Lego Expertise ... way beyond Plastic Molding

[DrJB]

When most of us think of Lego, we 'simplify' it to a company consisting primarily of plastic injection molding machines. Yet, when you think about it 'seriously' it takes quite a bit of 'engineering' to produce the toys we love. I was reviewing the various electronic boxes I have at home (e.g. spybots), and it does require way more than injection molding to 'perfect' such toys. What are the key 'competences' you think Lego relies upon? And no, I'm not asking for an org chart of TLG.

[Blakbird]

Looks like another topic that shouldn't be in the Technic forum.

There's no doubt that there's much more to LEGO than plastic.

[jantjeuh]

Looks like another topic that shouldn't be in the Technic forum.

DrJB seems to have a patent on those as of late

[Mikuri]

It's all maths and possible uses of the part. Even if its illegal for LEGO sets, some ways are very interesting for MOCs. You must have a very good LEGO parts knowledge to create more parts. The maths are pretty much already done... :P

[DrJB]

Looks like another topic that shouldn't be in the Technic forum.

There's no doubt that there's much more to LEGO than plastic.

What can I say guys? ... trying to 'enliven' the forum with something different than 'Have you seen the latest MOC ???'

DrJB seems to have a patent on those as of late

Just doing my share ... or at least trying ...

It's all maths and possible uses of the part. Even if its illegal for LEGO sets, some ways are very interesting for MOCs. You must have a very good LEGO parts knowledge to create more parts. The maths are pretty much already done... :P

Good point, I was looking more at it from an 'operations' perspective ... buying plastic pellets from a supplier, ensuring dye quality is the same whether it's obtained from a supplier in Mexico or India, HR and employee benefits, ... and all the 'supporting' functions that we (end users) never see when we buy a box of plastic parts. As BlakBird mentioned, there is much more than meets the eye.

Edited November 22, 2014 by DrJB

[Lipko]

I guess there is some testing too. Testing new parts, monitoring the quality of manufactured parts, which requires statistics: fancy/popular/in-house-invented methods to randomly pick specific number of parts from the production line. Testing probably include endurance tests like in IKEA when they bend a part 100.000 times then thoroughly inspect the part after the test, act (inform the quality department, the constructor, the moulding guys, whatever) if a part is failing or too many parts are failing or a part is failing just before package etc. Endurance tests involve automated test benches, which are operated by PLCs, or computers, maybe actuated by pneumatics/mechatronics systems. These "product monitoring" tests require a pretty good database management, new parts may require new devices/adapters for the test bench etc.

I guess there are endurance tests for connecting parts, inserting pins, and that can be quite tricky to engineer.

And this product monitoring applies to everything else. Rubber parts, boxes (maybe no endurance test here), plastic bags, sticker printing, part painting, booklet printing, etc.

I don't know about environmental requirements, but tests may involve climate tests (like cooling parts to -20 °C then heating them to +50 °C and see if a part with a new mould cracks).

Not to mention working with plastic. Chemistry, thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, micron-precision (3D?) measurement of the moulds because they are being worn.

Worker safety (working with chemicals, heat, big machines, moving materials, etc).

These are just some small random segments I could think of at the moment (I work as a test engineer, can you tell)

Edited November 22, 2014 by Lipko

[jantjeuh]

Despite all the strict measurement and quality control TLG obviously performs, still that (very temporary) new worm gear managed to get released. I wonder how that happened.

[DrJB]

Despite all the strict measurement and quality control TLG obviously performs, still that (very temporary) new worm gear managed to get released. I wonder how that happened.

True, but ultimately all such decisions are made by human beings ... and we all make mistakes. Just recently, I've spent 2 man weeks doing a calculation to simulate some durability, I sent my report, shared with upper management, then, yesterday realized along the way, I had forgotten a zero somewhere, and my calculation was off (not by ten) ... so, what do you do in such situation? ... Be honest, I sent an email to all that have seen my report, informed them to delay physical implementation, and give me few days until I re-check everything. With TLG, it's not just the worm gear, I'm sure many remember the excavator with faulty LAs ... It was painful, but they did issue a recall because they have a quality/reputation/commitment they live by.

But, remind me, what is so wrong with the new worm gear? I have about 10 on those.

...

These are just some small random segments I could think of at the moment (I work as a test engineer, can you tell)

Very nice/broad coverage, Thank You.

I wonder, what would lego employees be not too happy about?

Edited November 22, 2014 by DrJB

[Lipko]

I wonder, what would lego employees be not too happy about?

You mean what parts?

Anyhoo, management employees are probably not too happy about engineers, engineers are not too about with the management team, workers are not too happy aqbout the engineers and management team, and no one is happy about the Information Technology team....

Edited November 22, 2014 by Lipko

[jantjeuh]

And everybody hates the whining customers

But, remind me, what is so wrong with the new worm gear? I have about 10 on those.

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=97181

I quote:

The element has been pulled back since it didn't fully live up to the expectations.

Durability is not as the LEGO Technic team would like it to be, it can get overloaded/overworked too easily for their liking

[legomuppet9]

I 'believe' that at one point 'TLG' were the 'biggest' producers of tyres in the world

[veryrusty]

For me it has to be the precision in the manufacturing. You can buy all the injection molding machines you want, but it takes a certain attitude to say that the billionth thing you make will have the same measurements as the thousandth.

[paul_delahaye]

ensuring dye quality is the same whether it's obtained from a supplier in Mexico or India,

Not one of the LEGO groups strongest areas this, just take a look at a set with large quantities of yellow in it. But this is not a LEGO bashing session, I'm sure it's massively complicated doing what they do with so many new parts each year.

[DrJB]

Not one of the LEGO groups strongest areas this, just take a look at a set with large quantities of yellow in it. But this is not a LEGO bashing session, I'm sure it's massively complicated doing what they do with so many new parts each year.

What I've heard is that the variation in lego colors (yellows or reds) is not because the parts are made in different locations. I read somewhere that few years back, and rather than mixing large batches of plastic, lego is now using injection molding machines where the coloring is done on the actual machine itself. Think of it as a simplification/streamlining of the manufacturing process where now, the various colors are obtained kind of like mixing few basic dyes ... just the same way your color printer works, and thus, no need for preparing large amounts of raw plastic, with all sorts of shades/hues. If someone recalls the sources for the above story, can they post them?

As for the variation from plant to plant, I think it's mostly visible in the actual parts themselves. Some of them show 'clear' differences in mold geometry e.g., if you look close enough, there are actually 2 different versions of 48989.

[1974]

What I've heard is that the variation in lego colors (yellows or reds) is not because the parts are made in different locations. I read somewhere that few years back, and rather than mixing large batches of plastic, lego is now using injection molding machines where the coloring is done on the actual machine itself. Think of it as a simplification/streamlining of the manufacturing process where now, the various colors are obtained kind of like mixing few basic dyes ... just the same way your color printer works, and thus, no need for preparing large amounts of raw plastic, with all sorts of shades/hues. If someone recalls the sources for the above story, can they post them?

Yes, this is the way it's done now. There are several reasons for this, but the main one has to be cost and not being dependant on one supplier (BASF)

I think you can see the non-coloured (milkywhite) pellets in that MegaFactory show

It's funny TLG pride themselves with having a 0,002mm tolerance for the bricksize while having a 20% tolerance in colourvariation .. yes only the best is good enough

The most expensive LEGO sets _that are squarely amied at adults_ cost as much a an Apple product. If Apple had so poor control over colours the world surely would end right now

TLG produces some +300 million tyres each year making them the largest producer of such a part

Back on topic ..

What TLG is really good at is logistics. They produces an absolute enourmous amount of parts that needs to go to very specific parts of the world at very specific times, faliure is not really an option

Cheers,

Ole

[alanyuppie]

When most of us think of Lego, we 'simplify' it to a company consisting primarily of plastic injection molding machines. Yet, when you think about it 'seriously' it takes quite a bit of 'engineering' to produce the toys we love. I was reviewing the various electronic boxes I have at home (e.g. spybots), and it does require way more than injection molding to 'perfect' such toys. What are the key 'competences' you think Lego relies upon? And no, I'm not asking for an org chart of TLG.

I believe these days the most important key competencies no longer lies in the engineering/freshness of in house themes *cough*repeated City fire/polis/hospital*cough*cough* of lego products. The ball is now more towards the business development and marketing to foresee potentially good prospects in securinf licensing to make products that can attract non-AFOLs to splurge and complete them.

[tafkatb]

A few other techniques they use for QA: new molds will often get a test run in Bright Red or Transparent, as any flaws in the mold show up more readily in those colors. (And that's where weird parts like the red Vader helmet you occasionally see on Bricklink come from.) Designers also "cook" sets to see how well connections hold up - pieces lose some of their clutch power above a certain temperature, so deliberately heating them up helps pinpoint weaker connections that would otherwise seem stable.

Oh, and Apple surely has just as much color variance in their plastics - but no one notices because no one's trying to stack a thousand iPods into a castle wall.

[The_Cook]

Oh, and Apple surely has just as much color variance in their plastics - but no one notices because no one's trying to stack a thousand iPods into a castle wall.

I was thinking just that as I read the earlier comments. It's also worth noting that mechanical tolerance is intrinsic to the function of the item, hence such tight tolerances, whereas colour tolerance isn't.

Think about their packing processes. How do you ensure that you always get exactly the right number of parts into the right bags. Given the millions of bricks that they must pack a day the fact that the error rates are so low is amazing.