Listed below are 10 questions that will demonstrate the current level of data utilization that exists in your company that is readily available for a repair technician, supervisor, manager or engineer to use on a daily basis.

Be aware that if it is necessary to dig through files of records to manually count occurrences and gather data, then the information in the system is not considered readily available. If you could categorize and measure all of the information buried deep in these filing cabinets of most maintenance shops or a repair technician’s head, you could get the necessary information that would point you in the direction you need to go to be a data-driven shop.
Performance and Maintenance Data (broken down by chosen timeframe)

1. What is your number one mold or part defect overall?
a. Total count and type of defect

b. Mold distribution of the defect (mold style, product or press related)

c. Cavity I.D. or mold position of the defect (position related?)

d. All related corrective actions and costs (tooling and labor) resolving the defect

2. What are your top 10 mold or part defects overall?
a. Type of defects and frequencies

b. Mold distribution of the defects (mold style, product or press related)

c. Cavity I.D. or mold position of defects (position related?)

d. All related corrective actions and costs (tooling and labor) resolving the defect

3. What are your top 10 molds with the highest overall defect count?
a. Type of defects and frequencies

b. Mold distribution of the defects (mold style, product or press related)

c. Cavity I.D. or mold position of defects (position related?)

d. All related corrective actions and costs (tooling and labor) resolving the defect

4. What is your number one unscheduled mold stop reason?
a. Total count and type of unscheduled mold stop reason

b. Mold distribution for the #1 unscheduled mold stop reason (mold style, product or press related?)

c. Time, personnel correlation with the unscheduled mold stop reason

d. All related corrective actions and costs (tooling and labor) resolving the unscheduled mold stop reason

5. What are your top 10 molds with the most unscheduled downtime events or mold stop reasons?
a. Type and frequencies of unscheduled mold stop reasons

b. Mold distribution for the unscheduled mold stop reasons (mold style, product or press related?)

c. Time, personnel correlation with the unscheduled mold stop reasons

d. All related corrective actions and costs (tooling and labor) resolving the unscheduled mold stop reasons

6. What is the #1 mold with the highest maintenance costs (per hour or cycles of run time)?
a. Mold description, style and product

b. Type of defects and frequencies

c. Type of tooling used by mold

d. Type of corrective actions required (cleaning, replacement, reworking, restacking, shimming, etc.)

e. All related corrective actions and costs (tooling and labor)

7. What are the top 10 molds with the highest maintenance costs (per hour or cycles of run time)?
a. Mold descriptions, styles and products

b. Type of defects and frequencies

c. Type of tooling used by molds

d. Type of corrective actions required (cleaning, replacement, reworking, restacking, shimming, etc.)

e. All related corrective actions and costs (tooling and labor)

8. What are the average repair hours for each mold during:

a. Wipe down level cleaning?

b. General level cleaning?

c. Major level cleaning?

9. Mold technician general data (timeframe):

a. Total count of molds repaired (mold style, product)

b. Type of molds repaired (mold style, product)

c. Average labor hours per repair (mold style, product)

10. Mold repair shop general data:

a. Total count of molds repaired (mold style, product)

b. Type of molds repaired (mold style, product)

c. Average labor hours per repair (mold style, product)