Tool Room Manager

Role: Tool Room Manager

Location: Tamworth

Salary: £60,000

Job Purpose

To lead and manage all Tool Room activities within a fast-paced injection moulding manufacturing environment, ensuring that production tooling is maintained to the highest standards of safety, quality and reliability. The Tool Room Manager is responsible for maximising mould availability, minimising downtime, improving tool performance and developing a highly skilled team capable of supporting a demanding production schedule.

Key Responsibilities

Tooling Management

• Manage the maintenance, repair and modification of injection mould tools to support continuous production.
• Develop and implement preventative maintenance schedules for all production moulds.
• Prioritise tool repairs based on production requirements and business needs.
• Ensure all tooling records and maintenance histories are accurately maintained.
• Coordinate tool strip-downs, inspections and refurbishments.

Production Support

• Work closely with Production, Process Engineering and Planning teams to ensure moulds are available for scheduled machine changes.
• Provide rapid response to tooling breakdowns to minimise machine downtime.
• Support root cause investigations relating to mould failures and recurring defects.
• Participate in daily production review meetings.

Continuous Improvement

• Drive initiatives to improve mould reliability, cycle efficiency and component quality.
• Analyse tooling performance data and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Implement corrective and preventive actions to reduce repeat failures.
• Support Lean Manufacturing and continuous improvement projects.

New Tooling and Projects

• Support new product introduction and mould trials.
• Liaise with customers, suppliers and toolmakers regarding new tooling manufacture and modifications.
• Manage tooling acceptance processes and sign-off activities.
• Coordinate outsourced tooling repairs and refurbishment work.

Team Leadership

• Lead, motivate and develop the Tool Room team, including Toolmakers,
• Apprentices and Tool Room Technicians.
• Allocate workloads and ensure effective shift coverage.
• Conduct performance reviews and identify training and development needs.
• Promote a culture of teamwork, accountability and continuous learning.

Budget and Asset Management

• Manage Tool Room expenditure within agreed budgets.
• Control tooling spare parts inventory and critical consumables.
• Recommend capital investment requirements for tooling and equipment.
• Monitor contractor performance and service costs.

Health, Safety and Compliance

• Ensure compliance with all company procedures and UK Health and Safety legislation.
• Maintain high housekeeping standards within the Tool Room.
• Support customer, internal and external audits.
• Ensure compliance with quality management systems, including ISO 9001 and, where applicable, IATF 16949.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Mould availability percentage.
• Tool-related machine downtime.
• Planned versus reactive maintenance ratio.
• Repeat tooling failure rate.
• Tool maintenance schedule compliance.
• Cost of tooling repairs.
• Internal quality defects attributed to tooling.
• On-time completion of tool changes and repairs.

Qualifications & Experience

• Significant experience within plastic injection moulding tooling environments.
• Proven leadership experience managing a Tool Room team.
• Strong knowledge of mould construction, maintenance and repair techniques.
• Ability to diagnose tooling issues and implement effective solutions.
• Experience of preventative maintenance systems.
• Excellent communication and organisational skills.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making capability.

Desirable

• HNC/HND qualification in Mechanical or Manufacturing Engineering.
• Experience within high-volume manufacturing environments.
• Knowledge of hot runner systems, unscrewing mechanisms and multi-cavity moulds.
• Understanding of Lean Manufacturing methodologies.
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Plastics Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Tool & Die Engineering, or a related field.
• Certifications in Tool & Die Making, Injection Mold Design, or CAD/CAM Software are beneficial.

For more information on this role, please contact Nick Sollis on 01453 829767 or send a copy of your CV to [email protected]

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