Discovering Co-design and co-development at Mora Group

I’m Vincent Collard, Technical Director of the MORA Group, and a mechanical engineer with a degree from the UTC in Compiègne. I started my career as a project manager in the subcontracting sector, then spent 15 years in the automotive industry as a Tier 1 supplier.

I worked on the development of sensors for engines, gearboxes and mechatronic systems for customers such as PSA, Renault, BMW, Ford, Fiat, Mazda, Maserati and many other brands in France and internationally. I managed development teams of up to 30 people and oversaw the entire project lifecycle, from design to production.

This experience enabled me to strengthen my management skills and the management of complex projects. I then moved into a different sector, becoming a key account project manager for solar power plants, where I managed projects for customers such as EDF and Aéroports de Paris.

I then joined MORA as a project manager, before becoming Technical Director.

What distinguishes our approach at Mora is that all development is located in France, at Chambost-Allières. Our team works on projects and parts to be manufactured at our sites in France, Portugal and Romania, depending on the needs of the group. Manuplast, our Swiss subsidiary, is autonomous, but we also contribute our technical expertise on certain issues. We manage a wide range of projects for the medical, automotive and industrial sectors. All products manufactured within the Mora Group have necessarily passed through our development team.

As Head of Development, I manage a small team of around ten people:

It includes the two project managers and the person in charge of industrial methods. The latter specialises in special machines and peripherals at the press exit. She helps us to define the presses, draw up the specifications, validate the equipment, ensure that it is put into operation and carry out all the on-site qualifications.

  • Since 2019, quality has been integrated into development. This means that we can work more smoothly in project mode. We have an engineer in charge of quality-related documents, in particular qualifications, which are particularly demanding in the medical sector, with IQ, OQ, PQ reports, etc. We also develop protocols, i.e. preliminary documents, and define qualification criteria with customers. We also develop the protocols, i.e. the preliminary documents, and define the qualification criteria with the customers. The whole process is supervised by a validation master plan drawn up by the Quality Engineer.
  • The quality engineer also draws up the measurement programmes on 3D machines, the R&R studies qualifying these measurements and the capability calculations qualifying the products. We also carry out the in-house fitting required for these measurements.

Le service comprend également une contrôleuse Qualité, qui travaille sur les rapports de métrologie. Elle alimente les différents rapports Qualité par ses analyses et inspections sur pièces et ses mesures.

A mould expert with 30 years’ experience is both the tool expert and the tool buyer. He ensures consistency in exchanges with mould makers, using a common language. Under his supervision, two press set-up technicians are responsible for injection testing. They adjust the injection programme, carry out all the necessary tests and suggest improvements to optimise the processes.

The cost estimator is responsible for assessing the costs of all the RFQs we receive. These estimates are then sent to the sales department. There is a real continuity within the Technical Department between the costing being carried out and the project being taken over by the project manager. I think this involvement is essential, because the department takes ownership of the project, being responsible for both the costing and the project management.

We’re a relatively small team, but we work very closely together, which means we can be extremely responsive. The integration of development quality, mould purchasing and setting technicians within the department enables us to operate in a very coherent way. Working in a vacuum encourages fluid, rapid communication, which considerably improves responsiveness and the quality of information exchanged. This organisation is a real strength, giving us agility and fluidity in the management of our projects.

Development at MORA is special because we don’t design our own plastic parts. We respond to customer requirements, often defined by a specification, a 3D model or a customer drawing, as the project progresses. Our responsibility is not to design the part, but to work closely with the customer to manufacture it, hence the term ‘co-development’. We have to ensure that the part is correctly processed, that it injects optimally and that it is manufactured in accordance with the requirements. To achieve this, we take into account input data relating to quality, production capacity and the manufacturing environment.

From the 3D part supplied, the first step is to produce a DFM (Design For Manufacturing), where we recommend adjustments to make the design more realistic for our process. For example, for the mould, we indicate modifications such as undercuts, ejectors, injection points and parting lines. In short, our job is to design the means to manufacture the part in accordance with the customer’s requirements.

The customer can provide details of the production environment, for example in the medical sector, where clean environments are required, such as ISO 7 or ISO 8 rooms.

From the outset, we have to plan for the manufacture of the injection mould and its installation on the production line. We are increasingly evolving from an injector to a manufacturer, integrating automated machines to manage downstream processes. Our role is to ensure that the part is produced according to the customer’s expectations, in terms of quality and capacity.

From there, we design the mould, taking into account the optimisation of part injection, mould ejection and positioning. It’s also essential to think about peripherals, such as how the part can be picked up by a robot for packaging or decoration. We need to anticipate very early on the processes required to meet the customer’s expectations. We often have a great deal of freedom in the design of the tools, with the customer mainly defining the requirements in terms of functionality. This leaves our team with the responsibility of designing the industrial resources to meet their requirements.

We work in project mode, which means that the project manager plays a functional hierarchical role. He or she is the customer’s single point of contact, enabling him or her to maintain an overview of all the project’s input and output data. Procedures must not be seen as a constraint; they must be transformed into effective tools for monitoring and ensuring the smooth running of the project.

Development is managed according to an internal procedure, no. 20, which includes six milestones called PR (Project Review), from PR1 to PR6. Each milestone marks a project review point, with specific input and output data. I take part in all these project reviews, which have to be signed off before moving on to the next milestone. As long as there are open actions, we can’t move on to the next review. This process allows us to structure and phase development over time.

The process begins after the contract review, which marks the official launch of the project by the sales department (Kick off). Once the order has been received, the project can begin. I appoint the project manager and the associated team, which constitutes the handover between the quotation/offer phase and the project phase. The project manager The project manager then receives the budget, which includes the amount of purchases and the number of hours allocated to the project. After the contract review, the development procedure is launched.

RP1 consists of a 63-points questionnaire that we have to answer based on the project’s input data. It checks that the specifications are complete, that all the information is entered in the ERP system, and it defines the team, the schedule and the budget. If everything is in order, this means that the team has all the data it needs to start the project. This stage freezes the definition of the industrial means of implementing the product, in line with the customer’s requirements. If everything is in order, I sign the RP1 to validate this stage.

Between RP1 and RP2, we order all the necessary manufacturing resources, such as moulds, peripherals and special machines. At the same time, we validate the design of the equipment using a verification checklist. Another validation document covers the acceptance of the equipment, with a new checklist to be completed. These steps ensure that the design is validated and that the manufacturing equipment is ready for the next phase of the project.

It is dedicated to the first tests, with a new checklist to be validated following the tests carried out on the machines. Several fine-tuning and metrology loops are carried out to ensure that all the conditions are met and enable this stage to be validated. These tests confirm that the manufacturing resources comply with the specifications before moving on to the next stage.

RP3 is linked to IS (Initial Samples) for the automotive and industrial sectors, or OQ (Operational Qualifications) for the medical sector. These are parts that we deliver to the customer, which serve as the basis for all qualifications. These parts must be representative of what will be produced in series. They are crucial because they validate the project with the customer and accurately reflect the production process.

If production takes place abroad, the project manager and tooling manager will travel to the site to guarantee conformity. In the medical sector, two qualifications are carried out: the QO, which is product-oriented, and the QP, which is process-oriented and entirely faithful to series production. These qualifications are essential to obtain customer acceptance before going into production

This confirms that we have received the customer’s validation feedback and that all the conditions have been accepted. It confirms that the part meets the customer’s requirements and that we can proceed to series production.

It marks the handover from development to production. It includes a detailed checklist with internal documents to be completed. This stage is used to check that production has all the necessary information, such as the control range, the product drawing and the means to manufacture the part… This is also the stage at which the production plant confirms that it agrees to take over development. It also serves as a check-up to assess the progress of the QP (Qualification Process) and to ensure that everything is in order before launching production.

RP6 takes place after approximately 6 months of production. It provides feedback on how the production process has gone, identifying what went well and what went badly. It also enables us to identify improvements to be made to the process. This stage is crucial for obtaining feedback from the manufacturing sites, in order to optimise methods and guarantee consistent quality across all the Group’s plants. A full financial review of the project is carried out, and any deviations from the initial costing are analysed. A comparison of the initial and actual schedules is carried out, with explanations given if there are any discrepancies. The aim is to take into account areas for improvement for future projects. RP6 is signed by myself.

The quality part of the development process is crucial, in particular to ensure that the final product meets the customer’s requirements. This includes documentation and the implementation of checking fixtures from the earliest stages of development. We are responsible for designing the checking fixtures used in production, such as specific fixtures with three-dimensional checks performed by 3D measuring machines (probing or optical).

The measurement programme is designed by our team. In very demanding sectors such as the medical sector, and when we have moulds with 64 cavities, we develop specific fixtures enabling us to simultaneously check all the parts produced from a mould.

These tools must be qualified to guarantee their accuracy and reliability when measuring parts. Once qualified, they are used to assess part conformity and determine the capability of each critical rib. These checking fixtures are then transferred to the quality teams at the production sites, who use them to ensure rigorous and constant monitoring, guaranteeing part conformity throughout the manufacturing process.

Quality during the project also involves ensuring that all the qualification documents and associated test sheets are properly drawn up, from the protocols to the final reports.

And there can be no good process without appropriate Risk Analysis and Process FMEA; this approach is taken by the Development Quality department, involving the entire project team.

The design of the cleanrooms that enable us to comply with ISO13485 was carried out by Mora’s development team. The entire 3D construction of the environment came from our department, with manufacturing being subcontracted. A new cleanroom was installed in 2017, followed by the second in 2019, the third in 2021, and the fourth in 2023. These facilities impose significant requirements in terms of cleanliness, clothing and environmental control.

Today, Mora is more than just an injector. Although injection moulding remains our core business, we have broadened our expertise by developing related processes and technologies such as leak-proof unit packaging, 100% camera control, automatic packaging, decoration and marking to ensure traceability. We have also put in place processes to manage the sterilisation of parts and guarantee their sterility.

At Mora, we master injection moulding, process automation and the validation of our processes and products through a rigorous procedure.

Our technical excellence lies in offering our customers the optimum level of automation in response to their economic, capacity and quality requirements.

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