🇺🇸United States

Duplicate die/tooling purchases from poor inventory visibility

1 verified sources

Definition

Plants repeatedly buy dies, molds, and cutting tools they already own because locations and status are not visible across the shop. This leads to systematic over‑purchasing of high‑value tooling and unnecessary capital tied up in inventory.

Key Findings

  • Financial Impact: $100,000 per year (documented in one precision manufacturer’s first-year savings after fixing the issue)
  • Frequency: Monthly
  • Root Cause: Manual or fragmented die/tool crib systems (pallets, floor storage, isolated crib spreadsheets) make it hard to know what tooling exists, where it is, and whether it is available, so planners and buyers err on the side of ordering new instead of locating existing tools.

Why This Matters

This pain point represents a significant opportunity for B2B solutions targeting Packaging and Containers Manufacturing.

Affected Stakeholders

Tooling manager, Tool crib attendant, Production planner, Purchasing/procurement manager, Plant controller

Deep Analysis (Premium)

Financial Impact

$100,000 - $145,000 from production downtime + batch delays + expedited die repairs • $100,000 - $150,000 per year in duplicate tooling purchases • $100,000 per year in duplicate high-value tooling purchases

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Current Workarounds

Ad hoc checks with supervisors and setup techs, tribal memory about what tools exist, scattered Excel or Access lists maintained by engineering or the tool crib, email/phone/WhatsApp threads between plants, and walking the floor or opening storage racks to visually verify whether a die or mold exists. • Asks colleagues or supervisor where die is; searches shop floor physically; uses oldest available die if exact match not found; works around issues • Asks Inventory Manager verbally (often unavailable); assumes 'new tooling' to be safe; pads quote with conservative die cost; doesn't validate against existing tooling database

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Methodology & Sources

Data collected via OSINT from regulatory filings, industry audits, and verified case studies.

Evidence Sources:

Related Business Risks

Lost press time from searching for missing dies and tools

$5,000–$20,000 per month per line in lost contribution margin for mid‑size plants, based on chronic changeover delays and downtime described by automated storage vendors and CMMS providers (time loss scaled by typical press hourly rates).

Excess tooling inventory and overstocked materials due to poor die/tool data

$50,000–$200,000 per year in avoidable carrying cost and write‑offs for mid‑size shops, inferred from ERP vendors’ emphasis on overstock waste and profitability impact for tool and die operations.

Scrap and rework from worn or poorly maintained dies

$10,000–$50,000 per month in scrap and rework for mid‑size operations relying on manual tracking, based on CMMS vendors reporting that proactive die maintenance reduces defects and downtime significantly.

Unplanned downtime from reactive die and tooling maintenance

$5,000–$30,000 per month per facility in lost output and overtime premiums for reactive maintenance, consistent with CMMS providers’ claims that proactive die maintenance reduces downtime costs significantly.

Under-quoting and unbilled die/tooling costs in packaging jobs

$50,000–$250,000 per year in margin leakage for a mid‑size specialty packaging manufacturer, extrapolating from ERP providers’ warnings about underquoted jobs when tooling and inventory data are disconnected.

Delayed billing when die/tooling usage is not captured to jobs

$10,000–$40,000 in incremental working capital tied up at any time for a plant with high die‑intensive work, inferred from ERP vendors’ emphasis on linking tooling and work orders for faster, cleaner billing.

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