Tool shadow boards
A board cut and labelled to your exact tool set, so a missing item is obvious at a glance and every tool has a fixed home.
DetailsAutomotive manufacturing
Tool control and 5S for takt-driven production
Automotive plants and tier suppliers run to the minute. A missing tool at a station is lost output, and a cluttered cell fails the next audit. We make boards that put the right tools and cleaning equipment at the point of use, sized to the cell and labelled to your standard.
What we see on site
Common problems in automotive manufacturing
Problem 01
Line-side tool loss
Shared tools drift between stations and shifts, and the search for them shows up as micro-stops.
Problem 02
Audit findings
Customer and internal 5S audits keep flagging the same unlabelled, unhomed items.
Problem 03
Changeover time
Changeover kits are incomplete when the changeover starts, adding minutes to every SMED cycle.
Problem 04
Inconsistent standards across cells
Each team improvises its own board, so the visual standard varies from one end of the line to the other.
What we make for this sector
Relevant board types
Cleaning stations
A fixed home for brushes, squeegees, mops and consumables, colour-coded to zone so cross-contamination and lost equipment stop being a daily problem.
DetailsVisual management boards
Custom-printed whiteboards laid out for your tiered meetings, KPI tracking, 5S audits and shift handovers, so the routine runs the same way every day.
DetailsStandards
Compliance and standards notes
How our boards support the standards this sector works to. We are not a certification body; your auditor has the final say.
- IATF 16949
- Boards support workplace organisation and controlled tooling requirements within your QMS.
- Customer-specific 5S standards
- Layouts and colour codes matched to OEM visual standards where you supply them.
Examples
Automotive boards we have made
Tool shadow board, assembly cell 
Mobile cleaning station, paint shop 
5S audit board
Case study
Line-side tool boards for a tier one automotive supplier
Twenty-four assembly cells, one visual standard. A programme of line-side tool boards designed from the customer's tool lists and installed over two weekends.
24
cells standardised
2
weekends to install
0
5S findings at next audit
Questions
Frequently asked
- Can boards match our OEM customer's colour standard?
- Yes. Send us the standard and we design to it. Where no standard exists we propose one and document it.
Working in automotive manufacturing? Tell us about the site.
Enquire
Enquire about automotive boards
Tell us what you need and where it will go. We will come back with questions or a proposal within one working day.
- — Photos of the area help us quote faster
- — No obligation, no sales calls unless you ask
- — Design proof before anything is made