Product development teams have been relying on the injection molding process to manufacture polymer parts for decades. This time-tested process is robust, highly repeatable, and ideal for high-volume production. However, when product development teams think about the cost of manufacturing using injection molding, they typically consider costs only in terms of direct materials, machine time, and direct labor costs¹ (Figure 1). This conventional cost model, although intuitive, does not capture the true total costs associated with manufacturing a part using injection molding.
