Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for silicone component manufacturers.
A checklist built from how silicone component manufacturers work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Material lot and shelf life register
- Tool and cavity log
- First-off and hardness records
- Post-cure oven loads
- Flash and defect inspection
- Bagging, labelling and dispatch
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners
- For planners
- For press operators
- For inspectors and the lab bench
- For the packing area
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Orders by part, press and promised date
- Shots and rejects by tool and cavity
- Kit and gum stock lots by expiry date
- Post-cure loads with the part lots inside each
- Tears, short fills and flash by part number
- Retained first-off samples by lot
- Customer returns by kit lot and oven load
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- Barcode and label printers
- Messaging for buyer updates
- Accounting export
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Can it warn about kits close to expiry?
- How are shot counts entered?
- Can one tool with many cavities be tracked?
- Does it record the post-cure oven?
- Can a buyer ask for hardness records?
- How are cryogenic deflashing and hand trimming handled?
- Can food and medical customers get lot data?
- What if a part needs a new drawing revision?
- How is the price arrived at?
- Can records leave the system?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Kits expire unnoticed
- Cavity wear is not counted
- Post-cure trays lose their identity
- Colour and hardness drift between lots
- Clean packing is hard to prove
Prefer to talk it through? See the silicone component manufacturers page.