Establishing a New Cultured Marble Factory
Posted: Sunday, September 10, 2006
by D Kaufman
Sunrise International Company
A cultured marble factory offers a great opportunity for those who want to manufacture bathroom and kitchen building materials for their local housing market whether they are in America, Asia, Europe or Africa. One can manufacture an array of cultured products with the right molds, equipment, training, support and raw materials. I have found that there is a huge demand for someone who is honest, hardworking, reliable and detail oriented who can guide those who are already in the cultured marble business and those who want to investigate the possibility of establishing a new factory. My intentions are not to sell hundreds of marble factories but to help those who want to get in to the business by buying the right cultured marble molds and equip their factory with sufficient tools and equipment for a viable business manufacturing cultured marble, granite, onyx, densified solid surface, and other cultured marble formulas.
1) Before you start any new business, you need to have enough capital to buy what is required to set up your factory sufficiently and to maintain your business until it starts generating a profit. You'll want to take into consideration your overhead such as mortgage or rent, utilities, labor, advertising, etc.
2) Nobody makes a mold comparable to those made in the U.S. Most U.S. manufacturers produce a good mold that will produce up to 5,000 parts over its lifetime so you'll get your return many times over. Buy a larger selection of molds to get a more diverse selection of products to offer your customer. Always take your time and ask for references who are using their molds.
3) You will need to have a sufficient quantity of molds to produce enough product per day to sustain your business. Most cultured marble factories gage their production on how many ‘pounds per day' of marble they produce. Since you will be purchasing all of your raw materials by the pound, it only makes sense to track your production by the 'pound' (pounds-per-day or kilograms-per-day) not by how many 'units' you produce each day. I have seen too many new cultured marble factories who started with too few molds and were not able to produce enough 'pounds per day' to sustain a business.
4) In manufacturing, you have to have the right tools to do the job. Every cultured marble factory requires a spray booth, vibrating tables, and a matrix blender. To be competitive in today's market, you will need a manufacturing system that includes conveyor lines and storage racks to move the molds through the manufacturing process. I recently talked to a struggling factory who installed a total conveyor system in their factory one year ago. The first week after installing their equipment, they finished on Wednesday what it normally took them till Friday to complete. That's an incredible 40% reduction in labor cost. The conveyor system with multi level storage racks also required 75% less floor space. They have since been able to increase their mold inventory, added more mold storage racks, and have doubled their daily ‘pounds-per-day' production. This type of equipment is quite inexpensive and will pay for itself in a short period of time when you consider the increase in production and the huge savings in labor cost.
5) There are a lot of cultured marble type formulas that you can produce in your factory but what is most important, especially in the beginning, is to learn the fundamentals and basic principles and manufacture those products that will give you the fastest return. There are many tricks-of-the-trade in manufacturing any product and the same goes for manufacturing cultured marble. There are many costs saving tips related to raw materials and labor. Did you know that if a factory that produces 4,000 pounds per day reduced their resin content by only 1%, they would save over $1,200.00 per month? There are many senarios like this in a typical cultured marble factory, and they all add up to big bucks.
6) Before you dive in to the cultured marble manufacturing business, do your research. Get the ‘facts' before you invest your money because nobody cares about your money as much as you do. If someone touts that their molds are made out of some space age kinds of materials, promises they can be turned more times a day than anybody elses molds in the industry, guarantees them for an unrealistic period of time, your little antenna should go up.
I always recommend visiting a marble factory. This will give you an idea what a cultured marble factory looks like. I have taken many people on a factory tour and most will tell me they learned more in a factory tour than they had in all the reading they had done or pictures and videos they had seen.
7) Support is crucial in manufacturing cultured marble especially if you're establishing a new cultured marble factory. You need to be assured that you're going to get the manufacturing support you require before investing with any company. With all the various ways we have to communicate worldwide today, there is no reason you should not be able to get a reply from someone within a few hours, if not instantaneously. I'm in touch with people all over the world on a daily basis. I can call China or Africa today for less money than it cost me to call New York a few years ago, and the sound quality is oftentimes better.
8) Mold selection is vital. There is a huge selection of mold types and styles to choose from. Before making any commitment, research what products and styles will sell well in your area and make sure these molds are available. There are new trends in every commodity, and cultured marble is no different.
You can learn more about cultured marble manufacturing at Sunrise International Company.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Great article & Interesting. This gave me an idea what questions to ask before getting into the cultured marble biz. Especially liked the comment "nobody cares about your money as much as you do".
Nice article and a hugely informative website.
I want production equipment for cultured marble factory
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