Checklist
Before you release a tooling order, check twelve decisions across five areas. If any is still open, the risk has not gone away. It has moved down the programme, where it costs more to fix.
Most tooling problems are not created in the toolroom. They are created earlier, in decisions made while the schedule is already moving and everyone wants to see steel being cut. By the first trial, the biggest risks have usually been locked in for weeks.
"Good finish" and "strong enough" are opinions. Without numbers for fit, load, tolerance and cosmetic grade, every later review becomes an argument.
The brief covers concept and CAD, but not engineering validation, draft and wall-thickness checks, or who owns the source files and revisions.
A prototype that works on the bench is taken as proof the design is ready for production. It is not the same thing.
Cavity count, steel, expected tool life, machine, texture, tolerances, hot runner and validation responsibility are left for the supplier to assume.
The lowest quote wins without checking whether the toolmaker has built this kind of part, finish and tolerance before.
Part count, materials, finishes or volumes are still moving when the mould is ordered. Each later change reopens design, cost and schedule together.
Findings exist, but nobody formally closes them before cutting steel.
A small edit is accepted by email with no view of its effect on tooling, cost and timing.
No agreed dimensional, visual, functional or cycle-time criteria, so a "good trial" means whatever each side says it means.
Commercial milestones move faster than technical proof, and the buyer loses leverage before acceptance.
Changes arrive by email, phone and meeting notes, and nobody owns the decision. The supplier works to one version and the team expects another.
When the first trial fails, the supplier, the designer and the customer can each point to someone else.
A decision is closed when it has a named owner, a date and a written record that the supplier and your own team both work from. Anything else is still an assumption. Assumptions are normal early in a programme. The risk comes from committing money to steel while they are still open.
Not sure how exposed your programme is? A short structured check shows where the open decisions are and what they could cost if they surface late.
Open the Risk Exposure checkBefore you issue a tooling order, and again before you approve the first trial. Earlier is cheaper.
No. A capable toolmaker can only work to the decisions you have made. Several of these risks sit on the customer side.
One named person on the customer side, with authority to approve changes and close open points.
A trial shows how the tool behaves. Acceptance is a written decision, against criteria agreed in advance, that the tool is fit to release and pay for.
No. It is a short set of questions that shows where your programme is most exposed. It does not give prices or recommend suppliers.
Want to see how this works in practice? Read why projects fail or how structured governance helps.