“Quality” and “Low Cost”: the Odd Couple of the Injection Molding High Rise
We’ve heard it from the time our parents turned on the television or radio: low-cost and high quality the soap box rants of the commercial advertiser. If it’s not the blind taste test of two colas, then it was the stuffing versus potatoes debate. Whose car was better? Whose t.v. network was the top of the ratings? Did your knife slice through an aluminum can then zoom through a tomato? Or can your blender atomize a brick then obliterate an iPad like it was chewing gum? This is the eternal debate— until we see the price tag. Then there is the alternative: standing in line on Thanksgiving in the freezing cold with 900 other people to get the chintziest item the big box retailer has limited quantities of once the doors splay open.
It reminds me of an old t.v. show and movie: The Odd Couple. Felix, the articulate, tidy/anal proper gentleman, for our illustration will represent Quality; and Oscar, the laid-back, nearly-slovenly but lovable and slightly obnoxious slob whom will represent Low Cost. These two unlikely roommates lived in a high rise apartment building and spared with one another as you would think polar opposites would do. Consumers and businesses may need to think they need to sacrifice quality for low cost or the reverse, low cost for quality. In order to purchase a high-quality injection mold, for example, one may think they need to pay a higher price. As much as that some may think that in order to save their bottom line, the quality of their molds and parts need to be closer to “acceptable” rather than stellar quality. This is why we can’t have nice things. Felix (Quality) may want a nice davenport from a posh shoppe from uptown whereas Oscar (Low Cost) doesn’t want to shell out that kind of dough and is willing to go to garage sales to find an acceptable sofa that costs hundreds of dollars less. Of course, Felix wouldn’t be caught dead sitting on such a couch until it’s been fumigated, and reupholstered.
The point here is that quality and low cost can live together in peace and harmony. There’s no reason to sacrifice one for the other, as a business or consumer, you just have to look in the right places. It’s sort of like dating, you either find the right person, or you keep looking; the right one will eventually come along and when that happens, you will just know it. When looking for a custom plastic injection mold company this is no different. There are the guys out there there in which whom everyone knows their name but they never call anybody back (that’s usually because they are completely automated). Then there are the little-known, local guys who are really good, but they may expect too much from you. This isn’t always the case, of course, but you get the idea for the point of illustration.
When shopping for an injection molding company, what are you looking for: reputation, low cost, great quality, a real voice on the phone when you need help, fast turn around times, human hands-on with full capabilities, or fully automated and limited capabilities? They all exist. If you need a change to your mold can it be done easily? Or does the molder have to start all over with a new mold? It’s the Felix versus Oscar debate again. Can’t we all just get along?
So, the bottom line here is that you just have to shop around. There are great injection molding companies that can do fast, quality work, and do it for a low cost because they have built their business for that purpose. What services are offered? What are the warranties like? We know of one (we won’t mention any names here— cough cough) that can make Felix and Oscar act like the best of friends. Besides, that’s what all consumers and businesses want— a happy bottom line with a great product so they can be happy too.
