Pyramid Plastics Inc.'s $1 million investment during the past two years has seen it adding presses, a material drying system, pressurized water system and quality control machinery. Now it's brought in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to help bring that investment together.
The custom injection molder and contract manufacturer implemented an IQMS ERP system on Jan. 1.
“To be viable, you have to keep up with the technology,” noted Tim Peterson, vice president of Industrial Molds Inc. the parent of Rockford, Ill.-based Pyramid Plastics during a phone interview.
The new IQMS system he said will “help us make better decisions with better information.”
Pyramid Plastics has added four new all-electric Toshiba presses in the last 18 months, ranging from 55 to 200 tons. It will also take delivery of a 140-ton machine this quarter.
“We plan to rotate all of old presses out. We are changing where the demand is. We see an opportunity on the lower tonnage machines and are adding as we need them,” he said.
Peterson said that that about one-third of the new machinery is to support new work. It operates in a 45,000 square foot facility.
He said that its parent, Industrial Molds, is a big proponent of robotics and the latest equipment, and they are following a similar guideline.
Two of the new machines were added with full robotic cells, while the others are equipped with sprue pickers and proportional feeders.
Before that, Pyramid added a material drying system along with a pressurized high-temperature water system. The water system, according to Peterson, is to better deal with high temperature engineering resins.
The company also remodeled its quality department, adding new energy saving light fixtures, furniture, flooring, parts storage system, and a new MicroVue Excel 664 multi-sensor vision system.
Pyramid deals with the automotive industry as well as many others, and the changes, according to Peterson may help it to diversify even more.