Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for cold forging companies.
A checklist built from how cold forging companies work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Wire coil receipt and heat records
- Die set and tool life register
- Header and former scheduling
- Lot and first-off records
- Outside process tracking
- Sorting, packing and dispatch
- Part cost against wire weight
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners
- For planners
- For setters and operators
- For quality inspectors
- For stores and dispatch
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Wire coils in stock, issued and remaining, by heat number
- Heading punch and die insert strokes since regrind, with sets due for scrapping before the next order
- Lots by header and shift, with first-off outcome
- Plating and carbonitriding weight out against weight back
- Laps, seams and head cracks by die set
- Call-offs due, with the lots covering them
- Wire weight, slug loss and sorting scrap per part set against the quoted price for that part
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- WhatsApp or other messaging
- Barcode and label printers
- Weighing scales
- Accounting export
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- How is a complaint traced back to a coil?
- Can tool life be tracked without a stroke counter?
- Does it plan changeovers?
- How are parts at a plating vendor followed?
- Can several part numbers share one coil?
- Can inspectors use it at the machine?
- Does the software certify our parts?
- Can our existing die set history be loaded?
- What is the cost?
- Can we take our lot records out?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- The coil behind a lot is not recorded
- Die life is guessed
- Outside heat treatment disappears
- Setup knowledge stays in the setter’s head
- Yield from wire is unknown
Prefer to talk it through? See the cold forging companies page.