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Cutting Tools 22 MoldMaking Technology —— SEPTEMBER 2017 By Dan Speidel T here are a lot ways to make a shop better, more efficient, more productive and more profitable, but one practi- cal method that is often overlooked is tool lifecycle management. This is about more than cutting tools. Fundamentally, it's about data: ensuring that cutting tool data is available where and when it is needed. It links CAM systems, presetting and crib systems, and machine controls. It can also extend upstream to the planning and execution levels, including production, planning and control systems (PPS), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing execu- tion (MES) systems. To extend so widely, tool lifecy- cle management software must be "open" and able to supply numerous import and export interfaces. It also must be able to integrate data from vari- ous sources, such as catalogs from cutting tool manufacturers or 3D models created in house, into a centralized database. Ultimately, tool lifecycle management impacts the entire machining process, from the selection of cutting tools to their use in production planning to seamless transfer and use on the shop floor. Information from the individual process steps continuously flows back to a centralized data- base, creating a growing mass of valuable data that's acces- sible throughout the networked system. Standards for this exchange of cutting tool data is From the tool crib to enterprise resource planning systems, tool lifecycle management breaks down expensive data silos. CUTTING TOOL DATA WHEN YOU NEED IT Tool lifecycle management software delivers tool data when and where it is needed. important. They include ISO 13399, a set of international standards that enables cutting tool manufacturers to use the same language to describe their products in a digital for- mat; generic tool catalog (GTC), a complement to ISO 13399 that enables productive data exchange between cutting tool Images courtesy of TDM Systems.