Manufacturing Start-Up Blog

~ Blogging our way through a U.S. CPG start-up.

Monthly Archives: June 2015

Day 181 – Estimating timelines on plush development and received order

30 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by D.S. in Uncategorized

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I am trying to estimate my timeline and cost on an MOQ order of plush toys that I would like to receive before the holidays. In order to test the U.S. market in a very small but very quick way. Keep in mind that I have already gone through design and concept development on this toy. I had a conversation with sourcing agent today and here is the optimistic timeline she shared with me:

  • 15 days for custom plush material development (developing samples of the material that we are hoping to achieve from a quality and color perspective)
  • 30-35 days for plush material manufacturing after order placed, perhaps less if they minus the 15 as we are counting this separately (creating the plush material per approved sample and received PO)
  • 60 days for factory to manufacturer order post receipt of PO
  • 18-30 days for shipping (18 days for the fast boat – but this gets it only to California port). Does either cost point only get it to California?
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Day 180 – Sunday June 28

28 Sunday Jun 2015

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My mom, AKA “Grams”, is making strawberry smoothies from the fresh strawberries we picked @ Ellsworth Hill Orchard & Berry Farm in Sharon, CT and omelets with cream cheese.

I’m sitting in the other room working on my blog,

I spent yesterday organizing my desk and work area,

Weekends always feel great when I get my mind and space in order for an organized and fresh week …

Trying to print the 3D CAD file of a toy concept on public library’s 3D printer

27 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by D.S. in Plastics Manufacturing, Toy Manufacturing, Uncategorized

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Day 179

Thought I would print the first draft of our dog food file on our library’s 3D printer. Took my eldest daughter to watch and learn about 3D printing. This was the third time at the library trying to get this file to print. Thought this was going to be the day! But alas no, the printer would dispense the liquid plastic onto the molding plate, but it wouldn’t stick to the molding plate. So it would mess up the mold. Tried to adjust the molding plate, clean it down with rubbing alcohol, but kept having same problem. Gave up after 1 1/2 hours.

Day 178 – Friday June 26 -Making sure our manufacturer is sourcing safe fabrics

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by D.S. in Plush Manufacturing, Product Prototype Design & Development, Toy Manufacturing, Uncategorized

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Day 178

I’m still learning about everything I need to know to make sure that the toys that we bring to market are safe. I never imagined I would need to think about the safety of fabrics! Fabrics can be unsafe? I guess I am a little behind the times on this front. As I learn about fabric safety, specifically, I’m adding these safety requirements to both our Initial Manufacturer Questionnaire and our Quality Control Checklist (that will be used by us and our quality control agents to randomly test production runs before shipment).

Fabrics: Generally, the question is whether the manufacturer sourcing quality & safe fabrics?

  • Safety: Fabrics cannot contain harmful chemicals
    • Relevant laws: ASTM F963 (U.S.), EN71 part 3 (2013); EN71 part 9; REACH (Europe)
    • Generally, fabrics cannot contain: Azo dyes, formaldehyde, or flame retardants
    • However, when Congress (U.S.) adopted ASTM f963 as our toy safety regulation, it exempted textiles from testing requirements. More on this exemption here.
  • Open market fabrics
    • Have they been pre-tested or certified? For example, see the Oeko Tex standard
    • If not, will you need to do pre-production testing on the fabrics?
    • Isn’t it relevant to know the name of the fabric mill?
    • (If you are producing a custom fabric, will this affect the MOQ or Minimum Order Quantity per SKU from the factory?) Yes … obviously it will …

What is plastic anyways

20 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by D.S. in Plastics Manufacturing, Toy Manufacturing, Uncategorized

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Day 170

As I am starting to think about adding a plastic toy accessory to my line of stuffed animal toys, I’m just trying to wrap my head around the world of plastics. This is probably so stupid, but I’ve just never thought much about what plastic is, where it comes from, or how is actually made. Spent the day learning.

10 interesting facts about Plastics that I learned after reading the Plastics Scorecard:

1- Most plastics are made from fossil fuels

2- Fossil fuels are barrels of crude oil and cubic feet of natural gas

3- Fossil fuels are refined to create derivative chemicals

4- These chemicals are manipulated to make plastics

5- Not all plastics are the same, different types use different chemical additives at different stages

6- Some chemical additives are harmful and known as Chemicals of High Concern (CoHCs); others are not known to be very harmful

7- Plastics affect workers, local communities, the environment, and the end consumer

8- Generally speaking, if CoHCs are used (let’s say the commonly known BPA), then the plastic is more harmful to all four parts of the chain: workers, local communities, the environment during processing and end of life recycling or disposal, and the end consumer

9- Therefore, doing what is best of end consumer is also better for workers, local communities, and the environment

10- You can choose a plastic that uses less CoHCs and end up with an end product that is safer and less harmful

Follow-up to this is my more practical research on specifically which plastics are more safe than others ….

Day 169 – Wednesday June 17

20 Saturday Jun 2015

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My sourcing agent asked to start billing hourly because the amount of hours that it is taking to complete Phase 1 is taking longer than expected. We defined Phase 1 as final product prototypes (I need a better definition of what are final product prototypes), tech packs, and costing. Neither of us seemed to remember the agreement, so when I referenced it, I had the opportunity to point out that we had indeed agreed upon a certain dollar amount for Phase 1 whereupon she would start to bill hourly should time exceed 25 hours. I might also point out that both of us needed to refer to our agreement to remember how we had even defined Phase 1. I will receive my first monthly bill at the end of June – uncertainty is the bane of my existence – any form of uncertainty.

She also pointed out that I had an issue with one of my sent prototypes – the dog purse – namely that no toy is permitted to have any continuous long piece of more than 12 inches as it would fail the chocking hazard test. I should ask for the name of the Toy Regulation in this instance. This was very helpful.
It is also time for me to make the first wire transfer to the Manu in China – and so I have asked for Manu name, address, and bank details. I will do due diligence here.

Conversation with Fathom printers

19 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by D.S. in Plastics Manufacturing, Toy Manufacturing, Uncategorized

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Day 169

As I am starting to think about a plastic accessory for my line of stuffed animal toys, trying to wrap my head around plastic and plastic manufacturing. Had a quick conversation with Fathom today – a 3D printing and plastic manufacturing facility with locations in Seattle and San Francisco. They were super friendly.

Some tid-bits they shared:

1. 3D Printing

– 3D printing is great during the initial design phase to quickly and cheaply print rough drafts of concepts
– You can find 3D printers often at your local library, or you can use online 3D printers like Shapeways, Sculpteo, or even Fathom
2. RTV Molding

– Great for low volume batch runs of 50-100 units

– The 3D printing facility, like a Fathom, will make 1 room-temperature silicon mold. Then, they can do individual castings by injecting poly urethane or a hard plastic. However, each mold cast will cost approx. $20. Not sure how much the initial silicon mold would cost. (Also called urethane casting?)

 

3. Injection Molding

– This is a common plastics manufacturing method that is used for large runs. It is the most cost effective manufacturing method for mass production. Legos are made by injection molding.
– All plastic injection molding requires the initial creation molds made out of either (a) soft steel or (b) hard steel.
– Soft steel molds are quicker to manufacture (2-3 weeks), are less expensive to manufacture, but will corrode more quickly and thus allow a lower number of “molds” to be made over the course of its lifetime. In industry parlance, this is referred to as a mold’s “shot allowance”. As a rule of thumb, I have been told, is to use a soft steel mold, if less than 100,000 shots (again, think of shots as units) are needed.
– Hard steel molds are more time-consuming to manufacture (8-12 weeks), are more expensive to manufacture (8-12K), but have a longer lifespan (think 1,000,000 shots).

Random question I asked: How does someone manufacture a toy truck, if, the toy truck is made up of separate non-continuous plastic pieces that are only later assembled?

I saw a plastic firetruck toy for sale in my local Whole Foods supermarket, and I wondered: “Does this toy require the separate manufacture for molds for each truck part? A mold for the wheels, a mold for the chassis, etc.? With 4 separate non-continuous pieces compromising this toy truck, does this mean that a company would have sunk some 10Kx4 or $40,000 into just the development of moldings?” Answer: You CAN create a more complicated plastics mold that is compromised of separate mini-molds. This is called a FAMILY TOOL. But, family tools are complicated to make and therefore much more expensive. Usually, they see companies avoid these complexities by simply making a separate mold for each separate toy piece. These separate pieces get assembled later.

Day 171 – Friday June 19 – Some people are just awesome 

19 Friday Jun 2015

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I received an email out of the blue with a toy designer and pattern maker (J) that I did some brief work with earlier in the year. She was a pleasure to work with. All competence and business. She simply wrote to share that she had worked with someone that she found very talented. And that I might be interested. I look forward to looking into this person’s portfolio. It feels great to start to feel part of the industry. With little hellos and nudges from here and there.
http://www.woolietoys.com/

Day 157 – Vacation in Lebanon

06 Saturday Jun 2015

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I am on vacation. I hate it. I think I always hate vacation. But this time I am counting down the days left. I have 8 days left.
Some of the reasons I hate vacation:
– I am in Lebanon. Contrary to my estimation, based on my shared history with this country, I am actually indeed scared and all around uncomfortable being here. I feel too close to danger, lurking around any corner, unexpected. Maybe a kidnapping, a bomb, a little spat of gunfire. Every airplane, I look up – a Lebanese war copter? An Israeli fighter jet? Am I being sarcastic? Here is a picture of the bomb shelter I took refuge in as a child. Also the storage facility of the building’s gas supply. We used to worry that a shell which would otherwise would only leave a few harmed would instead ignite the gas supply and blow us all to pieces. Like literal pieces – another “body parts” incident on the news. The war memories are more painful now than they have ever been. Perhaps because this time, in a sense, it is on the brink or cusp of war, or at minimum chaos.


– I am unable to work. I feel lost. I need routine and safety to feel grounded. I have no desire to work. I cannot think. I feel like I should be having a good time. But a good time for me is working.
– I need to spend a lot of time with people. I need my space desparately.
– I miss my kids. What am I doing here?

Day 152 – Monday June 1 – Vacation in Italy, Noticing lingering design issues with the ‘Final’ designer prototype

02 Tuesday Jun 2015

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In Italy, staying in an uber wonderful apartment, difficult to think about work of any kind. This week, 1) I sent LB prototype(s) plus documentation on last Friday. I need to follow up with LB with higher quality digital images plus outline of stuff to do (instructions to pass onto Manu); though JPW created prototypes here, there is more work to be done because of issues that are bothering us after looking and staring at the designs for about a week; an issue with the rear leg, inconsistency with the eye backing, and removal of mouth seam which we have thus far deemed as unnecessary; lesson here is to be patient sitting on the design for 5 days on each round; the other lesson is to learn how to address and avoid a designer inadvertently changing things that you never asked to be changed from one version to the next; for example, why would eye backing a get smaller? Why would rear legs get longer? You ask for 3 changes and they get done but another 2 get slightly modified in the process thus one foot back for one foot forward; I would in the future ask a designer how he or she addresses this; 2) Review images from photographer SM and approve the ones to be finished/photoshopped (I also need to pass these high quality ones to LB to mark up and pass along to manu who will want to zoom in etc.; 3) Send design instructions to Folio (agency rep for illustrator I am hoping to work with AL) by end of day Wednesday

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