Tooling 4.0: Connecting Industry 4.0 Technology to Your Molds and Molding Process

Gain visibility and manage your most valuable assets

Whether it’s a local mold shop or a globally renowned supplier, the need for a centralized system is proving more beneficial to all of the parties involved. Instead of managing information in multiple systems, users should opt for an all-inclusive system to manage information internally and throughout the supply chain, enabling improved collaboration. A decentralized system can negatively influence the success of the work, cost money, increase the likelihood of error or management oversight, and simply complicate the process.

In a high volume/high mix manufacturing environment, they needed to be able to locate tools quickly, verify that the tools identified were the right ones for a given product, and manage their tool maintenance and inspection processes to ensure they were consistently hitting the company’s high quality production standards.

Many manufacturers already rely on data tracking to review order status, cycle-time performance and product quality,  but some now are also digitizing their strategies, and producing faster and more accurately while lowering costs and reducing lost time. Location tracking of molds via the cloud is a key component to a centralized system, and using an all-inclusive tool management documentation platform will help provide the necessary tools to do this.

RFID  are becoming more commonly used to track tools and assets. Merging such technology with the cloud streamlines communication among multiple positions within a company, makes asset movements information sharing more transparent and readily available, and shortens the approval process. Additionally, when a mold shop receives an OEM request for information on a mold that was completed years prior and that is no longer in the shop, that cloud-based system can provide speedy, convenient access to that information.

With Smartx Hub® RFID solution, you can increase automation and revenues and decrease the percentage of production errors using a track and match applications. There are numerous benefits of using RFID  Smart Sensors technology for tools and molds tracking, positively impacting both operational efficiency and safety. Smartx Hub  platform should store and share files, but also provide real-time updates, issue reporting, custom alert notifications and GPS location tracking from one centralized system. An app option will also allow a shop’s customers to access their information via the cloud and guarantees that the pertinent tooling data remains with the mold no matter where it travels.

Track the full lifecycle of your Injection Mold Tools.

Automating the management of physical assets saves your organization labor, time and money:

  • Knowing where your assets are and when they move, helps you gain more control and streamline your operations
  • Leveraging cloud computing, users manage tools flows with a range of devices including smartphones, tablets, and PCs
  • Information is available in real-time or offline via data sync
  • Provides a centralized database to store all assets and parts inventory
  • Tracks asset attribute information such as location, assignment, warranty information, cost, etc
  • Enables quick and efficient searching and reporting capabilities
  • Increases overall efficiency of radio maintenance processes
  • Track your molds  from anywhere, at any time.
Tracking tools in the cloud can entice all roles in a company to be involved in the production process.
 
By tagging molds not only can they be located easily they can be identified accurately, with confidence, and rapidly. This helps avoid the risk of incorrect molds being used for a production batch, for example.
 
 
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