by poor quality, poor delivery and use of inferior materials.

I think you need to rethink putting your money into a venture just because you think it's "easy".

I wish you luck.

[NicolasMontelongo]

Bill, thanks for your reply, it is helpful. Please do not misundertand me, nothing is easy in these days; I have been working in the industry developing different types of projects for over 30 years. So I know a key people that can make the different jobs related with the plastics, I do not pretend to do it all by myself. I have a great respect for the expertise and experience of the players in every area of the different industries, I have had contact with.
You mention that make this type of work down here will not be competitive because the poor quality both in labor and materials. As far as I know, quality is not a feature which we can identify with a country per se. Quality requires hard technology and machinery, training of the people and solid quality systems, and as far as I know, most of the materials available in Mexico are furnished for the same companies than USA, say Mobil Exxon, GE, and so on, as well as some local high quality suppliers for resins, pellet. etc.
My question is: from a typical plastic part, in a mid size volume, and refered at the final cost, how much is it materials, how much is machine depreciation, how much is labor, energy and maintenance, just to mention the ones I think is the 80%? Any ideas about it?

[Len]

Nick, you might try this site.
http://kazmer.uml.edu/Software/JavaCost/index.htm

The estimator works on material, part volume, cavity, etc. It may be able to run some simple scenarios for you.

Len