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Tooling Registry

Register reusable tools and jigs, track lifetime usage, get warnings at 80% and 100%, retire safely

Last updated: 2026-05-27

The Tooling Registry tracks the reusable tools, fixtures, and jigs your manufacturing line depends on - the ones with a finite usage life. Each tool has a usage counter, a maximum lifetime, and warning bands at 80% (yellow) and 100% (red). The point is to catch a worn jig before it produces a bad lot, not after.

This is intentionally a quiet v1: tools are registered, incremented, given maintenance notes, and retired. There is no automatic counter from device builds yet - usage is recorded manually. That trade-off keeps the data trustworthy until the auto-increment path is wired end-to-end.

Why a separate registry

Tools are not parts. Parts deplete; tools wear. Tracking them in inventory would confuse stock counts with lifetime counts. A small dedicated registry answers one question well: is any tool close to its replacement point?

  • Tools have a lifetime usage cap (e.g. 50,000 cycles), not a stock count
  • Usage is cumulative; only retire stops the counter
  • Two warning bands surface before retire: 80% (yellow) and 100% (red)
  • Maintenance notes are timestamped and named; you can read "what did we do at 40k cycles?" later

Concepts

TermWhat it means
ToolA registered tool with name, code, type, lifetime max, current usage, and variant associations.
Current usageCumulative count since registration (or since last maintenance reset, if applicable).
Max usageReplacement / refurbishment threshold.
Warning bandUI flags at 80% (yellow, "plan replacement") and 100% (red, "retire / refurb now").
Usage sourceCurrently locked to manual_only at the API. Device-built and station-test-run sources are reserved for a follow-up release.
Variant scopeA tool can be linked to specific Production Variants in the same project so it appears in variant-level reports.
Statusactive (in use) or retired (taken out of service, with reason).

Quick start (3 minutes)

1. Open the tooling registry for a project

  1. Projects -> your project -> Manufacturing -> Tooling
  2. The registry lists active tools first, then retired ones at the bottom

2. Register a new tool

  1. Click Register tool
  2. Fill in:
- Tool name (e.g. "PCB Press Jig A") - Tool code (your internal label, e.g. "JIG-PCB-A-002") - Type (e.g. fixture, jig, press, programmer) - Max usage (e.g. 50000) - Variants (optional, multi-select) - which production variants this tool serves
  1. Save. The tool appears with current usage = 0 and status = active.

3. Increment usage

  1. Click the tool row, open the detail panel
  2. Click Add usage
  3. Enter the count (e.g. 500 cycles since last update)
  4. Enter a short comment (required) - e.g. "Lot 2026-05-001, 500 units"
  5. Save
The current usage increments. The UI re-evaluates the warning band:
  • Below 80% of max: green
  • 80% - 100% of max: yellow ("plan replacement")
  • 100%+ of max: red ("retire or refurb now")

4. Add a maintenance note

  1. Open the tool detail panel
  2. Click Add maintenance note
  3. Enter the note (e.g. "Replaced spring guide, calibrated pressure to 2.4N")
  4. Save
The note is timestamped, attributed to you, and shown in chronological history.

5. Retire a tool

  1. Open the tool detail panel
  2. Click Retire tool
  3. Enter a reason (required) - e.g. "Reached 100% lifetime, replacing with JIG-PCB-A-003"
  4. Confirm
The status flips to retired. The tool stays in history (greyed out) for audit; you cannot increment a retired tool.

Workflow: weekly tooling review

  1. Open the Tooling registry
  2. Sort or filter by usage percentage; the yellow band rows are the ones to plan around
  3. For any red-band tool: schedule replacement, register the new tool with a fresh code, and retire the old one with a reason that points to the replacement code
  4. For any yellow-band tool: add a maintenance note ("scheduled replacement at end of next lot") so the floor knows it is on the radar

Reference

Permissions

  • Read: any project member
  • Register / increment / maintenance / retire / delete: project writer roles
  • All mutations write audit log rows (action prefixes tool_*)

Variant scoping safety

  • The variantIds field is validated against (organizationId, projectId): only variants that belong to the caller's project can be linked. Cross-project ids are stripped silently before save.

Usage source

  • The usageSource field is locked to manual_only at the API in v1. The UI dropdown for device-built / station-test-run is disabled with an inline "deferred to follow-up" hint.
  • Auto-increment from device builds and station test runs is on the backlog; until it is wired end-to-end, exposing those sources would falsely advertise behaviour that does not increment the counter.

Module gate

  • Tooling is gated by the massProduction module. Enable it in Project settings -> Suites if the Tooling page does not appear.

Common pitfalls

  • "I retired a tool by mistake." Retire is reversible only by a delete + re-register. The audit trail will show both events.
  • "Usage went over 100% but the band is still yellow." Refresh the page; the band is computed on read.
  • "Counter does not increment when devices are built." Correct, v1 is manual-only. See the usage-source note above.

Related docs

ProcurementReference Designs & Design Community