Just in Time

The downward trend

The reality in the diecutting market is that production runs are being reduced. There are still large-volume jobs out there, but the large-volume companies also now are doing shorter runs. As new products decrease set-up time, companies that predominately run large-volume jobs are able to throw some short runs into the mix, which impacts converters whose businesses are all short-run jobs. To keep up, the small-volume converters must do everything they can to reduce their set-up times to do more product runs. “Each year Weidhaas sees more and more shops asking for equipment with faster and faster setup times. This not impacts press selection, but it brings us back to the need for education to properly construct dies and incorporate techniques that reduce setup,” says Weidhaas. “On a large run, you can amortize slower setup times without a problem. However, with the low volume, you have to reduce that, otherwise it dramatically affects your bottom line in a negative way.”