Why does Plante & Moran conduct this survey?
The knowledge we gain from survey participants, as well as what we have learned from working with our plastics industry-leading clients, affords us the opportunity to:
- Understand the industry and define the attributes that contribute to a successful company
- Identify future opportunities/problems by examining data trends
- Become a thought leader in the industry by exploring emerging trends with focus group volunteers
What will my report look like?
The last benchmarking report was over 75 plus pages for processors. The report had an executive summary, demographics, findings, benchmarking data, and definitions. Data was presented in both graphs and tables. The benchmarking data presented the participating company's data versus compiled quartile data of the total population. In the past, this was a paper-based report and sent to the survey owner (due to the confidential data only one copy was produced per participant). We prefer to send the report electronically via PDF, but can also distribute paper copies upon request.
Is there an opportunity to explore the data more deeply?
Most definitely. We are available to review your survey results with your management team and explore the significance of any unusual relationships. We can also prepare tailored reports that allow you to compare your data to subsets within our database (sales size, industry focus, etc.). This requires us to extract the data using our statistical software and database. We also need to examine the number of participants to ensure we are not violating any anti-trust rules, particularly if the extracted population has less than 10 participants (our minimum for reporting). Statistical inference will require substantially more participants to be valid. If you are interested in additional exploration of the data, please contact us.
How will my data remain confidential?
We require each participant to identify themselves for validation purposes only (we want only real companies to participate, and not fictitious companies to either obtain a report under false pretenses or distort the results). Each participant will have a unique password and the data will be shared only in a secured site. The data is then downloaded to a database with a participant code versus the name of the company as the unique identifier. All statistical analysis is performed without company identification. When the final reports are available, you again must access the data using the secured website and password to view and download the report. We do not publish the names of the participants.
If I have questions on completing the survey, what are my options to have them answered?
Within each survey, there is a comment box to indicate how you interpreted the questions and responded with an answer. You may call Elaine Corriero at 312-602-3563, elaine.corriero@plantemoran.com, or fax us at 248-233-7695.
I have both mold making and molding at my facility. Should I complete both surveys?
If each facility is an independent reporting unit, meaning separate balance sheet and income statement, then yes. Otherwise, both activities should be combined together under the predominant activity for answering the questions.
Please note, the mold manufacturing survey is done bi-annually and it may not be available today. Please contact us if you would like to participate in the mold manufacturing survey in an off year.
I am a multi-facility company. Should I have all the facilities respond independently?
If each facility is an independent reporting unit, meaning separate balance sheet and income statement, then yes. Otherwise, the various facilities should be combined together for answering the questions.
What if I have independent reporting units but also have centralized certain functions with the corporate parent, such as product development, sales, purchasing, and human resources?
We are assuming that as independent reporting units, the centralized services are somehow charged to the independent reporting unit. The specific questions that apply to centralized services may have to be repeated in each of the independent reporting units (such as number of patents developed within the last three years). Perhaps, in your judgment the question can be allocated to each of the units (such as E-bidding/quoting). Feel free to leave supplemental comments on any answer you provide that may be interpreted in different ways.
I am a multi-national company with operations in China. Is there any way to compare my company as a consolidated entity versus others?
Our focus is how North America competes within its boundaries. We do have a few questions about sourcing production to low cost countries, but otherwise the survey is not designed to address global benchmarking practices.
I am a larger company; this survey appears to be geared to smaller companies. Will I receive any benefit?
Clearly the plastics industry is very fragmented. Truth be told, the average size for a molder is under $12 million and for a moldmaker is under $3 million. The majority of participants will be near these amounts. Still, we have focused our mailing list to obtain a generous number of participants at all levels, including in excess of $100 million. The wide array of participants is necessary to accurately analyze the health of the industry and if there is any benefit of size.
I am a thin gage thermoformer; the operating characteristics of this survey appear to be geared to sheet extruded thermoforming. Will the benchmark data be meaningful to me?
Several specific operating questions for are prepared for different processes, including injection molding, structural foam molding, compression molding, blow molding, thermoforming, pipe extrusion, profile extrusion, and sheet extrusion. We did not address all possible processes. However, we believe many of the remaining benchmarks on operational, human resources, financial and strategy and marketing will still apply to other processes and encourage your participation.
Do you offer an online survey?
In previous years we've offered the processor survey via both Excel and an online form. Based on participant feedback, we decided to make the 2010 survey available exclusively as an Excel questionnaire. We will, however, conduct other plastics industry surveys using web-based survey tools in accordance with our ongoing research of the industry.