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A Toolbox That Helps Keep You From Losing Tools (Video)
Dan Mcculley, the interviewee in this video, works for Intel and claims they have "about 140" projects going on inside their fabs and factories, of which the Smart Toolbox is but one, and it's one some technicians came up with because Intel workers lose something like $35,000 worth of tools every year. This project is based on the same Galileo boards Intel has used to support some high-altitude balloon launches -- except this is an extremely simple, practical application. Open source? You bet! And Dan says the sensors and other parts are all off-the-shelf items anyone can buy. (Alternate Video Link)
Yah, my tools seem to grow legs and walk off as well,
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
Nothing new here, except the Open Source part. In Aviation, worse than losing the tools, is leaving one somewhere it shouldn't be and potentially downing an aircraft.
It doesn't help you not lose tools. It helps you blame someone when a tool goes missing.
That sounds a lot cheaper than even a single one full-time engineer busy developing and maintaining this cool product. There must be some other motive...
Yeah, because all of Intel's other software has been open source.
What's not to love about the company — and its careful PR campaign preparing the market for the demise of AMD? What a lovable corporation — I think, I have a thrill up my leg again.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
There is nothing really novel here in that hotels have had this technology in their minibars for like 10 years - they know what you touched so they bill you even if you replace it. Basically this is moving that concept from the mini bar into a toolbox. I think it is quite impractical since it relys on tools all being in special spots, it would never work in a home environment. A better solution would involve small RFID tags affixed to each tool and an NFC lock on the toolbox. You unlock the toolbox with your badge, take what tools you want out, boom.
But what if the first tool they walk off with is my favorite set of joint snapping pliers? Sure, there are alternatives; but it just isn't the same.
2) Break the first person's fingers that walk off with your tools
But how... they have your hammer!
Sure. Ever heard of libraries?
Now having a web server waiting for a connection from a tablet to unlock the toolbox (so you have power requirements + extra nuisance) is certainly something I DON'T want to mess with when I just want to go ahead and screw (pun certainly intended) something.
The basic idea is appealing, but surely you could do it better by rfid tagging the tools or something. The toolbox seems totally impractical:
1)You have to get out your phone/tablet to open my toolbox. Don't stick your phone charger in there!
2)This is super wasteful of space.The entire top tray of the box now holds 2 wrenches, 2 sockets, a volt meter, and a couple of things I can't really identify.Mine, without all the fancy foam and sensors holds a socket SET, a wrench SET, a volt meter, and some other random stuff. Now, maybe if you're building special task specific kits, that's not a big deal, but if all your tool boxes triple in size, surely at some point that turns into a health and safety concern for the technicians that have to drag the things around...
OK, I know that is only a prototype, but really guys, he specifically said it wasn't worth doing tool ID. When I work on something my toolbox tends to accumulate nuts and bolts and odds and ends, and isn't always deployed in a well lighted place. In fact it has been deployed in the rain at night. A simple light sensor is just not gonna cut it, at least in my real world.
A tool box that actually identified and inventoried my tools without carefully placing them in space wasting foam cutouts would indeed be useful, and would probably even be worth $1 per tool to me, but I have not seen any system that could tag tools with a tag that wouldn't just get smashed off when using the tool in a tight space.
This could be useful for a specific tool kit, say a fusion splicer kit or network analyzer kit, where it does make sense to have neat foam cutout for all your pricey little cleavers and media converters and whatnot, but those are definitely pricey enough, and used carefully enough, to justify RFID tagging.
All in all, yes, I think this is a problem that could use a solution, I just don't think this is a valid solution for a general purpose toolbox, and for the special purpose toolkits the problem is largely solved by a simple visual check for empty foam cutouts before you close it up.
The truth of the matter is that probably most of that $35,000 of "lost" tools just went home with someone, either accidentally, or to beef up their own tool collection.
"Proximity to wonder has blunted our perception and appreciation of it" --Tim Hartnell in 'Exploring ARTIFICIAL INTELLI
Giving staff that have a proven ability to lose wrenches, a tablet, so they can track the wrench doesn't seem like a valid solution....
Vise grips will fix that quickly. There is nothing vise grips cannot fix with sufficient percussive maintenance and clamping force.
It appears to only be able to tell if something is missing from the toolbox, which is perhaps useful because you can have an external indicator on the box that shows that the toolbox does not contain everything, and may reduce the occurrences of having a toolbox stored away before it has been properly restocked, but it does not do anything to actually locate the tools that were once in the box. Even if the range were limited to a few hundred meters within the box, that would still be extremely useful because you would still generlaly be able to locate it as long as it is still at the same work site.
So it's doing half a job... which however better than no job at all that may be, is still not a full job.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Agreed. Knowing the right tool for the task is a fundamental skill, but you also need to know what the second best is.
Always have a plan B.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The problem is the worker who is using the tool as they should in their job taking it home with them rather than returning it when they are done.
"keeps you from losing tools" just sounds nicer than "stops you from stealing tools".
Just scan the lunchboxes carried out the gate at night.
Have gnu, will travel.
Any problem whose solution relies on humans to do the right thing, is bound to fail eventually. You cannot watch them 24/7 and you cannot expect someone won't take them. You don't believe in door locks do you?
And how much will it cost to solve that $535k problem....we used to spend 4 hours on the clock making a tool that saved 15 minutes, so - you know, like, ROI?
In essence, it's just inventory control. There are quite a few companies that make systems like this (my company uses a few for small tooling parts). I see this being relevant for small fab shops or similar who don't have the capital to invest in the larger, more unified system - but still have an issue with misplaced tools. So they make DIY system using a prototype board and some basic sensors. In the end, this is a very basic prototype that is more of a proof of concept than a practical prototype. And definitely using a bunch of tablets could be a hassle in many places (though I'm sure Intel has them sort of just lying about for everyone). So a badge RFID/barcode scan or keypad would probably do nicely for entry and some sort of automatic unlocking/locking mechanism is naturally required. Also, I could definitely fool some silly little optical sensor with dark tape or a small piece of paper - so I think in the long run, you'd have to improve on that. But all in all, it's a clever little solution.
Auto mechanics own their own tools. Most shops give a "tool allowance" for them to buy new tools on a regular basis, but the fact is that owning your own tools makes theft pointless and accidental loss expensive. Problem solved.
When I look at this toolbox and the amount of effort to "check out" or "check in" a tool - plus the fact that the capacity of the box is now 1/10th what it used to be - that $35,000/year is starting to look like a rock bottom bargain if they have anything more than 3 or 4 people using it.
Do you have ESP?
That's stupid as hell.
So I have been noticing that people, especially when interviewed, have developed this bad habit of beginning every statement with an unnecessary 'so'. So this is really starting to annoy me. So lately everytime I listen to a podcast or watch a video that word jars me like a electrical shock. So I know it's coming, and I pray that the speaker will recognize that it is a problem. So but they don't. So will this ever go away?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
They're all in my son's room. These guys need a teenager, not a web server.
We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion.
i'd guess, most "lost tools" end up in a co-workers toolbox anyway, so those $ 35.000 are probably exaggerated. then it's more about organizing and making inventory once a year. and if it's about theft - put rfid-tags into the tools, and cover the exits with scanners. that's cheaper and less prone to fail than lots of expensive toolboxes with embedded computers (btw. - i'd steal the toolbox as a whole, if they were that nerdy)
So to chime in on the whole Tech owning their own tools. I hate to say this but that works fine for Auto Mechanics because they are working on random people's cars. If the Tech doesn't have the right size wrench he'll jsut use pliers or an adjustable wrench, face and corners be damned, won't matter not their problem. Same with a torque wrench, let them just tap it a few times, or use the air gun.
Move over to the industrial world and a real manufacturing/process plant where over torquing something can stop production, or damaging the bolt can cause delays in repair (lost of production) and we have a real problem. Most plants do not allow Techs to bring in their own tools. I know Plants that have banned adjustable wrenches (if you don't' have the right tool for the job don't' do it mentality)..
All that being said in real industrial settings, tool control is a big deal. The more sterile and regulated the environment the more important it can be. See the link below where it was a contractor failing to do a tool count that did some real damage.
http://defensetech.org/2012/01...
Tool counting is a basic thing, and should always happen. Things like this tool box can be used for good and bad, it all depends on the culture of the company and people using it. Sure they could use it to bash people over the head for loosing tools, but they could also use it as a safe guard/helper/checker to help the tech out in doing a tool count to make the work go quicker. I know places where this would be seen as yet another big brother in the plant, and places where they would love to have this because it would make their job easier and quicker. Its all about culture.
Personally i love the simplicity of it, although i will say that you have to have a solid 5S/Shadow boarding in place to use in place light sensors like this. It would work very well for specialized tool sets, but not your run of the mill mechanics toolbox. For that cheap RFID tags/single box reader might be more appropriate. (and could also be used for locating the tools if lost in the equipment).
Trust me that the cost of something like this is a drop in the bucket compared to the costs of real specialty tools, and the impact to production/operations when a tool is lost.
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
It's a very inefficiant toolbax, spacewise. Plus, If I'm using foam cutouts, I already know my tool is missing.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
Do away with human workers, robots don't lose tools.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
when I first saw this I thought "cool, the idea is to get the tool out without setting off the buzzer". Then I got to thinking that maybe if all surgical instruments and materials were tagged with RFID it would be easier to find them inside patients. I think I'm ready for a break now.
Nullius in verba
Auto mechanics own their own tools. Most shops give a "tool allowance" for them to buy new tools on a regular basis, but the fact is that owning your own tools makes theft pointless and accidental loss expensive. Problem solved.
Not really. You still have the problem of other workers, or the boss, "borrowing" a tool and forgetting (purposefully or not) to return it. And you have the problem of forgetting a tool in the vehicle or under the hood or whatever.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Do away with human workers, robots don't lose tools.
"Do not lose tools" is not one of the Three Laws of Robotics" :-)
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
assuming the issue is really the tools are lost and not "lost" (i.e. taken home), a simple scale that weights the whole box would be way easier to implement and more robust -> one button to "take measurement" before starting work, one to "check" when on the way out, will tell you "something is missing", "everything cool" or actually "you packed half of your customers tools as well".
I had a cheap pair of joint snapping pliers. Instead of snapping, the joints would slip.