FasTrack and Optimum Efficiency

Time-to-market is a critical component for our customers success, so being able to respond to these greatly reduced lead times is critical to our success as well. 

Time-to-market is a critical component for our customers success, so being able to respond to these greatly reduced lead times is critical to our success as well. The FasTrack program is a rapid mold manufacturing program developed to reduce lead times and help our customers get their products to market faster, without the usual glitches that can slow the mold build. In addition to the skills of its moldmaking team, the objective is to use technology to the fullest, which includes engineering 3D software such as Pro/E, CNC and High- Speed Machining. The main focus is on turnaround time at each phase in a 24-hours a day operation utilizing unattended machining. The mold is split into smaller components to keep steel moving rapidly from one machine to the next, making sure there's no queue time or idle time. For example; typically a mold shop building a 32-cavity mold will keep all 32 core and cavity pieces at the machine until they are all completed. However, at Buffalo Grove, a 32-cavity mold is split into smaller "batches" to keep the work pieces moving through the system. Other technology is also employed such as palletization and robotic automation to optimize build time. In the end everything has to come together, and generally the lead time can be reduced by about 20 percent, depending on the job.