Efficient ordering and restocking of cutting tools can save a shop downtime and inventory costs. Watch a video from Joe Gibbs Racing explaining how they use a tool dispensing system to avoid these costs.
Having an inefficient process for ordering and restocking cutting tools is a problem that can cost a shop money in at least two different ways. One way is machine downtime. Has a machine in your shop been kept waiting because of a tool that was on order? Has it happened more than once? The lost hours add up.
The response can produce a second problem: hoarding tools. The tool crib, plus individual employees, might stockpile tooling so they don’t come up short in the future. The problem is that they can easily stockpile too much of one tool type, and still come up short of the next tool that is actually needed. Meanwhile, all of the cutting tools sitting in cabinets and chests represent inventory costs that also add up.
Joe Gibbs Racing in Huntersville, North Carolina uses a tool dispensing system from MSC Industrial Supply to avoid these costs. The system automatically places an electronic order every day to restock any tooling that has been taken out. Director of manufacturing Kelly Collins talks about the system in the video clip here. The clip came from a longer video produced by MSC. View the entire film.
