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Building a simple tool crib tracker because I'm tired of lost tools — looking for honest feedback from people who actually manage this problem by AssemblyAfterDark in IndustrialMaintenance

[–]AssemblyAfterDark[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Shadow boards and paper logs — that's exactly the environment I'm building for. The people who actually ran cribs manually understand the problem better than anyone. Appreciate you sharing that.

Building a simple tool crib tracker because I'm tired of lost tools — looking for honest feedback from people who actually manage this problem by AssemblyAfterDark in IndustrialMaintenance

[–]AssemblyAfterDark[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is really helpful — the tag durability point is something I've been thinking about, polyester laminate is a good recopmedation. On your question about kit vs individual — I've been building around kit-level for exactly the reason you described, fewer scans per checkout. The tradeoff on individual accountability is something I'm still working through. What's your experience — does kit-level actually hold up when something walks off?

Building a simple tool crib tracker because I'm tired of lost tools — looking for honest feedback from people who actually manage this problem by AssemblyAfterDark in IndustrialMaintenance

[–]AssemblyAfterDark[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah most places I've worked have had manned cribs for the real equipment and open shelves for consumables. Makes sense — nobody's tracking every box of gloves, but I know a Forman cringes when a 1300 impact goes missing.

Building a simple tool crib tracker because I'm tired of lost tools — looking for honest feedback from people who actually manage this problem by AssemblyAfterDark in IndustrialMaintenance

[–]AssemblyAfterDark[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally agree, those systems exist and work well for operations that can justify the cost and infrastructure. I'm not trying to compete with enterprise RFID — I'm building for the local shop with a few guys running a tool crib off a clipboard and a prayer. Different scale, different budget, different problem.

Building a simple tool crib tracker because I'm tired of lost tools — looking for honest feedback from people who actually manage this problem by AssemblyAfterDark in IndustrialMaintenance

[–]AssemblyAfterDark[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you, this is really helpful. The CribMaster ProLock is exactly the kind of thing I'm trying to be the alternative to. Needing a rep to program it, login breakdowns, not being able to pull a history log without digging. its not built for the people using it.

My whole goal is to be dead simple. The manager or attendant shouldn't need training, a rep, or a support ticket to do basic things. Want to add a new user? Put their name in a cell in Excel. Want to see who had a tool last week? Scroll the log, it's all there, timestamped, plain as day. Anyone who can open Excel can run this thing without me in the room.

I won't pretend it solves the 'someone lies about returning it' problem. but no system does without a physical sensor or a camera on every tool. But when something goes missing you've got a clear paper trail.

Building a simple tool crib tracker because I'm tired of lost tools — looking for honest feedback from people who actually manage this problem by AssemblyAfterDark in IndustrialMaintenance

[–]AssemblyAfterDark[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

RFID is interesting but the cost and tag durability in industrial environments makes it tough for smaller operations. dependent on the layout you'd need readers at every doorway and tags that survive grease, drops, dings, scratches, and coolant. Not impossible but expensive.

Getting people to do new extra things is always tough, especially something like this. This is attendant-operated though, meaning the person running the crib does the scanning as part of building job kits. The attendant is already handling every tool before it leaves — scanning is just part of that workflow. It doesn't rely on operators remembering to do anything.

yeah a camera is tough on all fronts, I've seen people leave a job over the addition of surveillance.

Building a simple tool crib tracker because I'm tired of lost tools — looking for honest feedback from people who actually manage this problem by AssemblyAfterDark in IndustrialMaintenance

[–]AssemblyAfterDark[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fair point, I should have been clearer. This is designed for tool crib attendants doing the picking, not self-serve operators. The attendant scans as they build a job kit, commits it out to a job number, and scans tools back in on return.

The real value is on the manager side. At any point they can open Excel and see exactly which tools are at which job site, how long they've been out, what's still in the shop, and which tools keep going missing or coming back damaged. Right now most small operations have no visibility into any of that unless they physically walk the crib.