10 Reasons why Omega Plastics and not China?
By Gordon Styles
Why do UK and European manufacturers still purchase from Omega Plastics given that there are 10,000 toolmaking companies open for your business in China?
It is estimated, by one of the members of the Chinese equivalent of the GTMA, that there are 10,000 mould making companies of note in China employing more than 1,000,000 people with moderate to high toolmaking skills. The top 10% of these companies are purchasing all of the latest equipment from DMG, AGIE, Yamazaki, and Soddick. Most of the top 10% have brand new state-of-the-art facilities and they are gearing up their marketing departments with recently graduated young ladies who have poor to excellent English language skills: and I’ve been to hundreds of these factories.
Even though I own a company in China, as well as a UK rapid tooling company; I’m really not concerned at all for Omega Plastics in regards to the Chinese ‘threat’. Better than most, I understand exactly why companies like Omega Plastics will not only survive; but will succeed under the current conditions.
Here are my 10 reasons why Omega Plastics will prosper in the current climate:
1. Confidentiality…This is our biggest selling point. Confidentially is a huge and important issue for OEM’s. Even my Chinese company sells on the fact that it has its head office in Hong Kong, so that confidentiality agreements are made under the jurisdiction of a western style legal system.
2. Omega Plastics is local…Put aside the notion that the World is a small place – it is still 10,000 kilometres to Shenzhen.
Many buyers delight in ‘saving’ their company’s money by getting ‘low-prices’ in China. As I have seen to devastating effect just recently, if the project is not managed well, or given to a company that is technically known as “a bunch of Numpties”, then you end up with completely ‘die-locked’ tools that don’t function after 18 weeks of manufacture and 6 weeks in transit. The buyers might like the China pricing; but the poor old European Engineer that has to spend months of his life in airport lounges feels as if he is paying for the cost saving in lost family life…
3. Omega Plastics is very fast…There are no ‘rapid tooling’ companies in China. It is not possible to get tools from China in 10 days. Believe me; I’ve tried to find companies that can: and there aren’t any.
Projects with Omega Plastics take anywhere from 3 days up to 3 weeks for complicated packages. How is that possible?
4. One man, one mould…Omega Plastics does it the good old fashioned way (combined with all the latest technology). Each of our ‘master mouldmakers’ is capable of making the entire mould by himself. He designs it; does the CADCAM; makes the tool; fits the tool; and trials the tool. Total ownership. No communication issues. This method may sound archaic: but it works with devastating effect.
5. Super complicated parts are possible with ease…Our one-man-one-mould approach to ‘rapid tooling’, and the skills of our people, means that we can do ‘super-complicated’ parts very quickly. The picture (inset) shows a mould that required 19 hand-loaded inserts. One ‘master mouldmaker’ thought this up and made the tool in under 3 weeks – and it worked first time. Even the customer said that our toolmaker must be ‘sick-in-the-head’. You can see this tool being assembled in a video on our website: http://www.omega-plastics.co.uk.
6. Free advice in your time-zone…Peter Angus, Technical Engineer, and Dave Crone, Operations Director, are available from 8am to 6pm to give you free design advice on your latest project. These guys that have to ask their master mouldmakers make the tools for your parts. They have a vested interest in making the parts manufacturable.
7. The human approach…We don’t use a fancy program to analyse your parts: we use a combined 200 years of toolmaking experience to help you design your parts fit for manufacture: face-to-face. We will visit your site within a couple of days and sit with you to help design your parts.
8. Full traceability of materials…I have heard many people complain about their moulds and mouldings not appearing to be in the right material when they arrive from China. Unless you witness the bonding of your materials and see the original material certificates, there are no guarantees.
9. Pollution minimised…A small point but CNC and EDM machines produce chemical waste. The river at the back of my apartment block in China runs black like ‘cola’ and fizzes. Someone has to drink that mess at some point. Omega Plastics’ chemical waste is disposed of legally and safely.
10. Why, we’re Geordies man…Reasons are getting thin now: but hey – everyone loves a Geordie!