Justifying the investment in masking

When people are looking to improve a production process or a product, investing in masking isn't always a top priority. Yet, a relatively small investment in masking can pay large dividends.

Good masking can save time and bring consistency to your product. Especially when running a large number of pieces, saving even $0.01 on every item produced could bring significant savings. In this example, running 500,000 items with a more efficient masking process would result in cost savings of at least $5,000.

Bad masking results in an inconsistent product, as masks may differ every time the job is run. Inconsistencies inevitably bring problems with the product and will end up costing more money in the form of reworking the products, dealing with customer complaints, reviewing and explaining why those problems arose and in damage to your reputation. It's important to take the time to implement good masking practices before you encounter problems and complaints.

In order to ascertain if you should invest in more efficient masking, first take a look at your masking area and review what is happening at each stage of the process. Figure 1 shows a typical masking process, including average time spent completing the process.

Figure 1

If it takes 4 minutes and 30 seconds to mask an item using rolls of tape and a knife, using a pre-cut shape could bring that time down to just 30 seconds. The time needed for removal will also be reduced with pre-cut shapes as they are generally easier to remove than multiple strips of tape or hand cut tapes.