P/N
Minimum
Location
Order
Supplier
For injection molding and plastics manufacturers
An empty pail of purge compound can put a press on hold. Put Arda cards with the desiccant, heater bands and supplies that keep production moving. Scan when stock runs low to start replenishment alongside your existing ERP.
P/N
The reorder stops depending on the tech who reached for the pail
The tool is hung, the next color is dosed, and the purge shelf beside the press is empty. Every stockout starts there. Arda puts the reorder on the pail instead: the card carries the quantity and your supplier's lead time, so the refill is moving before anyone has to push virgin resin through the barrel to get the last color out. Same card on desiccant beds, screen packs, heater bands and the gaylords your good parts leave in.
The shelf did not fail. The signal did.
The real problem
Your press stops for the one thing that was never on a bill of materials
Molding is more BOM-driven than most shops. Resin, color and inserts are all part numbers, and your ERP plans them properly against your release schedule. But the shelf next to the press holds purge compound, desiccant, heater bands and gaylords, and none of those belong to a part number, so nothing is planning them at all. When one runs out, the press sits exactly as long as it would for a resin shortage.
The color change that stops at the purge pail
The tool is hung, the next color is dosed, and the tech reaches for purge compound that is not there. Now it is either a wait or a long push of virgin resin through the barrel, which burns expensive material and drives scrap up while the press makes nothing anyone can sell.
Wet resin nobody saw coming
Desiccant beds and dryer filters degrade quietly, so dew point creeps and the resin runs wetter than the sheet says. The first sign is splay two hours into a run, and by then the lot is scrap. No planning run ever asked whether the desiccant had been changed.
Good parts that cannot leave the building
The run is perfect and the gaylords are gone. Finished parts stack up beside the press because there is nothing to put them in, the truck leaves light, and a molder does not get paid until the parts ship.
How it works
How does inventory replenishment work in a molding plant using Arda?
Arda's inventory replenishment software puts a scannable card on every item a molding plant stocks, starting with the shelf your planning run was never pointed at, so the scan fires the reorder on its own. No stock check, no purchase order to type, no ERP rollout. Scan a card, the material shows up.
Your ERP plans the first row. Nothing plans the second one.
A bill of materials describes a part, so it can only cover what goes into the part. Purge compound belongs to a changeover. Desiccant belongs to a dryer. Gaylords belong to a shipment. None of them belong to a part number, so none of them get planned, and any one of them stops the press. The same card works on both rows, which means you can start on the second one and extend to the first whenever you want.
- Purging compound
- Mold release & rust preventative
- Desiccant beds & dryer filters
- Screen packs & hopper magnets
- Heater bands & thermocouples
- Mold water & seal spares
- Granulator knives & screens
- Gaylords, cartons & stretch wrap
- Press-side supplies
Scan the card when a bin or pail runs low
Every stocked item gets a durable card with a QR code, from a pail of purge compound to a box of desiccant to a pallet of gaylords. A process technician scans it with any phone, no extra hardware, no login friction.
The order fires automatically
The reorder goes out at the card's quantity to the supplier already on the card, so the next pails of purge compound are moving while the tool is still hung. Nobody types a purchase order.
See every card, pulled to restocked
Pulled, on order, restocked, per press and per shelf. Purchasing sees what the purge shelf and the dryer room are short of without walking the floor.
Each card encodes a proven loop sized to your real consumption: reorder point, the two-bin system, min/max levels, and safety stock. The math lives on the card, not in someone's head.
Purging compound, IPA-based
Reorder qty
4 pails
Lead time
3 days
Supplier
Chem-Trend
Safety stock
2 pails
Scanned 14:02
PO sent 14:02
Restocked
Start with the pail that stalled your last changeover
Card it today, scan it tomorrow, and see the reorder fire without anyone chasing it. Expand across the presses when it has proven itself.
Make Free Kanban CardsFree plan, no credit card
Proof it works
Manufacturers running Arda on the shelf beside their ERP
Plants that put a card on what they stock, on-BOM and off, and got their throughput and their hours back without changing the system they already run.
6 months
to pay off the rollout
Zero
new hires or new machines
Austere MFG
Precision machine shop. Throughput went up once the shelf stopped being a memory exercise and started firing its own orders, with no new hires and no new machines behind it.
Read the Austere case study →2x
throughput
10 min
a day ordering, from 2–3 hours a week
Assembly Industrial
Heavy-industry fabricator running repeat production against a schedule. Weekly stockouts gone, and the floor went from four builds at a time to eight in six months, without a bigger building or a bigger team.
Read the Assembly Industrial case study →5×
production
80%
less inventory held
Rossmonster
Cards went on 100% of supplies inside a year, and holdings on critical components fell from 25+ to 5 while production went up five times. A fifth of the stock on the shelf, five times as much leaving the building.
Read the Rossmonster case study →See how we compare
Arda vs ERP vs spreadsheets for injection molding
For the items that actually stop a press, here is how the three common approaches stack up on the floor.
ArdaERP / MRPSpreadsheet / memory
Signal to reorderScan a card, order fires automaticallyManual entry, then a planning runSomeone remembers to look
Covers every stocked itemYes, on-BOM and off, same cardPlans on-BOM materials well, has no line for the restOnly if updated by hand
Compliance at the pressHigh, scanning is the easy pathLow, data entry waits on press timeLow, depends on one person
Setup timeStart with one item in a dayMonths of implementationFast, but breaks as it grows
Works with your existing ERPYes, splices in, no rip and replaceIt is the ERPDisconnected from it
Cost to get started$0 on the free planHigh license and rollout costFree, until a stockout costs a day
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Does Arda replace my plastics ERP?
No, and it should not. If you run IQMS/DELMIAworks, CyFrame, Plex or Epicor, you chose it on purpose and it is doing the job it was built for: MRP against your release schedule, resin and masterbatch planned to the part number, press scheduling, job costing, quoting and lot genealogy. Arda does not go near any of that. It runs the physical replenishment loop on the shelf beside the press, on the items that never made it onto a bill of materials. Cards go on purge compound, mold release, desiccant, heater bands and gaylords first, and you can extend the same loop to on-BOM items later if you want one motion everywhere. It integrates with QuickBooks, NetSuite, Odoo, Xero, Shopify, Stripe, Airtable, Make and Zapier, plus a REST API, so there is no rip and replace.
My resin and masterbatch are already on the BOM. What is left for Arda to do?
Everything the BOM has no line for. A bill of materials describes a part, so it can only ever cover what goes into the part. Purge compound belongs to a changeover, not a part number. Desiccant belongs to a dryer. Heater bands belong to a press. Gaylords belong to a shipment. None of those get planned by anything, and any one of them stops the press just as hard as a resin shortage. Put a card on each, and the reorder fires when someone pulls the last one.
What is the fastest way to stop running out of purging compound?
Make the reorder physical instead of scheduled. Purge consumption follows your changeover calendar rather than your part volumes, which is why a forecast never gets it right. With Arda, the pail carries a card sized to your supplier's lead time and your changeover rate. When a tech takes the last one from the buffer, they scan the card and the order is already moving before the next color change is even scheduled. Nobody has to notice the shelf, and nobody has to remember to ask.
How do I set up kanban for a molding plant that runs three shifts?
Put the card at the point of use rather than in the stockroom, so whoever empties the bin is the one who scans it. Size each card to lead time times consumption plus a cushion, and let the buffer cover the wait. Because the card is physical and the scan takes a second, second and third shift trigger the same reorder first shift would have, with no handover note and nobody waiting for the buyer to come in. Scanning is free and needs no account, so every shift can scan without adding cost. More on the two-bin system.
What does Arda cost for a molding plant, and is there a free trial?
Create unlimited items and cards on Free, without Order Queue access. Solo includes one user and up to 10 orders a month after its 7-day trial. Team and Pro are priced per Power User and include unlimited scanning for your team. Compare current plans and billing.
Ten cards, one press, and the changeover stops stopping
Fat Fender put cards on the shelf after two ERP implementations had already failed, and kit output went from one a week to five. Start where it hurts most, on us, and let the second shelf reorder itself.
Free plan, unlimited cards, and the ERP you already run stays exactly where it is.