Tool rationalisation: What it is and how to do it well

In our previous blog, we discussed the importance of picking the right Tool for each job. In this blog we’ll cover best practice for what we call Tool rationalisation.

Tool rationalisation involves finding the most versatile tools for your manufacturing process and standardising them across the shop floor - ensuring you’re getting the most out of the tools selected before replacing them with new ones.

This means understanding exactly what Tools are needed for what jobs and maximising the Tools’ potential over all applications.

As with all shop floors, you get comfortable with what Tools you use because its what you’ve always known, and what’s always worked. Common sizes like 6, 8, 10, 12, and 16mm Tooling are our “go to’s”, especially when we need to get work out of the door. But have you ever stopped to think: 

“Can I use a 12mm Tool instead of a 16mm Tool?” Or,

“Is there another tool on the market I could use more suited to the application?”

If so, then these are the first steps in Tool Rationalisation.

Our engineers recommend looking at the following:

What is the most common material you are machining or is it a mixture?

Do you produce large or small batch quantities?

How much time do you have to produce the parts?

 What are the commonly used machining strategies across the shopfloor

Once you understand the above, you can then fine tune your Tooling rationale.

As an example:

If you machine large batch quantities, commonly in steel and stainless-steel materials and time is a factor to consider, then you may wish to explore Hi-Feed Tooling with a multipurpose insert grade to increase cutting speeds across your material ranges. This can be applied to all components.

Understanding this will help you to understand what Tools you really need and understanding what Tools you need means you can choose the most suitable brands to use, reducing the chance of Tool duplication and more importantly overspending.

Rationalising Tools for turning applications is a lot easier that milling, because turning has ISO standards.

This means you can use different brands of inserts with various brands of Toolholder. For example, you could use a Walter Toolholder with a SECO insert.

Milling on the other hand is a bit more captive, with a manufacturers’ milling insert only fitting their body - a bit like Apple phone chargers.

So there’s an initial added cost when you rationalise your milling Tools as you’ll have to change the body over to suit specific inserts.

Finally, don’t forget Tool life!

When we say Tool life, we mean how long the Tool lasts on the material you are machining. This is also known as contact time.

Every Tool has a life and depending on what you’re machining, this can range from minutes to hours.

Once you understand this and factor it into your cycle times, you can order the correct number of Tools and inserts for the job.