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Tool & Die and Machining

Every part has its own order: machine logging, actual production hours and the cost closing along with the delivery.

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develop-erp — work order 41822 › cost
order closed · 04/21
OrderDocumentsItemsOperationsPO/MROutside processingAllocationInvoice
Where the cost came fromwork order 41822 · 40 parts
Material issued$18,420
14 requisitions · lot and cert
Logged labor$11,960
135.5 h across 3 operations
Outside processing$4,980
heat treat · 1 invoice
total order cost$35,360
sold for$52,800
order margin33.0%
$17,440 in profit
Hours by operation
010Cutting18.0 h
020Machining86.5 h
030Grinding31.0 h
Total logged135.5 h

The real cost of one order, broken down.

A day in this industry

The job is quoted in hours; the ship date, in hope

The steel arrives with a material cert that goes into a drawer. When the customer asks for it, someone goes digging.

The customer calls asking where the mold is, and the answer depends on someone walking out to the shop floor to look.

With Develop

One job per tool, and the numbers adding up when it ships

  • The job is created from the approved quote
  • Every operation is logged at the machine
  • Material and outside processing go into the same job
  • When it ships, actual cost next to the quote
What a tool and machine shop needs from a system

One-off part, its own job

  • One job per tool, with the drawing and material certs attached
  • Child jobs when one mold has many components — inserts, slides, cores
  • The stages of your own process as the board’s columns, not a generic flow
  • Job numbers in your shop’s format, including one that resets every year

Real machine hours

  • Time logged by employee, machine and operation, on a touchscreen
  • Downtime recorded with reason, start and end
  • Available, busy and down hours by machine group
  • Quoted operations side by side with actual operations

Steel you can trace

  • Material requisition against the job, with the lot’s material cert
  • Heat number linked to the customer and the part number
  • Cost of the lot actually issued, not of the last purchase
  • Purchases linked to the job, showing in its own tab

Outside processing along the way

  • Outside processing for heat treat, coating or outside machining
  • Parts tracked out to the vendor and back, so nothing sits forgotten
  • Customer-supplied material shipped back without being billed as a sale
  • Report of customer-owned material sitting in your shop

Inspection and delivery

  • Control plan by customer and part, pulled up automatically at inspection
  • Gauges and instruments with calibration interval and next due date
  • Final inspection releasing by quantity, partial shipments included
  • Shipping request with weight, package count and type of shipment

The modules that matter here: Projects, Production, Engineering, Quotes, Quality, and Invoicing.

What was the real margin on the last mold you shipped?

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A reply by email within one business day, from a person on our sales team — not a bot.

FAQ

Type your question and press Enter: the answer opens right below, in the list.

I quote by machine hours. Does the system compare quoted vs. actual?

It does. The quoted operations stay on the part’s record next to the actual ones, and job costing adds up logged hours, the material issued and outside processing. What the system doesn’t do is estimate the hours from the drawing: quoting is still the experience of whoever quotes — now with the history alongside.

My machinists won’t stop to type.

They don’t have to: it’s four taps on a screen next to the machine, with big buttons and no menu. Waiting on an electrode or a setup adjustment, they tap the reason — and the downtime shows up on the machine dashboard right away.

I send parts out for heat treat. How does that go in?

As outside processing inside the job itself, tracked out to the vendor and back. The vendor’s bill goes into the job’s actual cost, along with material and hours — so heat treat stops being the cost nobody remembered to add.

I machine customer-supplied material.

It’s handled as an outbound movement that isn’t a sale, and there’s a report of the customer-owned material sitting in your shop — usually the first thing the customer asks about.

One of my molds has dozens of components.

Each job holds one part; the components become child jobs, with their own numbers and the same customer. The open-jobs list shows or hides the child jobs, depending on who’s looking.

Does it handle machine maintenance? Generate CNC programs?

Neither. Downtime is recorded with a reason, but preventive maintenance planning is not part of it today. And the system doesn’t read the 3D model or post CNC programs: the drawing stays attached to the job and opens on the shop floor by scanning a code.

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