From Prototype to Production

For many years, Mack Molding has been an extension of its customers, bringing customer products to life through its vast array of contract manufacturing services and expertise in developing injection-molded plastic parts. As their customers bring challenging and complex designs, Mack Molding’s team needs to be ready to turn those challenges into products.

There are many steps that go into producing a product for a customer, beginning with design review, design for manufacturing, and establishing Bills of Materials (BOMs), just to name a few, but it gets real for the customer when the program is launching. Launching products requires different considerations than production. “To launch, you need speed. You need flexibility. You need to just be able to react on a dime whereas, in production, you want structure, you want consistency, and stability.” - explained Joan Magrath, Vice President of Sales and Engineering at Mack Molding.

Creating Work Instructions in Mack Prototype’s New Product Introduction Lab

By separating NPI from production, Mack Molding can focus on prototyping and testing new products without disrupting the normal production process. This allows them to quickly identify and address any issues that may arise, ultimately leading to faster time-to-market for their customers.

One of the key tools that Mack Molding uses in its NPI process is Tulip's Frontline Operations Platform. Tulip enables flexibility and agility in the prototyping process, allowing Mack Molding to quickly make changes and improvements to its products.

Greg Cebular, President of Mack Prototype immediately noticed the value. “Why this is so valuable for our organization,” he explains, “is that we’re able to use it to work hands-on with our customers to create work instructions that help cut down on the training curve when we are cross-training our team.”

Additionally, Tulip provides real-time visibility into the production process, allowing Mack Molding's customers to track the progress of their products and make informed decisions about their production timelines. Mack’s customer products can have hundreds of different molded and electronic components often assembled for the very first time with a new workforce.

With Tulip apps created alongside parts and products, Mack Prototype is able to work hands-on with its customers to create work instructions, cutting down on the training curve. The team at Mack is able to get up-to-speed and bounce around from project to project as needed with up-to-date, error-proof instructions.

Because the TrueLimb product goes through several revision stages to create the perfect fit, it is important for the Unlimited Tomorrow team to be able to track exactly what parts are used at which revision level. Samantha ditched their previous ERP system by creating their own system with apps and Tables in Tulip to manage bills of materials (BOMs) and streamline inventory management in real time.

In addition to replacing their ERP system, Samantha integrated Tulip with their CRM, FreshSales, using Connectors to create a bidirectional data transfer between systems. This connection enables Unlimited Tomorrow to communicate the status of orders with their customers directly from a Tulip app, rather than switching back and forth to their CRM. This change improved their communication and transparency with their customers, leading to higher customer satisfaction.

Enabling Citizen Development

Samantha previously had no technical background or coding experience, but with the no-code app editor, online training materials, and support from the Tulip team whenever she needed it, she has been able to build solutions that fit the critical needs of the Unlimited Tomorrow team.

The Tulip platform enables Unlimited Tomorrow to continuously improve their processes in response to feedback from those closest to their operations and make decisions based on real-time data.

Tulip’s Composable Platform Creates Unlimited Possibilities for Unlimited Tomorrow

Being on the forefront of prosthetic technology, Unlimited Tomorrow likes to “fail fast and move fast” to get their life-changing products to those that need it as quickly as possible while maintaining quality at an affordable price. Unlimited Tomorrow chose Tulip as a platform that is as agile as their operations as they continue to innovate and reach more patients.