How a moulding unit tracks mould maintenance

This story shows a practical response to shot counts on every mould, with service due at a fixed count.

The business

This composite concerns a injection moulding business with about 45 people. Granule batches, mould availability, shot counts and power interruptions affect daily choices. Operators need a stable plan and approved settings. The maintenance in-charge manages the daily maintenance work. The production manager is called when a commitment changes or a decision exceeds normal authority.

Records may be spread across operator checks, downtime notes, spare stock and maintenance calendar. This story centres on this recurring task: shot counts on every mould, with service due at a fixed count.

What was going wrong

While checking the register, the maintenance in-charge is dealing with a deferred service card. The immediate problem concerns shot counts on every mould, with service due at a fixed count. The team can usually explain the situation after several calls. That explanation is rarely attached to the document that the next shift or the customer sees. In this case, the important missing link is use actual mould shot counts and visible wear. It is not enough to know that someone spoke about it.

The second problem is timing. When the machine is restarted but the repeated failure is never examined, the check happens too late to change the next commitment.

What they changed

The team would start by giving one person responsibility for the breakdown log and machine service plan. Its first rule is simple: Only authorised staff release isolated machines back to production. Staff can still make calls and use WhatsApp, but the approved reference and the reply return to that record. One owner keeps the entry current, and another person handles decisions outside the routine limit.

For this particular problem, the operating instructions are concrete:

1. First check: Use actual mould shot counts and visible wear. Keep a reference to the source rather than a summary from memory.
2. Next action: Schedule cleaning and spare inserts. Add the responsible role and the time the next answer is needed.
3. Decision point: Sign off each release. Do not quietly replace an old promise or technical record.

The team can copy this small register. Both entries below are illustrative examples, not records of a real business.

At the end of the review, anything still uncertain stays open. The next person should be able to find the original source, understand which part is confirmed and see who is expected to act. If an approval involves price, safety or compliance, the authorised manager makes that decision.

What a normal morning looks like now

The maintenance in-charge opens the breakdown log and machine service plan alongside operator checks, downtime notes, spare stock and maintenance calendar. They look first for work promised today and then for items missing an owner or proof. The production manager does not need the complete history retold. Only the exceptions, their business effect and the requested decisions reach that desk.

A useful meeting ends with the reference, next action and date written down. The team checks the same list later rather than asking each department for a fresh verbal status. Do not restart after an electrical or guarding fault until a competent person confirms it is safe.

What did not work at first

A likely first attempt is adding more columns or asking everybody to update another report. People then spend time copying entries from their own registers. A second attempt is to mark cases closed after a reassuring phone call. Neither establishes whether the underlying goods, amount or instruction has been checked.

The simpler practice keeps the original reference and records only what has changed. A disputed entry remains disputed. If the team cannot find evidence, it names the person who can, and sets a time for the next check.

What is still not solved

A register cannot remove a material shortage, a customer's disagreement or a long outside lead time. It can expose the risk early enough for a person to decide. This story does not claim an achieved saving, improved margin or shorter delivery time. The useful outcome to measure would be fewer unowned exceptions and a clear record of decisions.

If you want to try this

1. Open Mould die maintenance and choose one live case matching this story. Identify the exact trigger and finish condition.
2. Copy the fields from Machine health scorecard. Enter the source, one responsible person, the next check and its date. Use actual records, not the example figures here.
3. At the next review, compare the register with the physical or financial evidence. If the same gap returns, revisit Mould die maintenance untracked and change the control at that point.

Read next

• Mould die maintenance untracked
• Mould die maintenance
• Machine health scorecard