A Design-to-Manufacturing Story

Find out how SEA-LECT Plastics has controlled costs & met customer requirements by combining DELMIAWorks manufacturing ERP software & SOLIDWORKS 3D Design

Based in Everett, Washington, USA, SEA-LECT Plastics is a full-service custom plastics injection moulding company who design and manufacture products for the marine industry and for the military.

They have a proud record of converting customer ideas into reality, often working with entrepreneurs to bring their concepts into the real-world.

For years, they’ve used SOLIDWORKS to help convert rough design sketches and concepts into CAD files.

But there was no easy way to give customers a quote, based on that CAD file.

SEA-LECT Plastics’ VP & General Manager, Matt Poischbeg, put it best:

“One of the biggest gains – and the biggest goal we had with DELMIAWorks – was to know what our actual costs are. When I quote a job, I get information from my customers, which could be a sketch on a napkin, so to speak. And it’s very difficult to put a dollar figure to a sketch on a napkin.”

By integrating SOLIDWORKS with DELMIAWorks manufacturing ERP (formerly known as IQMS), SEA-LECT Plastics are able to put a cost to the sketch. Watch the short video below to learn more about SEA-LECT Plastics’ design-to-manufacturing story and how they turn customer’s concepts into reality:

 

 

In the video, Matt Poischbeg, VP & General Manager at SEA-LECT Plastics’, said:

“We take our customers’ ideas from concept into reality… The combination of DELMIAWorks and SOLIDWORKS is really extremely helpful for us.”

With DELMIAWorks, SEA-LECT Plastics can now:

Quickly provide an accurate quote for the customer

SEA-LECT Plastics now know exactly what their actual costs are – enabling them to quickly and accurately quote customers a price for their latest idea.

They are able to pull the data they need (like part volume or critical dimensions) straight from a SOLIDWORKS CAD file through to DELMIAWorks’ quoting module.

They can then combine those numbers to quickly give customers a precise quote.

 

Smoothly move from concept to CAD

SEA-LECT Plastics can quickly take an idea from a design, a concept or a two-dimensional sketch, and build that part from scratch in SOLIDWORKS. They use different extrusions and surface manipulations, to design a three-dimensional part, which is then quick and easy to add draft and start to analyse from a moulding standpoint – designing it for manufacturing.

In SOLIDWORKS, SEA-LECT can use tools to look at factors like part volumes and wall thicknesses, which are going to affect how easily that part can be moulded, and how well the end result is going to match up with the original design.

So long as the customer is able to convey what exactly they need that part to do, SEA-LECT can take that part and modify it, redesign it and make any adjustments in-house. This eliminates additional steps, taking the part straight to tooling and injection moulding.

 

Import parts design straight to DELMIAWORKS

When the parts go into tooling design, SEA-LECT is able to quickly, easily and accurately quote-out all the materials and estimated labour costs.

All the costs associated with that project (tooling, materials, labour) are captured within and single portfolio, which can be rolled straight into DELMIAWorks.

They quickly get an understanding of what specifically went into the project, giving them the basis for the rest of the project from then on.

The project is assigned a tool number and assigned labour costs, and that transitions all the way through to the manufacturing and injection moulding itself.

 

Securely document and repeat the process

When parts are being set-up in the system, SEA-LECT is required to follow strict cyber security protocols.

Particularly for marine and military products, they have to be sure that the data is secure in the system. With DELMIAWorks and SOLIDWORKS, the server can be specifically set-up to ensure that nobody can access the things they’re not supposed to.

With details like lot control, SEA-LECT is able to document to military customers exactly which material has been used, the exact lot numbers, and COCs.

And all that information is being tracked within the system.

 

Achieving ISO 9001 quality standards

Through the use of DELMIAWorks manufacturing ERP system, and SOLIDWORKS, SEA-LECT Plastics has been able to drive improved operational efficiency—from 70 to 98.5%—while at the same time improving the quality of injection moulded parts and related processes.

This in turn has enabled the business to obtain its ISO 9001:2015 certification.

 

DELMIAWorks has helped SEA-LECT Plastics to:

• Increase productivity
• Improve profit margins
• Consistently achieve on-time delivery.

Learn more about how DELMIAWorks manufacturing ERP delivers a reliable manufacturing system for planning, scheduling, executing and measuring manufacturing results.

IQMS was acquired by Dassault Systèmes® in 2019 and rebranded as DELMIAWorks and added to the industry-leading 3DEXPERIENCE® Works design to manufacturing software portfolio for mid-market manufacturers.