Best Practices in Tooling & Fixtures

[Jill Jusko]

I received an inquiry that I am sharing here in the hopes that our readers may be able to offer some help.

In part the request says: We are starting to work on the control of tooling and fixtures. The task is monumental since currently the tooling drawings are really not controlled well.

And the question is: Do you have best practices or procedures in the area of tooling control that we can learn from?

Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated.

[Peter08]

We let the inventory managers in the shop decide what the tooling numbers will be, not just the engineers in the office. This helps the shop by allowing them to own the numbering sequence, and if they need to change something or move inventory, they have the freedom to change tooling identification numbers and keep it organized. The engineers update their drawings per direction from inventory managers in the shop. This also fosters improved communication between departments.