One step ahead: How manufacturers can make predictive and proactive actions

Paul Mulville, founder of Tooling Pulse, a company who provides predictive analytics software for tooling, explains why capturing data directly from the tool ensures medical manufacturers can make predictive and proactive actions.

Medical device manufacturers are at the forefront of driving industry 4.0, demanding end- to-end control of every aspect of manufacturing visibility and performance and, whether you know it or not, that starts with tooling. For the purposes of this article, tooling is defined as the moulds, dies/jigs and fixtures that facilitate the conversion of raw materials into finished goods.

Tooling serves as the foundation for reliability and optimum product quality, and often gets overlooked as a root cause of numerous manufacturing, quality, and supply-chain issues, primarily because there is no way to measure where the tool lifecycle is in relation to product life cycle. 

So why is it important?  

There exists an assumption on the corporate side that as long as the tooling is maintained, it will last indefinitely. However, tool life cycle has come to the surface as a significant factor that directly affects profit and loss, and there is no industry standard, and no quantitative measure for tool life cycle.

The corporate executive has visibility into product life cycle. After all, it’s the corporate side where orders are placed and where the finances are managed. 

Meanwhile, the operations side is charged with managing an open-ended tooling life cycle, with the added complication of trying to find steadily increasing repair funds for ageing tooling that no longer has an asset value.

Over a period of time and usage, once the tooling has some “mileage” on it, it’s not hard to imagine that something so critical - yet which is not visible to the stake-holders - can become the catalyst for numerous problems including, but not limited to, tooling asset management, transfer tooling, constant break-downs, spiralling maintenance costs, supply-chain issues, recurring part quality problems etc.

The highest specification for mould tooling is class 101, which is guaranteed to last 1M shots/cycles. Many well-maintained tools can last upwards of 10M shots, but once over 1M shots there is a grey area where it is near impossible to predict longevity. That’s where visibility becomes critically important for corporate management.

So, how can you bridge the gap between corporate management and manufacturing operations management, and create global visibility of these high value assets?

Tooling Pulse, a US-based start-up, has developed a reliable method to quantify tool life cycle, and bridge the gap between corporate management and manufacturing operations by delivering real-time tooling metrics right to the fingertips of all corporate stakeholders. 

Founder Paul Mulville explains: “Until now, no-one has been able to accurately define a point in the future that says: “That’s where the tool will fail”, or “that’s when the tool needs to be replaced or phased out”.

He added: “We are a real-time global tooling audit and predictive analytics platform that lets you know: What you have, where it is, what condition it’s in and whether it’s sustainable - essentially by quantifying risk using a sophisticated formula of fixed, variable and dynamic inputs to generate tangible outputs that will enable mitigation decisions to be made.”

What makes Tooling Pulse different?

According to Mulville: “It’s the only product in the space that proactively delivers data (key performance indicators) that allow you to see issues on the horizon, before they become a problem”. 

In an ideal world we would like to see every area of manufacturing as a module or extension of enterprise-level software, however, one might argue that tooling is neither a consumable or a tangible and is most often managed by off-site suppliers. Ironically these same off-site suppliers have difficulty articulating and communicating the current condition of tooling to non-technical purchasing agents, and the issue becomes almost perpetual. Tooling Pulse changes the tables, aiding both the original equipment manufacturer and the supplier with transparent data that allows proactive decisions to be made. 

In summary, industry 4.0 is as relentless as the tide, and it’s simply unacceptable in 2020 for manufacturing leadership to be driven by failures, fallout, anomalies and breakdowns when predictive analytic technology exists to prevent these issues. Tooling Pulse’s method of capturing data directly from the tool provides the missing link in the chain of manufacturing control and accountability, thereby enabling strategic planning decisions.