Production depends not only on machines but on tooling and fixtures, the moulds, dies, jigs, and fixtures that particular production requires. Managing them is part of running a manufacturing operation. This piece is about managing tooling and fixtures in Odoo.
What tooling and fixtures are
Tooling and fixtures are the specific tools, moulds, dies, jigs, fixtures, that production uses. Unlike a general machine, a piece of tooling is often specific: a particular mould makes a particular part, a particular fixture holds a particular component for a particular operation. Tooling and fixtures are the equipment that adapts production to make specific things, and a manufacturer often has a significant collection of them.
Why tooling and fixtures need managing
Tooling and fixtures need managing for a few reasons. They are assets: they have value, often considerable, and a manufacturer should know what tooling it has. They are essential to production: if the tooling for a part is not available, or is not in working condition, that part cannot be produced, so tooling availability and condition directly affect production capacity. And tooling wears and needs maintenance: a mould or a die is used and degrades, and it needs servicing or eventually replacement. Tooling and fixtures that are not managed, not tracked, not maintained, become a hidden risk: production can be stopped because a piece of tooling is missing or has failed. Managing them is how a manufacturer keeps that from happening.
Managing tooling as equipment
The practical approach in Odoo is to manage tooling and fixtures as equipment. Odoo's Maintenance application includes equipment management, the recording and managing of a plant's equipment, and tooling and fixtures can be managed that way: recorded as equipment, so the manufacturer has a record of the tooling it has, and maintained, so the tooling is serviced and kept in working condition. Treating tooling as managed, recorded, maintained equipment, rather than as untracked items that are simply assumed to be there and working, is the core of managing tooling and fixtures.
Tooling, maintenance, and production
Managing tooling as equipment connects it to maintenance and to production. As equipment, tooling can be on preventive maintenance, serviced before it fails, so a critical mould or die does not fail unexpectedly and stop the production of the parts it makes. And because tooling is essential to producing particular things, its condition and availability are connected to production capacity, just as a machine's are. A manufacturer managing tooling well treats it with the same seriousness as its machines: recorded, maintained, its condition watched, because a failed or missing piece of critical tooling stops production as surely as a failed machine.
Focus on critical tooling
An honest, practical note. A manufacturer may have a great deal of tooling, and managing all of it with equal intensity is not necessary or sensible. The disciplined approach is to focus: the tooling that genuinely warrants careful management, recording, maintenance, watched condition, is the critical tooling, the tooling whose failure or absence would stop important production. For minor, easily replaced tooling, lighter management is fine. A manufacturer should manage its tooling and fixtures with the effort matched to how critical each piece is to production.
The takeaway
Managing tooling and fixtures in Odoo means treating the moulds, dies, jigs, and fixtures production depends on as managed, recorded, maintained assets, through Odoo's equipment and maintenance capabilities. They need managing because they are valuable assets, they are essential to producing specific things, and they wear and need maintenance. Managing tooling as equipment connects it to preventive maintenance and to production capacity. Focus the management effort on the critical tooling, whose failure would stop important production. For how we approach Odoo for manufacturers, see our manufacturing work.