Optimize Changeovers and Reduce Downtime with MachineMetrics Tool Life Monitoring

Did you know that MachineMetrics provides real-time visibility into tool life across your entire shop floor?

MachineMetrics Tool Life Monitoring delivers real-time visibility into tool life and enables proactive, data-driven decisions to optimize when tool changes occur. With this release, manufacturers can stop relying on guesswork, spreadsheets, and operator memory, and start managing tools using real-time data.

Tool failures are a constant threat to production, resulting in unplanned downtime, scrap, and operator safety risks. To avoid these failures, most shops either play it safe and replace tools too early, or push tools to the limit, resulting in scrap parts and failures.

Tool Life Monitoring solves this problem. By automatically tracking tool usage based on actual machining activity, rather than estimates or manual input, MachineMetrics provides a real-time, centralized dashboard of every active tool on your shop floor. It shows exactly how much life is left, when the tool was last replaced, and when it needs to be changed.

“Before MachineMetrics, we were constantly fighting tool life alarms,” said Benjamin Ridenhour, Manufacturing Engineer at Jabil. “Our machines used over 100 macros just to track tooling, and when they filled up, it would stop production until a technician could manually offload the data. Now, with MachineMetrics, we only need one macro per tool, and the rest is handled automatically. No more data loss, no more downtime.”

A Smarter Way to Manage Tooling

Tool Life Monitoring offers comprehensive visibility into the status of your tooling, giving frontline workers real-time insights to optimize tool life management:

• Real-Time Tracking: View active tools, current usage, and time remaining before change-out is needed.
• Visual Progress Indicators: Color-coded bars show consumption percentage at a glance.
• Historical Trends & Change History: Analyze usage patterns and document past replacements.
• Exportable Reports: Easily share tool performance data for audits or inventory planning.
• Centralized Monitoring: Standardizes visibility across all connected machines and shifts.

From Reactive to Proactive

Instead of waiting for tooling to fail, or replacing too early out of caution, MachineMetrics enables your team to schedule tool changes during planned breaks, protect part quality, and maximize tool life.

“The MachineMetrics team has been incredibly responsive. Tool Life Monitoring now alerts operators when a tool is within 10 parts of its limit—right on their dashboard. This gives our team the flexibility to plan breaks and changeovers without stopping the machine.” - Benjamin Ridenhour, Jabil

Most MachineMetrics customers see a measurable impact within weeks, with benefits like:

• Fewer unplanned downtime events
• Increased tool life and optimized changeover times
• Improved first-pass yield and part quality
• More efficient use of operator time

By giving your team live insights into tool status, MachineMetrics empowers smarter, faster decisions that drive real operational improvements.

Current customer? Get in touch with your account executive to get started. Not a customer? Set up time with our team today.