The Manufacturing Process: What is Tooling?

Most people have a rough understanding of what product manufacturing is, but have they heard of tooling? This term is thrown around casually in our industry but draws some pretty confusing looks from outsiders.

It’s almost like a secret handshake, it’s something you need to know but takes a while to truly understand. An important part of the end-to-end product development process – as it involves all of the components required to manufacture your product, and the right tooling can make all the difference.

What is Tooling?

When you create any physical hardware product, you need the right equipment and tools to manufacture it. Thus, tooling is the process of designing and engineering these custom tools that are necessary to make products for inventors.

The more appropriate your tools are for your product, the more efficient, accurate, and scalable the manufacturing process is. Because of this, tooling is never a one-size-fits-all solution. Small changes to your tooling can have huge impacts on the quality, quantity, or even the price of your product. As a result, to optimize the manufacturing process, tooling should be customized to your product.

Types of Tools

Despite the number of types of manufacturing tools and equipment out there, each one should be custom-designed to output the desired volume and quality. Consider the following when looking for tooling help as an inventor.

Some of you may prefer to manufacture several hundred units to test in the market, while others may be ready for mass production. In the design of these tools, it’s also important to take into consideration the safety of the tool and to ensure consistent output of the part or product. Some of the most common types of tooling are listed below.

• Molds, such as the ones we use in rotomolding, like our client’s CNCT.
• Work-holding and support devices such as a jig or a fixture.
• Punching tooling for forming.
• Cutting machinery like milling machines

Looking for more tooling help? Feel free to set up a free consultation with our product strategy team.

About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!