About Tooling

The molding industry has a heavy reliance on tooling, that is, parts within a machine. For example, a molding machine can contain tools such as sprues, gates, fixtures, or inserts. Each tool is a separate resource, and any maintenance that is required can be managed at the individual resource level.

A machine cannot be scheduled if a tool, or resource, is not available for production. A group of tools that all create the same item is a resource group. Both the machine in which the tools are used, and the tools themselves, must be available before they can be scheduled. If a tool is in maintenance, it is removed from production. If the required tools are not available, shift exceptions prevent the mold from being used.

Resources are tracked by accumulative cycles, similar to odometer cycles. Maintenance tasks can be scheduled based on schedule frequency, in terms of cycles, days, weeks, or months. The planned service cycle is the number of cycles expected to be completed in a month. The Life Expected Cycle is the number of accumulative cycles that is expected to occur before the resource is retired.