Now in China mould industry, it is very easy to find a few mold processing plants. I think the simplest and most effective way is to participate in related exhibitions, and you can collect a stack of business cards and leaflets in one lap.
Mold processing plants vary greatly. How to identify a reliable mold supplier when purchasing parts with higher mold prices. I will talk a little bit from a technical point of view. I haven't done purchases and may be more one-sided.

 

There are two extremes to avoid here. First of all, don't be greedy for large scale. Although large-scale mold suppliers have more standardized equipment and management, they often have a relatively fixed customer market, and products they produce are often more specialized. If you only want to open a relatively simple mold for the first cooperation, there is no big order to attract mold suppliers, it is easy to cause suppliers to not cooperate or simply refuse to cooperate. Even if they cooperate, it is difficult to control this kind of mold suppliers. For example, although he promised you to ship to you in a month, his major customers suddenly asked him to produce a large order, he would delay you.
The other extreme is to choose a very small scale, even if they simply do not actually produce it, but only to accept order and then outsource to other company, you must also carefully consider. Quality, delivery, etc. are difficult to guarantee, and there is even a risk of being cheated.
Ideal size of mold suppliers is same as your company. Price of mold you want to open is attractive to him, or your company can establish a long-term cooperative relationship with him, or the industry where your company is located is exactly what they want to enter (for example, if your company is in automotive industry, a supplier who has never produced auto parts and molds may be interested in you, because if he supplies you with products, they can say that they have entered the door of this industry and give it to other companies in the future. It’s more convenient. )

 

This principle is enough. You can match as many mold suppliers as you need with as much precision parts as you need. For example, if accuracy of your mold requires less than 0.01mm, then mold suppliers may have to perform wire cutting or EDM, or even a constant temperature workshop to meet requirements, have sufficient accuracy of three-coordinate inspection tool equipment to ensure delivery quality of mold. Before signing contract, you must personally inspect to confirm this matter. A problem may be encountered during inspection, that is, supplier may say that he does not have certain equipment and needs to do it elsewhere, so for insurance purposes, this secondary supplier must also be inspected.
If you have conditions, you can ask mold suppliers which customers have made products before, how effective they are, what accuracy they can achieve, and whether they have made similar products. However, we must pay attention to implementation, can not believe what supplier says.

 

Before determining cooperation relationship, supplier should be required to list project cycle and time nodes of product processing in detail, such as how long technical exchange will take and what will be done. How long are processes of material-ordering, roughing, finishing, heat treatment, and fine grinding. Whether each process can be carried out immediately after previous process is finished, or it needs to be queued (For example, heat treatment, if schedule is not good. After machining is completed, there is no furnace, you have to wait for delay), is there any risk of delivery. After mold suppliers are listed, you should also judge reliability of suppliers based on your experience. Another simple method is to find several suppliers to ask separately and then confirm each other.
Same is true for quotation. On the one hand, quotation is to check mold suppliers’ cooperation attitude (whether you really want to establish a cooperative relationship, or if you want to cheat and run). On the other hand, it is also to check mold suppliers’ proficiency in the industry, whether reported expenses are reported and reported prices are objective. You can let supplier list cost structure of product in detail, such as a set of molds, how much raw materials, machining, heat treatment, design and development, debugging, sales costs, management costs, how much profit supplier needs to keep, etc., are clearly reported (so selected supplier must cooperate, see first paragraph). There are two advantages to this. 1. No one will lose money. 2. It can also prove that mold suppliers’ project cycle plan is reliable. Regarding quotation, one more thing to say is that don’t be too greedy and excessively depress profits of suppliers, or even let mold suppliers do business at a loss. Because wool comes from sheep, he now loses money, or later finds a way to earn it back (no enterprise will actually lose money), or does not do it for you if he does not earn it. Cooperation must be a win-win situation.

 

That is to say, in the process of product production, you must not let it go, especially when mold is very important, you must check implementation status of project according to project cycle and time node previously reported by supplier. Once there is an exception, analyze cause immediately, discuss treatment and remedial measures. It is not necessarily effective to stipulate in contract how much money will not be paid if they fail to achieve deadline. Good project management and control should find problems, risks in time and solve them, instead of finding ways to retroactively compensate after losses have been caused.
In addition, if you just need products and just want to open a mold to produce some parts, you can also find a reliable machine shop to purchase parts, let this supplier contact and buy molds, they may be more professional. However, if project is significant or investment is high, you should follow the whole process yourself, instead of throwing your hands, throwing things directly to supplier.
Finally, if project is very important, you can refer to relevant tools of APQP and PPAP to control quality of process.