// AI for tool and die shops
AI for tool and die shops, tested on die quotes your estimator already sent.
For contract shops that build and repair stamping dies, molds, jigs and fixtures for manufacturers. Start with a draft die build quote read from a customer's part print, tooling standard and request for quote, or with an engineering change quote that lays a revised print against the one the tool was built on. Either one becomes a free AI proof of concept on copies of 20 to 30 packages you've already answered. The call on whether it passed belongs to your reviewer, the person at your shop who knows that work best.
- First job
- Die build quotes, or engineering change quotes
- You send
- 20 to 30 past packages, copied once the NDA is signed
- Never touched
- Shop system, CAD files in live use, a live quote
- Never decided
- A tool price, a build method, a change accepted
- Reviewer
- Named by the owner before day one
- Left out
- Defense and aerospace work
- Price
- Range first, fixed price before signing
// Jobs we would test
Start where a print has to become a number
Die build quotes
A part print, the customer's tooling standard and the RFQ read into a draft quote for your estimator: material and thickness, annual volume, tool type and class as stated, die standard requirements, tryout and run-off terms, spare details, and the items a person must decide.
See the die build quotes pageEngineering change quotes
A revised part print compared to the print the tool was built on: what changed, which stations or details it appears to touch, and a draft change quote for your toolmaker and estimator to price and approve.
See the change quotes pageDie repair quotes
A customer's worn or broken tool comes in with a damage note and photos. Findings and replacement details get listed for your tool room lead, with hours and price left open.
Buy-off and delivery packages
The design update, bill of material, spare list, checklists and sample reports a customer wants with a finished tool, gathered against that customer's list, with gaps marked for your project manager.
// Why quotes first
A tool is quoted once, then quoted again every time the print moves
The census files you by name. The 2022 NAICS manual describes industry 333514 as establishments known as tool and die shops, making special tools and fixtures such as cutting dies and jigs. Metal molds for plastics or die casting go to a different code, 333511, and cutting dies for materials other than metal to 332216. The National Tooling and Machining Association keeps die building, mold building and special tooling as separate member activities, each with an "and production" version. A shop working across those lines quotes across them too, and the paperwork differs with each.
The buyer's manual is part of the RFQ. One bus and motorcoach maker's supplier manual wants every tool quotation to show an expense breakdown, capacity, tool life, cavity replacement costs and lead times split across design, build and testing, along with run-off and trial quantities. Those lines come from the buyer's document rather than the print, and the next customer's document asks for different ones. Reading the two together is desk work a draft can carry, while your estimator still sets every hour and every price.
Changes arrive through more than one door. Another manufacturer's supplier policy manual requires notice and approval before any upgrade, replacement, rearrangement or modification of tools, dies, molds or patterns, and keeps normal maintenance and repair out of that rule. Requests go on one form when the part's geometry or performance is affected and on another when it isn't. Sorting a revision correctly is the first step of every change quote, and your closed jobs show how your shop did it.
Who holds the tool is on paper too. That same manual has each tool permanently marked by metal tag, stamping or etching, in lettering at least an eighth of an inch high, with a "Property of" line and a tool identification number, and says the tool may carry no lien that would get in the way of taking possession. Michigan's Special Tools Lien Act pulls the other way: a builder that permanently records its name and street address on a die, jig or gauge it fabricates, repairs or modifies, and files a financing statement, keeps a lien even with the tool out of its shop. A draft quotes such terms where a package raises them. This page describes a test, not legal advice, and your own attorney reads those clauses.
The folder already holds the right answers. Each past tool has its package and the quote you sent. Each change has its two prints and the figure your toolmaker and estimator landed on. Your reviewer sets every draft against that record, line by line.
Both jobs stop at the same line. Your shop system, any CAD file in live use and every live quote are out of bounds for the proof of concept. It never prices a tool, decides how a die is built or accepts a change. A toolmaker or estimator makes every build decision and approves every quote. Defense and aerospace work stays out.
// How the test runs
Three steps, then your decision
- Step 01
Pick the job, name the reviewer
The owner chooses new-tool quotes or change quotes and names the reviewer, usually the lead estimator or the senior toolmaker. Success criteria go in writing, you get a price range for the live job, and the NDA is signed before a print moves.
- Step 02
Run it on copies
Send 20 to 30 past packages with the quotes that answered them, or past changes with both print revisions and what you quoted. We call this step the sandbox: a free test on tools and changes your shop has closed. If a customer's prints can't leave the building, we build look-alikes with you.
- Step 03
After a yes, about 30 days live
New RFQs or new revisions run through the same job for about 30 days, and a person approves each one before it goes anywhere. The next job is a separate decision with its own price, and monthly support comes after.
Priced per job. You get a range before the proof of concept and a fixed price before you sign.
Rob sets the range on the call from three counts: tool RFQs or changes each month, customers with their own tooling standards, and the kinds of tools in the sample.
// Questions
What tool shop owners ask first
Does the test touch our shop system or our CAD files?
Can AI price a die from a part print?
We build molds and fixtures as well as dies. Do those fit?
Our customers' prints and die standards are confidential. What then?
Should we start with new tools or with changes?
Rob Eason, founder
// Book a proof of concept call
Start from tools your shop has already quoted.
Thirty minutes with Rob, covering your shop, your role, which job you'd test and how many tool RFQs or print changes land each month. Prints and die standards stay with you until the NDA is signed.
- Co-owned a 60-employee financial services firm and sold his share to his partner.
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- Takes every proof-of-concept call himself.