Where Plastics Professionals Excel: The 2019 Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference•Oct. 2-4, 2019•Indianapolis, Indiana

Now in its 17th year, the annual Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference is returning to Indianapolis for two-and-a-half days of networking, inspiration, sharing, benchmarking and learning. This year’s conference includes keynote presentations from expert Chris McChesney, author of 4 Disciplines of Execution; sales guru Tim Riesterer of Corporate Vision; culture specialist Kirk Weisler; and team building leader Ross Bernstein.

Additionally, the more than 650 plastics manufacturing attendees will have access to dozens of breakout sessions, peer networking roundtables and learning tracks. These tracks allow attendees to customize their conference experience based on their functional area, operational goals or future planning.

Pre-conference sessions this year allow attendees to kickstart their conference experience by deep diving into specific topic or focus areas. This year’s pre-conference sessions begin early on Oct. 2 and include the following:

  • Young Professional Pre-Conference Session
  • IQMS Users Group
  • MBS Pre-Conference Event
  • Paulson Training Session
  • Makuta Plant Tour

Registration for the 2019 Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference is open. Visit www.mappinc.com/conference for more information.

Plastics Industry Machine Rate Report: New for MAPP Members

mapp-machine-rate-reportEvery two years, MAPP publishes the Plastics Industry Machine Rate Report. This July, MAPP published the 2019 report – and this year’s report received a major overhaul. The previously 8-page report now includes more than 58 pages of data analysis, breakdowns and new information. The 2019 report, generated by input from more than 250 injection molding leaders, now includes the following:

  • Breakdowns by region, industry and business activity
  • New, narrower machine tonnage ranges
  • Percent markups for SGA, scrap rate, assembly, components, packaging and automated cells
  • Discount or markup rates for high- and low-volume parts and overall complexity
  • Specific benchmarking for cleanroom manufacturing

As the industry leader in providing meaningful and relevant industry data, MAPP continues to produce and publish benchmarking reports for industry executives. All benchmarking opportunities are driven by MAPP member organizations and new benchmarking studies are added throughout the year. Benchmarking reports are available for purchase on the MAPP website at www.mappinc.com/resources.

Sharing Best in Class Initiatives: 2019 MAPP Best Practices Awards

mapp-best-practices-awardsMAPP established its Best Practices Award Series in 2015 and each year submissions, involvement and impact see significant increases from MAPP-member organizations. Not only do these awards recognize member organizations going above and beyond, they also give plastics companies the opportunity to learn and get inspiration from others in the industry. The 2019 Awards include Safety Best Practice, Innovations in Workstation Layout and Best Practices in Educational Outreach.

See the submissions for all Best Practices Awards at
www.mappinc.com/resoures/bestpracticesawards.

2019 Safety Best Practices Awards

  • This year’s award recipients were recognized at the annual Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) Summit this July in Columbus, Ohio. This award seeks to celebrate, recognize and share best practices from MAPP members in safety.
  • This year’s Safety Best Practices winners are Automation Plastics Corporation, Intertech Plastics, Currier Plastics and PolyFlex.

2019 Innovation Award

  • Voting continues for the 2019 Innovation Award. The 2019 Innovation Award is focused on Workstation Layout. MAPP members submitted  photos and videos to illustrate how their companies have implemented an effective workstation layout to reduce motion and waste, optimize ergonomics, create standardization, eliminate confusion, increase workplace safety, reduce takt time, maximize space or otherwise increase overall employee and/or workplace efficiency.
  • Winners are selected by MAPP members and will be recognized at the 2019 Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference.

2019 Educational Outreach Award

  • The annual Educational Outreach Award opened this August for submissions. This award was established to showcase companies that are going above and beyond to get their community and local youth and students interested and involved in manufacturing.
  • MAPP Members may enter their submissions, which should include a description, photo and/or video, through the MAPP website until Sept. 13, 2019.

MAPP Welcomes New Members

MAPP is proud to welcome the following plastics organizations into the MAPP network:

  • A&M Plastics, Inc. – South Houston, Texas
  • FMT, Inc. – Findlay, Ohio
  • Honeywell International Inc. – Oak Creek, Wisconsin
  • Kimball Electronics – Indianapolis, Indiana
  • RL Hudson – Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
  • SMI Molding – Clearfield, Utah
  • Vision Plastics, Inc. – Wilsonville, Oregon
  • WaDal Plastics, Inc. – Medford, Wisconsin

Bringing Together Plastics Industry Peers to Excel

In 2019, MAPP hosted two new events geared toward unique groups of MAPP members and plastics industry professionals. Both events were driven by the needs voiced from MAPP members, and the content was developed specifically to improve skills and network with others in their same functional area or demographic.

mapp-2019-young-professionalsYoung Professionals Leadership Training

  • This spring, MAPP offered the first annual Leadership Experience for industry young professionals. The Leadership Experience curriculum was developed with the understanding that leadership is a hard skill, does not happen in a vacuum and needs to be practiced.
  • This event explored the importance of understanding what drives you, your strengths, weaknesses, and how to build mental and emotional muscles to be an effective leader. The YP Leadership Experience was the kickoff to a nine-month journey, which will follow up with breakouts and event takeaways, three virtual coaching sessions from Ryan Krupa and peer networking, as well as continued outreach to facilitate accountability and further develop peer-to-peer relationships.
  • Interested in the 2020 event? Join MAPP’s Young Professionals Network at www.mappinc.com.

mapp-2019-sales-forum2019 Sales Forum

  • “There is no space for salespeople in the plastics industry to truly learn and share from one another.” It was those words from a MAPP member that led MAPP to hold the 2019 Sales Process Forum. It is no secret that one of the biggest challenges reported by manufacturing companies is strategically managing their sales processes. To that end, MAPP created an event laser-focused on helping manufacturers understand best practices in managing sales.
  • The forum focused specifically on how to best manage components critical to business development. This full-day event featured seven sales professionals from member companies, four roundtable exchanges and culminated in final event takeaways and action plans.
  • Find the recap and summary of this event on the MAPP website.

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