The Evolution of Mold Management Software:
From Spreadsheets to Smart Systems
What if your maintenance budget shrank over time while your uptime increased?
What if tracking assets was as easy as checking your phone?
What if your CMMS could detect a maintenance risk and suggest the optimal time for a fix?
If you manage maintenance operations, you know that a single missing mold or unexpected equipment failure can bring production to a halt. Yet, many manufacturers still rely on outdated tracking methods like spreadsheets, paper logs, and phone calls to manage critical assets.
This approach is costing companies millions. Studies show that unplanned downtime costs manufacturers up to $50 billion annually (Forbes, 2022).1 Meanwhile, 70% of equipment failures could be prevented with better tracking and proactive maintenance (TMA Systems, 2023).2
Production lines are moving faster than ever. Global customers expect just-in-time delivery, logistics are increasingly complex, and quality standards are non-negotiable. Yet, many maintenance teams are stuck in reactive mode, scrambling to find missing molds, chasing down paperwork, and fixing issues only after they cause delays.
It is time for a change. The manufacturing world has entered a new era of IIoT-driven, cloud-based maintenance management, where real-time data, predictive analytics, and automation transform how maintenance teams protect critical assets.
The Old Way: When Maintenance Lived in Notebooks
Before modern maintenance software, keeping track of mold maintenance was a frustrating guessing game. Every facility had “that one guy” who knew everything – until he went on vacation, and suddenly no one could find a mold or remember which machine was about to fail.
A Maintenance Nightmare That Didn’t Have to Happen
At one facility I worked with, a grinder failure caused an unexpected plant-wide shutdown – not because the grinder itself was mission-critical, but because the facility was required to add regrind back into its products.
The grinder shredded excess plastic from injection-molded parts so the material could be recycled back into production. Without it, the plant could not meet its required material composition.
One morning, the grinder stopped working. No big deal, right?
Wrong. No regrind meant production could not continue. Scrap plastic piled up, creating bottlenecks at every stage of production. Within hours, machines were idling, workers were standing around, and shipments were at risk of delay.
Then came the real problem: the replacement part had a six-week lead time. There was no backup plan.
After an emergency meeting, a maintenance worker pulled out a well-worn notebook and showed an entry from three months prior: “Grinder motor making intermittent noise. Possible bearing wear. Check by next maintenance cycle.”
If this issue been logged in a modern CMMS that sent alerts and flagged at-risk equipment, the team could have ordered the part in advance, scheduled maintenance, and avoided the entire shutdown. Instead, this preventable failure cost weeks of lost productivity and thousands in emergency costs.
Unfortunately, this kind of reactive maintenance is still the norm in many facilities.
The Mold Hunt: Wasting Time Searching for Critical Assets
The grinder failure was not the only inefficiency I saw. Another constant frustration was finding molds – a process that should have been seamless but often turned into a wild goose chase.
Instead of checking a centralized system, employees had to call around to different facilities to figure out where the mold was. And it was never that simple.
Sometimes, the mold had been transferred, but no one updated the spreadsheet.
Other times, someone wrote the transfer down, but in a notebook on their desk.
In the worst cases, the mold had changed hands three or four times, and tracking it meant playing an extended game of phone tag across multiple facilities.
This wasted hours, sometimes days, and delayed production. And when a global client is waiting on an order, losing time is losing money.
The Tipping Point: Why Spreadsheets No Longer Work
Spreadsheets and notebooks may feel familiar, but they are holding your maintenance team back.
In industries such as manufacturing, the vast number of assets and their frequent movement make tracking challenging, leading to potential inefficiencies (Forbes, 2022)4.
Facilities relying on spreadsheets have a 40% higher risk of human error compared to automated systems (Avatara Cloud, 2022).3
Why? Because spreadsheets are not designed for real-time tracking.
- They rely on manual input. Notes get lost, updates get skipped, and information is outdated the moment it is entered.
- They do not send alerts. If a mold is at risk of failure, a spreadsheet will not warn you – someone has to remember to check.
- They are not scalable. As your operation grows, tracking assets manually becomes impossible.
The result? Unnecessary downtime, wasted labor, and expensive emergency repairs.
The Shift to Smart Systems: IIoT and Cloud-Based Maintenance
Modern maintenance software eliminates these problems by using real-time tracking, predictive maintenance, and automated workflows.
Key Advancements Include:
- Automated Data Collection – Sensors track mold cycles, wear, and environmental conditions without human input.
- Predictive Analytics – AI detects patterns and forecasts potential failures before they happen.
- Cloud-Based Access – Maintenance teams can see mold status from anywhere, and high-level managers can access corporation-wide data instantly.
- Automated Alerts and Workflows – Maintenance schedules are optimized automatically, reducing unplanned downtime.
Turn ‘What If’ Into ‘What’s Next’
Your maintenance budget can shrink – while your uptime increases. With COAST Systems, predictive analytics and real-time monitoring reduce downtime and cut unnecessary maintenance costs.
Tracking assets can be as easy as checking your phone. Our cloud-based mold management software lets you see where every mold is, instantly.
Your CMMS can identify risks and schedule fixes automatically. COAST’s AI-driven recommendations help you plan maintenance before breakdowns occur.
It is time to move beyond spreadsheets and into the future. Let’s make your maintenance smarter, your production smoother, and your downtime a thing of the past.
- Ready to leave spreadsheets behind? See how COAST Systems can transform your operations.
- Looking for real-time visibility into your assets? Let’s discuss how to modernize your approach.
- Not sure if your system is keeping up? Take our free assessment today!
The future of mold management is here. Embrace smart systems and take control of your maintenance operations with COAST Systems.
2 TMA Systems (2023, June 2). Minimizing Equipment Failure with Effective Lubrication maintenance.
3 Manufacturing Downtime Costs that Could Have Been Prevented by the Right Technologies. Avatara.
4 Bhaskar, A (2022, September 22). How IoT Is Transforming The Manufacturing Industry. Forbes.
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