Cost Planning in Tool Construction: Planning by Way of Multivariate Methods.

Work scheduling in tool construction (dies and molds) is aimed at establishing process sequences for the production of hollow shape-type tools which are optimum in terms of time and costs. This planning task turns out to be very complex due to the great variety of possible manufacturing methods and due to technological, economic and organizational marginal conditions. A study for forging dies resulted in differences in the scheduled production costs of up to 50%. Only inadequate methods are available to date for carrying out cost optimum planning. Based on the example of die production the paper presents some initial steps towards a cost reduction in hollow shape tool construction.