Moulds, jigs and tooling: tracking items that move between sites

Moulds, jigs, gauges and other tooling hold a strange place in a plant. They are among the most valuable assets, they are heavy and awkward to move, and yet they often leave the building: to a supplier for repair, to a subcontractor for a production run, or to another site. A mould that is "somewhere" is a risk. Production stops without it, a replacement takes weeks, and nobody can say which line of the register it is. Four things make tooling traceable: a tag, a custodian, a location and a movement record.

Tag the tool itself

Choose a tag that survives heat, oil, cleaning and handling.

• An engraved or stamped metal plate carrying the asset number, fixed with screws or rivets on a side that is not worn by the working cycle, away from the working face.
• A barcode or RFID tag mounted on a spacer to keep it off the metal surface. Even a metal-tolerant RFID tag should be tested on the actual tool first.
• For small tools such as jigs and gauges, tag the storage case and also engrave the number on the tool itself.
• Photograph the tool with the tag and the part number or serial number stamped on the tool in the same picture, as evidence that this tag belongs to this tool.
• Never paint over a tag.
• Make a spare plate with the same number, so that a tag that falls off can be replaced at once.

Name a custodian and a home location

Each tool gets one custodian, a named person and not a department, and a home location, for example tool-store rack T-02 or press 4. Record the home location and the current location separately, because the current location may be a press, a repair shop or a supplier. The custodian is responsible for being able to say where the tool is.

Record every movement

If the usage count or inspection history is kept on the same card, it also shows when maintenance is due. A movement card or document carries the asset number, from, to, date and time, reason (production, repair, cleaning), who handed it over, who received it, the expected return date and signatures. At the gate, no tool leaves without that document.

For illustration, suppose there are 60 moulds. 48 are inside the plant, on a press or in the tool store, and 12 are away at three suppliers. The movement log has 12 open lines, each with an expected return date. A tooling count is then finished by scanning the 48 inside and confirming the 12 outside.

Confirm the tools that are away

A mould at a supplier cannot be read with your scanner. Ask the supplier for a signed list of what it holds and a photograph of each tool with its tag visible, or visit and scan. Confirm at least before each count, and repeat every quarter. The photograph must show the tag number and the condition of the tool. Also check that the subcontract states who owns the tool and under what conditions it must be returned. If a tool is past its expected return date, phone at once.

The counting routine

1. Count the tools inside the plant by scanning the tag at each location.
2. Compare the list of tools outside with the movement log and confirm them one by one.
3. A tool that is neither scanned nor on the supplier's list counts as missing and is followed up.
4. When the check is finished, correct in the register the same day the current location of any tool whose location or condition has changed.
5. A tool found with no tag and no record is unrecorded: tag it and find out who owns it. Whether it is the company's own or was supplied by a customer or head office is for finance and management to decide.

Summary

Valuable tooling becomes the biggest risk the moment its location is unclear. With a tag, a custodian and a movement record, a count shrinks to a confirmation. In its fixed-asset tagging and counts, Smart Inventory fixes barcode or RFID labels to moulds, equipment and instruments, records location and condition, and compares the result with your asset register.