Run a Maintenance Plan for Your Tools and Equipment

Many times it happens that the smallest and the least expensive tools play a significant role in fixing the problem. It is vital to take care of your tools to support your business. In the absence of these small tools, your employees cannot do their jobs efficiently. As an employer it is imperative on your part to invest in Tool Control Foam in your boxes for maximum productivity. Here are a couple of reasons why all the companies must have an ongoing maintenance plan inspected at regular intervals.

Taking Care of Your Tools

When you take care of your tools and use high quality Tool Foam in tool boxes, it shows how much they mean to you. This will also teach your workers to take care of the resources you have invested in as well as to create an impression on your employees that you pay attention to the smallest details. You know how these items are treated. Investing in toolboxes will create a unique system of accountability and your employees will get motivated to take care of company resources properly. An optimized workspace is often kept cleaner and improves employee morale.

Maintenance

Maintenance ensures that every equipment or tool, whether it is small or big, is working properly. The chance of breakdown or malfunction is decreased if you take proper care of your tools. This means fewer accidents in the workplace and better productivity.

It is natural that if you keep your tools cleaned and equipment oiled properly, then your technicians will work better. Do you know even the highly skilled professionals cannot achieve quality results if they use substandard tools. Poorly maintained tools can lead to poor quality which can tarnish the image of your company, whereas properly maintained tools will bring a higher level of satisfaction to your customers because they will enjoy higher quality products. It is easier to work when there is no clutter, your workspace is organized, this enables employee’s to focus on their production related tasks and create a higher quality product. When working with properly maintained tools you don’t have to worry about the breakdown or the level of their accuracy when finishing a given task. You can use good quality Tool Box Foam Sheets for creating a customized tool box. Use Foam Cut Outs for your equipment, these small things will increase the morale of your staff. 

Resources which your employees will take out in the field should look better and will promote your company and leave a positive impression on your customer’s mind. Customers will notice if your workers use rusted gear or poorly maintained tools stored improperly in overly full mis-sized toolboxes. Regular maintenance will also reveal which tools are not working properly and you can repair them before being onsite with a customer.

How to Make Foam Insert for Your Firearm?

Gun owners know of the importance of properly securing and storing their firearms. Storing your gun in its case is one way to keep it safe and secure. You can opt for a lockable hard-shell case, this is a choice for hassle free transporting firearm however a one size fits all hard plastic case does not always properly secure your firearm, a foam insert cut to the size of the your specific firearm is the preferred solution. In this article you will learn how to create your own custom foam inserts at home.

Where to Start?

You can start by getting a proper case for your gun and its accessories. You can search online or you can visit your local gun dealer to help you in the selection process. We recommend cases from manufacturers such as Pelican Products or Hardigg. When selecting a case, make sure there is enough space and the case allows the foam inserts along with the gun to fit properly. Later you can cut the form inserts to give the desired fitting as per your firearm.

You can purchase the tool foam in various colors and densities to match your desired results when you are designing the layout for the gun case. Moreover, the quality of the foam also matters. Think about purchasing good quality foam which is durable and long lasting, the primary decision criteria should be how often you use your firearm. There are several things which you are supposed to consider when designing a layout like, how often you use it? How often you are travelling with that? If you are going for camps on a regular basis, then water resistance foam will serve you better. You will find different types of tool control foam sheets, which will cater to your individual requirements. Use a high density foam like our 6lb dense sheets if you are planning on regularly removing and inserting your firearm. The cost is higher but it will last much longer, for occasional use a 4lb foam or even the “pick and pluck” foam would likely suffice. 

How to Get the Firm Fit?

You will not get precise results unless you properly prepare and practice your foam cutting, we recommend practicing on scrap foam. After making the outline of your firearm, use an x-acto knife, utility knife, razor blade, or hot knife to make the cuts. You can also purchase a plunge router, which you can use in making form inserts for your tools as well as other items. Please wear proper safety equipment when using the aforementioned tools.

When you will trace the gun and make an outline on the foam, this will be bigger than your actual firearm. You should cut the foam from the inner side of your outline to get a slightly smaller size. This will ensure that your foam will hold the gun properly. (foam cut outs)

Organize your tools by creating custom foam tool inserts

People in maintenance environments depend on a wide variety of tools and products to get their job completed on time. This array of tools required coupled with the increasing requirements and reduced manpower in today’s workplace pushes a necessary gain in productivity per maintenance employee.

The challenge is finding ways to increase productivity, purchasing the right tools for the job is one way of increasing productivity, another is utilizing custom tool foam inserts.

Every minute a maintenance worker spends searching for a misplaced tool is a wasted minute. It is not uncommon for a worker to spend five or more minutes trying to find a tool, it is also not uncommon for a worker to travel to a jobsite on the facility to discover a tool he thought he had was not actually on his cart.

By using tool foam purchased in tool foam sheets or having it custom cut to his specific requirements enables the worker to have “at a glance” assurance that he has the tools needed to complete his task.

Consider this analysis, if the employee’s burden labor rate is $50 dollars per hour and he spends $5 minutes looking for tools for each task, that equates to $4.16 in additional cost. If that employee completes five tasks per day, the total daily cost of searching for tools is $20.83. In a five day work week it costs $104.16 which equates to $416.66 per month per employee and $5000 dollars per year per employee in lost productivity. 

The question this begs is, can you afford not to streamline your maintenance activities with tool foam?

Benefits of Using a Tool Foam Organizer

Since the early 1980’s, tool control has been playing an ever expanding role in maintenance functions within the aerospace industry. What originated in aerospace has been expanding into other industries including commercial maintenance through the growing need to increase productivity while streamlining operations. 

Lean Six Sigma and lean manufacturing rely upon streamlined operations to reduce the amount of time technicians spend trying to locate missing tools. Utilizing our tool foam within toolboxes and on workbenches allows for the instant recognition of a missing tool, this recognition facilitates the immediate urgency of locating the missing tool to ensure the tool is not in a “deliverable” product to the customer nor in a place that could cause damage to something like an engine.

We make creating tool foam inserts and foam for toolboxes easy, we can guide you through the process of tracing, cutting, and laminating using an adhesive or heat. 

Toolbox Shadowing Foam

It is much easier to find missing tools when your toolbox foam has a bold background,making every tool have its own place. When a tool is missing, the bold background will help you to identify it then and there. 

Shadowing Foam

Tool foam offers a contrasting color background with a ½” thick or greater piece of darker foam over a ¼” or 1/8” thick piece of lighter color. The color combination makes it easier to organize your tools and notice a missing tool at first glance. Your employees can check the toolbox quickly and easily. This rapid identification facilitates maintenance and reduces downtime.