Tool and Die Shops
Cost a build that runs for months, keep the tryout iterations on the record, and quote the spare from what it took the first time.
One-off tools, molds and dies where the engineering is the product and nothing repeats.
A tool and die build is one job that lasts months and never repeats. The quote is a lump sum, the work is engineering as much as machining, and the hours that decide whether it was profitable go into design, benchwork and tryout, which are the parts nobody estimated. Then the tool ships and the shop's relationship with it does not end: it comes back for a sharpening, a broken punch, or a change the customer's part print forced. WorkCell treats the build as a job with a multi-level bill of material and a routing, posts cost as hours and material land against it, and keeps the inspection and nonconformance record attached. What it does not do is dispatch that maintenance as a work order to a technician.
The lump sum covers design, material, machining, benchwork, heat treat, assembly and tryout. When the build loses money, the shop knows the total and not the phase. Design overran, or tryout took four iterations instead of two, or the benchwork never stopped, and all three look identical in a single job total. The next quote repeats whichever mistake it was.
The first hits come out wrong, the tool goes back on the bench, the engineer changes a detail, and it runs again. That cycle is the actual content of the build and is usually invisible: no operation, no hours, no record of which iteration changed what. Months later nobody can say why the die is the shape it is, or what the third attempt cost to make. Shops keep the first approved tryout strip and the last-run strip for exactly this reason, and those two strips are often the whole archive.
A customer calls for a replacement punch for a die shipped three years ago. Finding the detail drawing, the revision that was actually built, the material, the heat treat spec and the grind is an archaeology problem across folders and a retired toolmaker's memory. The shop quotes the spare on a guess, makes it twice, and eats the second one.
Shops log hits in a tool log, file a check sheet in the die maintenance card, and keep a last-run strip with the tool. It works while the person who keeps it is still there. Expected tool life runs from a few hundred thousand hits into the millions, so the component that should be swapped before it fails is only predictable if somebody has counted consistently for years.
The die belongs to the customer, lives on the shop's rack, and gets maintained on the shop's time. Who paid for the last repair, what was changed, which revision it is at now, and when it was last serviced are questions answered out of a notebook. Returning or transferring the tool exposes every one of those gaps at once, usually during a program move with a date on it.
A build structured as a multi-level bill and routings
The tool, its sub-assemblies and its details carry a bill of material, with a routing for each detail that has to be made. The build has a structure instead of being one open job number, so cost and progress resolve to the detail, the sub-assembly and the phase rather than to a lump that is either over or under. A die plate that had to be remade twice is visible as a detail with three runs against it.
Job cost posted while the build is still open
Hours, material issues and outside processing post against the job as they happen, and every posting carries the job it belongs to. On a build that runs for months, that is the difference between finding the overrun in week six and finding it at invoicing, when the only remaining option is to absorb it.
Tryout and rework as real operations
Benchwork, tryout, fitting and the rework after a tryout can each be an operation with its own hours. The iteration count stops being folklore and becomes a number, which is the only honest basis for quoting the next tool of that type and for the conversation about who is paying for the fourth attempt.
Revisions kept by version and effective date
Bills of material and routings are versioned and effective dated, so the detail the shop built and the revision it was built to are both on the record years later. Changes supersede rather than overwrite. Engineering change here is versioning and effective dating, not a change-request workflow with approvals and signatures.
Spare components quoted from the record that built them
Because a detail is an item with a revision, a bill of material and a routing, a replacement punch three years later is quoted from what it took the first time rather than re-engineered. The material, the operations and the actual hours are already attached to the part the customer is asking about, including the heat treat and grind that made it fit the first time.
Inspection and nonconformance tied to the build
Inspection templates define what gets checked at tryout and at buy-off. Results are recorded against the operation, a failure raises a severity-classified nonconformance with a disposition, and a recurring one escalates into an 8-D corrective action, all attached to the build it came from rather than to a separate quality file.
Multi-level bills and routings, versioned and effective dated for every detail.
ProductionBenchwork, tryout and machining as scheduled operations with real hours.
AccountingJob costing posted through a build that stays open for months.
QualityTryout and buy-off inspection, nonconformances and 8-D corrective action.
Quoting, engineering, purchasing, scheduling and job costing on one database.
MESHours captured at the bench and the machine against the operation they belong to.
APSFinite scheduling for long-lead builds that share the same bottleneck machines.
CMMSThe maintenance category, where preventive intervals and shot-count meters live.
Precision CNC work where setup against cycle time decides the margin.
Job ShopsOne-off and short-run work where the quote is the whole business.
AutomotiveTier supplier work with PPAP packets, releases and customer-owned tooling.
EngineeringVersioned bills of material and routings with effective dating.
How do you cost a die build that runs for six months?
Break it into a bill of material and routings so hours land on details, sub-assemblies and phases rather than on one job number. WorkCell posts labor and material against the job as they happen, so an overrun shows up in week six of the build instead of at invoicing when nothing can be done.
How do you keep track of shot counts and die maintenance history?
Most shops use a tool log, a die maintenance card and a last-run strip kept with the die. WorkCell holds meters and maintenance plans, so a shot-count reading can carry a die to its next due interval. It holds the build record, the revisions, and the cost of each repair you run as a job.
Can WorkCell handle preventive maintenance on customer-owned tooling?
Partly. A plan can be triggered by calendar, by meter reading or by condition, and it raises a maintenance request when it comes due. What it will not do is dispatch a work order to a technician. A repair or rebuild can run as its own job with its own cost and inspection record, which gives you a history of what was done and what it cost.
How do I quote a spare punch for a die we shipped three years ago?
From the record, if the detail was an item with a revision, a bill of material and a routing. The material, the operations and the hours it took the first time are still attached to it, so the spare gets priced from history rather than re-engineered off a drawing somebody has to go find.
Does WorkCell have an approval workflow for die design changes?
No. Engineering change is versioning and effective dating: a bill or routing supersedes rather than overwrites, and the job shows the revision it was built to. There is no change-request routing with approvals, no electronic signatures and no document control module in WorkCell today.
Is WorkCell a fit for a shop that builds tools and also runs production?
Yes, and that is a common shape. The build is a job with a bill of material and routings, and the production part the tool makes is a separate item with its own bill, routing and lot traceability. Both live on one database instead of in two unconnected systems.
See where WorkCell fits your shop.
Tell us how you cost a build and keep the history on the tools you ship and we will tell you straight whether WorkCell is a fit.