LAS VEGAS — Mission Plastics Inc. plans to consolidate its five Southern California locations by June, more than doubling total space and upgrading technology. The firm will lease a 160,000-square-foot building in Ontario, Calif., about seven miles from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., where all five facilities now are located.
"We hope to put in technology that will help us stay competitive," President Patrick Dauphinee said in a Feb. 25 interview at the the annual Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.'s Molders Conference 2000 in Las Vegas.
A metal-stamping house had occupied the Ontario facility, which was built in 1988. Mission Plastics will outfit the site for injection molding, mold making and warehousing. The company's principal end markets include construction, consumer electronics and irrigation.
The seven-year lease is to begin March 13 and includes an option to purchase the property in 2002.
Now, the firm occupies 75,000 square feet spread among the five buildings, and is having logistical and space problems, Dauphinee said.
The Ontario site will use bar-code and warehouse-locator systems to customize inventory programs for some customers.
"They can pull from our system much as if we were a stocking warehouse down the road," he said. "We work internal systems to replenish the inventories."
In another upgrade, Mission Plastics is installing an electronic data-interchange system.
The firm improved its front-end computer software and, in October, seriously began addressing EDI.
"I think we'll be ready before April 1," he said. "Originally, we thought we would be there in the month of February."
Mission Plastics employs 140, including nine in mold making and maintenance. Annual sales are roughly $25 million. The firm operates 45 injection molding presses, with clamping forces of 7-700 tons. Dauphinee said he sees micromolding as "an attractive area."
Co-owners Dauphinee and Charles Montes founded Mission Plastics in 1982.
Separately, Montes operates Montes Die & Engineering Inc. in Rancho Cucamonga, a mold-making, maintenance and repair shop.