Published: Apr 29, 2025
阅读时间4 分钟
Manufacturing giants have thousands of tools and molds distributed throughout their global supplier network, making tracking and maintenance a significant challenge. Dyson, a leading global player in consumer appliances, faced this exact issue – struggling with visibility gaps and operational inefficiencies due to the lack of an effective tooling management solution.
By implementing eMoldino’s digital tooling asset management system, Dyson revolutionized its approach to supplier network management. Not only has eMoldino enabled real-time tooling monitoring and predictive maintenance, but it has also established a data-centric framework for the comprehensive management of Dyson’s supplier network. This case study highlights three key projects that enabled Dyson to gain visibility over its supply chain, enhance production quality, and drive efficiency through data-driven tooling management.
How it began: Dyson’s need to track its tooling assets
Dyson encountered a common challenge faced by many manufacturers: a lack of visibility into the utilization of its tooling assets across supplier facilities. Without an effective tracking system, Dyson had no way of determining whether its tools were being used efficiently or accurately. Without this data, its calculation of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) was not reliable.
Furthermore, this lack of visibility made it difficult to assess supplier performance on a global scale. Conducting on-site tooling audits was costly, time-consuming, and often ineffective, leaving Dyson at a disadvantage during contract negotiations due to the absence of quantitative data to hold suppliers accountable. To address these inefficiencies, Dyson needed a cost-effective solution for real-time tooling utilization tracking.
In 2020, Dyson partnered with eMoldino to resolve this issue. Following consultations, eMoldino introduced a holistic solution: equipping Dyson’s molds with smart IoT sensors. These sensors enabled real-time tracking of key production metrics, including the number of shots fired per mold and the cycle time of each shot, providing Dyson with unprecedented visibility into its tooling operations.
Project 1: Tracking tooling cycle time across suppliers
The first phase of deployment began in 2020, with eMoldino sensors installed on 1,500 existing molds across Dyson’s supplier facilities in Malaysia, China, the Philippines, and Mexico. Over the next four years, eMoldino expanded the digitalization effort, equipping more than 3,500 Dyson molds with smart sensors. As of early 2025, all newly produced Dyson molds come pre-equipped with an eMoldino sensor, ensuring seamless tracking on a single dashboard.
Beyond capturing shot counts and cycle times, eMoldino’s administrative dashboard provided Dyson with comprehensive insights, including real-time mold location, remaining lifespan estimates, and predictive maintenance alerts—empowering data-driven decision-making across its global supply chain.
Gaining visibility of tooling assets and operations
Throughout the years, Dyson gained real-time visibility into tooling cycle times across its supplier network in four countries. The collected data enabled Dyson to assess supplier efficiency with precision.
As illustrated in the graphs, Dyson’s suppliers in China demonstrated the highest efficiency, with 68.6% of shots completing significantly faster than the allowable cycle time (ACT) and only 18.2% exceeding the maximum ACT. This indicated that these suppliers were operating much faster than expectations.
Based on the collected data, suppliers in Malaysia and the Philippines were also meeting production standards, with 46.6% and 54.7% of shots, respectively, completing in less time than the ACT. While approximately 30% of shots exceeded the maximum ACT, the overall balance of faster cycles helped mitigate potential slowdowns.
Lastly, Dyson identified a critical inefficiency in its Mexican supplier network. On average, 57.7% of shots exceeded the maximum ACT, indicating underutilized tooling and a heightened risk of production delays. This insight allowed Dyson to take proactive measures to address inefficiencies and improve supplier performance.
Using data for insights and supplier negotiations
With access to comprehensive shot count and cycle time data from all its suppliers, Dyson was able to engage in more data-driven discussions with its supply chain partners.
For example, while the fast cycle times in China appeared to indicate high efficiency, they also raised potential quality concerns—since producing parts significantly faster than expected could compromise product quality. Conversely, in Mexico, where cycle times were excessively long, Dyson could share the data with suppliers to investigate possible bottlenecks and resolve production slowdowns.
By leveraging these insights, Dyson strengthened supplier communication, ensuring that production remained both efficient and high in quality.
Project 2: Relocating tools from Mexico
After analyzing its global supply chain strategy, Dyson made the decision to discontinue production in Mexico and transfer all tooling assets to its suppliers in Asia. However, relocating used molds posed a significant challenge, as each mold was at a different stage in its lifecycle.
Typically, when molds are moved to a new location, manufacturers must conduct extensive inspections to assess their condition, recalculate remaining lifespan, and determine upcoming maintenance schedules—a process that is both time-consuming and costly.
Ensuring data continuity regardless of location
With smart sensors attached to all molds, eMoldino ensured seamless data continuity throughout the transition. Once Dyson’s tooling assets were relocated to its suppliers in Asia, the company retained full visibility over each mold via eMoldino’s admin dashboard—as if the move had never occurred.
All critical tooling data, including utilization rates, performance metrics, maintenance history, and previous locations, remained readily accessible in eMoldino’s centralized data library. This allowed Dyson to resume operations without disruptions, eliminating the need for costly re-evaluations.
结论
Dyson revolutionized its global manufacturing operations by implementing eMoldino’s smart tooling management solution. It successfully tracked all tooling assets with precision and optimized its supplier network across four major regions.
Furthermore, digitalizing tooling assets proved their worth during tool relocation projects. These systems helped maintain continuous data collection and lifecycle management.
Dyson’s success shows how digital tooling management can boost supply chain efficiency and quality. These improvements created new standards to evaluate supplier performance and optimize contracts.
eMoldino
