# Prepare tools for a job

Create a tool in Tooling Metrics, pick its components from the warehouse, assemble it, and move it to a machine.

Source: https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/production/guides/prepare-tools/
Updated: 2026-10-29

**Prerequisites:** A Tool Assembly design exists in the Library, or a released job if you're using the Setup Assistant. Components are in stock.

**Required permission:** Production → Tools — User or above to create and release a tool (Admins can release any tool; Managers and Users only the tools they created); Inventory → Pick Lists — User or above to validate the pick lists; Production → Tool Transfers — User or above to move the tool to a machine.

For a whole job at once, use Engineering's [Setup Assistant](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/engineering/guides/use-setup-assistant/) — it reads every operation in the job and generates the Tool records, Tool Transfers, and Pick Lists needed in one step. The steps below cover preparing one tool at a time, which is also what the Setup Assistant does under the hood for each tool it creates.

## Create a tool

1. In the sidebar, click **Production → Tools** → **+ Create**.
1. Select the **Tool Assembly** this tool is built from (or a Category for an ad-hoc tool with no assembly).
1. Choose the **Location** and enter the **Name**; the current form does not include a **Life Limit** field.
1. Save. A **Tool ID** is assigned automatically and the tool starts in Draft status.

![Unsaved Create new Tool form with assembly TA0006 - BT40_FM80 selected, Location unset, and Name filled from the assembly.](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/guides/new-tool-eng.webp)

*Fig. 1: Create new Tool — choose the assembly and location, then confirm or edit the suggested name. The current form has no Life Limit field.*

## Generate a pick list for its components

1. On the tool record, click **Create Picklist**.
1. Tooling Metrics checks the Tool Assembly's bill of materials against what's already on the tool, and searches each Warehouse Access Point for the remaining components.
1. A Pick List is created per WAP that has stock for the remaining items.

## Process the pick list

Follow [Process a pick list](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/production/guides/process-pick-list/) to pick the components — either from the office Pick Lists list or at the WAP terminal.

## Assemble the tool

1. As each pick list line is validated, the picked items land on the tool — the tool's **Items List** tab shows what's currently mounted, and **Assembly History** logs the move itself.
1. Physically mount the components onto the tool, following the assembly drawing (open it from the tool record's assembly-viewer icon). Each serialized piece's condition is updated by the stock moves you validate — see [Track tool condition](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/production/guides/track-tool-condition/).
1. Once every required component is on the tool, it's marked **Completed** automatically. You can also toggle this manually with **Mark as Completed** / **Mark as Incomplete**.
1. Click **Release**, then print a **Tool Tag** — a barcode/data matrix label carrying the Tool ID — to attach to the physical tool.

![Active T000004 tool on the Items List tab with three mounted cutting components and the Mark as Retired, Edit, and Print Tag actions.](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/guides/tool-items-populated-eng.webp)

*Fig. 2: Items List — components appear here as their pick lists are validated. This active tool shows Mark as Retired and Print Tag in its action bar.*

## Move the tool to a machine

A tool reaches a machine one of two ways: directly on a Pick List (when its destination is set to the Machine instead of the tool's assembly station), or afterward via a **Tool Transfer** from the WAP to the Machine, created and processed at the WAP terminal:

1. At the WAP, open **Tool Station** → **Tool Transfers**. Under **New Tool Transfer to**, click the destination machine.
1. Add the tool(s) from the inventory panel, then click **Create**. The transfer is created in **Waiting** status.
1. Click **Check Availability**, then **Validate**.
1. Validating moves the tool's location to the machine — it now appears in the machine's tool crib, ready for a slot number — and posts usage cost for every cost-per-pick item currently assembled in it.

To assign the tool a slot number in the machine's tool crib, see [Manage a tool crib](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/production/guides/manage-tool-crib/).

## Notes

- The Setup Assistant can be re-run for the same job; it skips tools that already exist in the right location.
- Tool Tags use the Tool ID's data matrix code for scanner-based tracking at the WAP.