CribMaster Image
RFID-based systems like this one from CribMaster utilize software that allows detailed access control, audit trails and visibility into tool transactions over long periods of time.
This approach, however, requires some form of logbook and necessitates another pair of eyes to verify and record the transactions. It’s fine if you’ve got the time, but it can be cumbersome and inefficient in a large maintenance or production plant.
Automation The inherent inefficiency of manual hand tool control has led to the gradual adoption of automated control. Companies like Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, L-3 Communications and Gulfstream are adopting tool boxes that include some form of electronic access control and audit trail. Automated tool control integrates the use of tool cut-outs with sensors that automatically read the pockets’ status and computers that log the transactions. Automated systems provided by companies like Snap-on, CribMaster and PinPoint, however, do not require customers to buy all-new tools. Automated control at the hand tool
level is relatively new. There are fewer than 500 automated tool boxes deployed in
aerospace today, estimates Peter Fuchs, managing director of PinPoint, a United Technologies (UTC) company that provides an RFID-based tool control system. “Tools are a threat,” he says, “and automated systems can reduce risk and increase accountability throughout an organization.” Tool control automation works best with standardized tools and tool boxes. Use of personal tools and tool boxes in a production or maintenance environment is “problematic,” Fuchs argues. “Where tools are not standardized, processes can’t be standardized,” he says. In this situation operators not only don’t know what’s missing, they don’t even know what tools they have. It’s inefficient, too—maintenance managers don’t know whether they’ve got too many of one type of tool but not enough of another, he says. Automated tool control systems rely on sensors that can read the contents of tool drawers and send the information to a computer, which runs the readings against a database to identify what has been checked out or returned. Sensors can
26 Aviation Maintenance |
avm-mag.com | February / March 2013
be cameras, RFID or magnetic, or some combination of these technologies. While there are tradeoffs between imaging and RFID, both approaches reduce the time involved for manually checking tools in and out. System software allows detailed access control, audit trails and visibility into tool transactions over not just days, but years.
Such data also has value beyond tool control. “The database gives you information about everything that happens on the job floor,” Fuchs says.
Machine Vision Technology Snap-on’s new Level 5 ATC (Automated Tool Control) system uses machine vision digital imaging technology to identify which tools have been checked out or returned. Stored digital images of drawers, along with a database of transactions, also provide a comprehensive audit trail, Chwan says.
Another Snap-on focus is ease of use for the mechanics. An audible notification system confirms transactions to the
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