Not every tooling order is a new job. A big share of what shops buy from you is steady: the general-purpose turning inserts that run on half the lathes, center drills, spot drills, the taps that thread every bracket, bandsaw blades, coolant concentrate, deburring blades and flap discs. The shop uses about the same amount every week, and someone still has to remember to order it.
When they forget, the crib runs out on a Thursday afternoon and you get a rush order Friday morning. Steady items should be the easiest, most reliable business you have.
Three ways to keep the crib full
Reorder lets the shop buy a past order again or order from saved items. The crib attendant who places the same order every Monday does it in a few taps, with the exact grades and geometries already filled in.
Blanket orders handle contract buying. Production plants often set up an annual blanket PO for consumable tooling and release against it. The app lets them release against the contract, so each order lands on the right PO without a phone call.
AutoPilot reorder orders the shop's usual items on a schedule so they don't run out.
The AutoPilot dial
Shop owners are careful about anything that spends money for them, and they should be. AutoPilot works on a dial each customer sets:
- Suggest: the app suggests the usual reorder, and the shop decides whether to place it.
- Ask first: the reorder is prepared on schedule and waits for the shop to confirm.
- Run on its own: the shop's standing order for the items it picked goes in on the schedule it set, like a blanket release, and it can change or stop that at any time.
Most shops start on Suggest or Ask first. Once they trust the quantities, some move their most predictable items, like coolant concentrate and a few core insert grades, to Run on its own. The items, quantities and schedule always belong to the shop.
Fit it to how shops really run
Job shops have busy months and slow months. A schedule that's right in March might be too much in August. That's why the dial matters: a shop can sit on Ask first through a slow stretch and confirm or trim each reorder, then let it run on its own when the work is steady again.
If the shop uses monthly budgets, scheduled reorders count against them like any other order, and an order that would push the month over budget can be held for a manager to approve.
What it does for your business
Scheduled reorders smooth out your demand. You see predictable orders you can plan around, and your buyer's desk can reorder from your tooling vendors with minimums and free freight in mind instead of reacting to rushes.
It also protects the account. A shop that's on a reorder schedule for its everyday inserts and taps isn't shopping them every week. A competitor has to convince someone to turn off a routine that works, which is much harder than quoting a lower price on one box.
And it frees your inside team to work on the orders that need expertise: the new job, the tough material, the tool that keeps failing.
Want to see it with your own tooling catalog? See how it works.