Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for plastic mould makers.
A checklist built from how plastic mould makers 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.
- Tool quotations and orders
- Part data and revisions
- Mould bill of materials
- Toolroom stages
- Outside processes
- Tryout and approval
- Mould history
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners
- For mould designers
- For toolroom managers
- For operators and fitters
- For accounts and stores
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Tools in build by stage, machine and promised date
- Actual hours against quoted hours for each finished tool
- Design revisions raised per tool with the inserts affected
- Inserts at outside vendors and days away
- Tryout rounds and faults found by tool and cavity
- Stage invoices raised, received and outstanding by moulder
- Moulds due for service by shot count
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- WhatsApp or other messaging
- SMS
- Accounting export
- CAD file storage
- Spreadsheet import
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Do design changes reach the toolroom first?
- Can I compare quoted and actual hours?
- How do we see inserts away for hardening?
- Can it hold multi-cavity tryout results?
- Is service history kept after dispatch?
- How are stage invoices raised?
- Can we move our current tool list across?
- What does it cost, and can I see it?
- Who changes a stage or report?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Late part changes
- Unbooked hours
- Inserts away
- Scattered tryout notes
- Late stage bills
Prefer to talk it through? See the plastic mould makers page.