The Fixturing & Tooling Project Intake service is the formal entry point for submitting requests to the Fixturing & Tooling team. This service ensures that all requests for custom fixtures, tooling, and manufacturing aids are captured, evaluated, and prioritized in alignment with production needs, quality requirements, and resource capacity.
By submitting a request, stakeholders provide key details such as the manufacturing challenge, desired outcome, part or process requirements, and expected impact. The Fixturing & Tooling team uses this information to assess feasibility, determine priority, and route approved requests into the appropriate design, fabrication, and implementation processes.
This structured intake process improves visibility, standardizes decision-making, and ensures that tooling resources are focused on the highest-value opportunities.
Fixturing & Tooling Services Provided
The team supports a range of design and fabrication services to enable efficient, safe, and repeatable manufacturing processes, including:
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Custom Fixture Design and Fabrication
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Production Tooling Design and Build
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Assembly and Welding Fixtures
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Machining and Workholding Solutions
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Jigs, Templates, and Positioning Aids
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Ergonomic and Safety Improvements
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Tooling Repairs, Modifications, and Optimization
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Rapid Prototyping and Iteration Support
When to Use This Service (Examples Included)
Use this service when you need a custom-designed solution to improve manufacturing efficiency, quality, safety, or repeatability. This includes requests that require engineering design, fabrication, and collaboration with production teams.
Examples include:
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New Fixture Design for assembly, welding, or machining processes
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Tooling to Improve Part Alignment or Repeatability
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Jigs or Templates to standardize manual operations
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Modifications to existing fixtures or tooling to support process changes
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Tooling to support new product introductions (NPI)
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Ergonomic improvements to reduce strain or improve operator safety
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Solutions to reduce defects, rework, or variability in production
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Custom workholding for complex or non-standard parts
In general, if the need cannot be solved with standard tools and requires a custom-built solution, it should be submitted through this service.
What to Expect
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Submission of a standardized intake form
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Initial review for completeness and feasibility
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Evaluation based on production impact, priority, and capacity
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Collaboration with requestor to refine requirements (if needed)
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Design, fabrication, and testing of the solution if approved
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Delivery and implementation support
Required Information May Include
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Description of the manufacturing challenge or opportunity
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Part details, drawings, or specifications
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Current process vs. desired future state
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Production volume or frequency
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Quality or safety considerations
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Timeline or urgency
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Stakeholders and impacted areas
Outcomes
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Approved and prioritized tooling/fixture solution for design and build
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Request deferred for future consideration
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Request returned for additional information
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Request declined with rationale
Additional Notes
Submitting a request does not guarantee approval. All submissions are evaluated based on production value, feasibility, and available resources.