Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for sand casting foundries.
A checklist built from how sand casting foundries 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.
- Pattern and core box register
- Sand lab log
- Core shop stock
- Melt and pour log
- Shakeout, fettling and rejections
- Test reports
- Quoting by weight and process
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For foundry owners
- For moulding supervisors
- For the sand lab
- For melt shop and quality leads
- For planners and sales
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Moulds made against plan by pattern and shift
- Rejections by defect, pattern and shift
- Clay and compactability readings beside rejection rate by hour
- Cured core stock against planned moulds
- Heats poured and castings accepted per ladle
- Fettling hours per casting and per customer
- Open orders by promised date, with balances due
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- WhatsApp or other messaging
- Spectrometer readings by import
- Accounting export
- Weighbridge entries
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- How are sand readings used?
- Can it handle ductile and grey iron together?
- Does it manage core stock?
- How do we enter rejections?
- Can castings go out for outside machining?
- Can we load our patterns and open orders?
- Who owns the heat and test data?
- How is it priced?
- Can I see scrap value for one pattern?
- Does it help with weighbridge entries?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Sand readings stay in the lab
- Scrap is counted by the heap
- Pattern wear goes unnoticed
- Core stock is miscounted
- Tonnage drives the price and the delay
Prefer to talk it through? See the sand casting foundries page.