Solution
Tool Crib Audit and Tool Control Programmes
A survey of what you actually hold, measured against what your own procedure says you hold, and a programme to close the gap between the two.
Most tool control findings are not caused by a missing procedure. They are caused by a procedure that describes a tool crib nobody has compared against reality for three years. An audit is the comparison, done before somebody with a clipboard and an approval does it for you.
What the audit covers
What is actually in there
A physical count against your register. Not a sample: the whole crib, box by box and drawer by drawer. The output is a list of tools present and unregistered, tools registered and absent, and tools present in a condition that means they should not be issued.
The second category is the one that matters, because a registered tool nobody can find is either lost, in somebody's locker, or in an aircraft, and until you know which, you do not know what you have.
Identification and labelling
Whether every controlled tool carries a mark that ties it to a register row, whether the scheme is applied consistently, and whether the marks are still legible. A scheme that works on paper and has stopped being applied to new arrivals is a very common finding.
Calibration status
Every item that measures, checked for a current certificate and a record. This is the part auditors go to first, because it is the part that is unambiguous: either the certificate is in date or it is not. We check what is in the crib against what is in your records, including the things people forget, which are the infrequently used tools, the leased ones and the borrowed ones.
The procedure against the practice
We read your tool control procedure, then watch what actually happens at issue and return. The gap between those two is where findings live. A procedure that requires a signature nobody has time to give is a procedure that is not being followed, and it is better to change the procedure than to keep failing against it.
What you get
- A findings report, ordered by what would fail an audit first rather than by what is easiest to fix.
- A reconciled register, so there is one list that matches the crib on the day we left.
- A prioritised remediation plan with what it costs, so it can be put in front of somebody who controls budget.
- Where foam, marking or kitting is part of the answer, a quote for it. Those are optional, and the report says plainly which findings need spend and which just need a different habit.
The programme, if you want one
An audit on its own is a document. Where the findings justify it, the same work runs as a programme: survey, layout per box, foam, marking and serialisation, register rebuild, then a re-audit against your own procedure once it is in.
That is quoted per programme after the survey, because until somebody has counted the crib nobody knows how big the job is. Anyone quoting a fleet tool control programme from a web form has not understood the question.
What we are not
This is worth stating plainly, because it is the sort of thing that causes a problem during a supplier file review rather than during a sales call.
We are not an approved maintenance organisation. We do not certify tools, we do not release parts, and we do not issue approvals. Performing calibration is not itself a Part-145 privilege, which means a tooling service provider is a supplier of services under your quality system, not a substitute for any part of it. An audit by us is an internal exercise you have commissioned. It is useful preparation for a regulatory audit and it is not one.
We also hold no quality management certification we can show you today, and we do not claim one. If your approved supplier process requires one, raise it before we spend your time.
Where to start reading
If you are working out whether an audit is worth commissioning, the EASA Part-145 tool control guide sets out what a tooling control system is expected to consist of, and the calibration guide covers the records side. Both are free and neither is behind a form.
Questions we get asked
How long does an audit take?
A single tool crib is usually one to two days on site, with the report following within a week. A multi bay or multi site operation is scoped first, because guessing at it would produce a number that is wrong in one direction or the other.
Is this a regulatory audit?
No. It is an internal exercise you have commissioned, and it is useful preparation for a regulatory audit rather than a substitute for one. We are not an approved maintenance organisation and we do not issue approvals.
Will you tell us things we do not want to hear?
That is the service. A report that finds nothing is worth nothing, and the findings are ordered by what would fail first rather than by what is comfortable.
Do we have to buy foam at the end of it?
No. The report says which findings need spend and which need a different habit, and plenty fall in the second category. Where foam, marking or kitting genuinely is the answer, it is quoted separately and you decide.
Can you audit against our own tool control manual?
Yes, and that is the more useful version. Send the relevant chapter and the audit measures practice against your own written procedure rather than against a generic checklist.
What about leased and borrowed tooling?
Included, and deliberately so. Infrequently used, leased and loaned tooling is where calibration control most often breaks down, because it arrives outside the normal incoming inspection route.
