Customer Experience
How a tool management kiosk makes Missouri job shop more efficient
Davis Tool & Die believes that its investment in a tool vending machine several years ago was a worthwhile endeavor as the company grew.
April 14, 2021 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times
As the nation's manufacturing economy expands, so does the need for computerized inventory management of manufacturing tools.
Companies of all sizes are finding that industrial vending machines — also known as MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) machines — help keep track of tools and allocate accurate tool costs to work orders.
Davis Tool & Die, a Fenton, Missouri based die manufacturer, believes that its investment in a tool vending machine several years ago was a worthwhile investment as the company grew to more than 60 employees, according to Doug Green, a salesman who served as the buyer when the company decided to invest in the technology.
Green told Kiosk Marketplace in a recent interview that he was ordering unnecessary tools since he was having a hard time keeping track of tools in the tool cabinets located in different rooms. Most of the tools are industrial cutters, drills and endmills.
"A lot of times people would come into the office and take two cutters when they only needed one," Green said. "They used one and put one in their box as a backup. They were afraid, 'maybe when I come back there isn't going to be one there.'
"If you've got 40 guys doing that, there's a lot of perishable unused tooling out there," he said. "If we went through everybody's boxes, there would be a ton of unused cutters."
Kiosk offers a solution
To rectify the problem, the company installed a Robocrib 1000 to provide employees access to more than 100 items and keep track of who had what tools at all times. As a result, the company reduced its tool consumption cost by 20%, according to a case study by the machine's manufacturer, Autocrib.
By ordering tools that were not needed within a given time period, the company was incurring costs excessive costs; the company does not recover the cost of a tool until it gets paid for the work the tool is used for.
Theft was not an issue as much as employees simply not returning the tools to the appropriate cabinet in a timely fashion, Green said.
"A lot of times we were out of certain items we used on a regular basis," he said. In many instances, the tools were on site, just not available since they were not being properly returned.
"A lot of times people wouldn't let you know when one was taken," Green said. "If we were out (of a tool), and somebody didn't let me know, I put that tool on my order list and ordered those tools.
"We decided to start looking into options to try to eliminate that," he said. He found Autocrib, the manufacturer of a computerized tracking system, on the Internet.
It didn't take long for the management at Davis Tool & Die to support Green's plan to install a Robocrib machine.
A versatile machine
One of the benefits of the Robocrib machine is that it can hold tools from different tool manufacturers, as opposed to machines that are only built to hold one manufacturer's tools.
The machine was easy for the employees to learn, Green said, since most employees are familiar with computers. "It's a pretty simple system to use," he said.
In addition to tracking more than 100 tools, the system was helpful with job costing — measuring the amount of time the tool is used on a specific job to be able to include that cost in billing the customer.
The machine software, which integrates with the company's enterprise resource planning software, accurately tracks the time the machine is used for a specific job, enabling the company to allocate the proper tool cost for the job.
"We wanted to have more accurate job costing," Green said. "At the end of a job, we would know how many of these tools were used so you could cost it accurately to the job."
When beginning a job, the employee enters the number for the tool they need on the machine's touchscreen. The transparent, plastic door for the compartment holding this tool — and only this door —automatically opens.
"He puts in his employee number so you know who took the tool," Green said. "You (also) put a job number for costing, and then you put in the part number. You know you want a half-inch endmill. It would show everything with a half-inch on it, and you pick what you wanted."
While the machine allows tools to be returned, most of the tools Davis Tool & Die uses are for limited time use, so they are not returned after use.
"Ours are perishable tools, so you wouldn't want to put a half-used one back in there," Green said.
Adaptable compartments
The company can adjust the size of the compartments based on the size of the tools.
The machine holds between 80% and 90% of the tools the employees need, the balance being tools that are too large for the compartments.
Supervisors can see in real time what tools are available. They can also access a list of items nearing the reorder point.
The machine can be programmed to automatically reorder based on inventory levels, but Davis Tool & Die has not used this function.
Green did not want to give a specific number, but said the machine cost between $10,000 and $20,000.
Given the amount of tools the company uses, Green said there is no doubt that the investment paid for itself in a short amount of time.
About Elliot Maras
Elliot Maras is the editor of Kiosk Marketplace and Vending Times. He brings three decades covering unattended retail and commercial foodservice.
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