From an article by Michael Gilchrist, manufacturing engineer
 

Our customers are world wide, both commercial and military.  The complexity of our products and the diversity of our client base requires that we produce many parts.  Our database of part numbers is over 20,000 and active part numbers range from 5,000 to 7,000 depending on open orders.  The sheer volume of parts makes it very challenging to plan tooling resources.  Tool and gage inventories consist of approximately 110,000 unique items, which are stored in two cribs.  The total space of the two cribs is 9,700 square feet.  One crib has 150 storage cabinets and racks, and the other has 80 storage cabinets and racks.  Our tool and gage cribs support the manufacturing operation which is laid out over 234,000 square feet.

Justification
To get funding, we had to relate the savings to operating cost reductions.  It was then I discovered that I could track our manufacturing costs per hour.  At the time we were working up to 500,000 hours per year.  I created a spread sheet with various accounts that were used for new tool purchases and existing tool reconditions to accumulate the cost over the previous year.  I quickly found that we were spending at an average of $3.34 per manufacturing hour on these expenses.  In order to justify the system we had to bite the bullet and say that we would save 10% on this cost.  Thirty-three cents per hour doesn't sound like much, but multiply it by 500,000 hours and you will get $165,000.

A Success!
The selection of PC-TOOLCRIB as a system proved to be a good one.  The people in the cribs had little trouble adapting to the software.  I have been involved in many other software applications.  A common predicament noted by users is that they get stuck somewhere in the menus and cannot find their way out.  I never received a call for this type of problem.  As a user I've found that some software applications are not structured logically.  It is obvious to me that much effort went into this software to present it as a logical and progressive system. 

We also have implemented barcoding.  Laser scanners were installed at each work station to perform tool and gage issue, return, and calibration functions.  The use of barcoding extends from the individual tools and gages to barcoded kit cards and reports.  Another development was a tool and gage kit pick-list report, with barcodes, that is generated from the PC-TOOLCRIB software.  The most important attribute of barcoding is that the people really like to use this technology, because of the ease of use it provides for entering data (error free).  Productivity skyrocketed when barcoding was implemented in the cribs.

From the gage tracking side, PC-TOOLCRIB is highly qualified.  The system is fully capable of controlling our calibrated items (gages), to MIL-STD-45662A.  We also use the PCT-GAGE function of PC-TOOLCRIB to control the calibration and rework of many other items.  These capabilities are essential in our environment because of the way we had established our original system.  Our original system had taken into consideration many needs, internal and external (our customers).  PC-TOOLCRIB was the best fit for our application because of its flexibility in adapting to our already established requirements.

Results
Operating costs were tracked from the inception of the Tool and Gage Management System.  Using the pre-PC-TOOLCRIB $3.34 cost per production manhour as a baseline, we could graphically represent a downward trend.  The downward trend started at $3.34 per hour late in the first year with the ending figure of $2.66 two years later.  The $2.66 figure is a total cost per hour for all of the last year.  Over a two and one‑half year period we reduced our tooling costs by 20%.  It is important to remember that every dollar saved in tooling goes directly to the bottom line, making our operation more profitable.