A tool and die maker builds press tools, dies and moulds one at a time, and each depends on a few skilled hands. This is how to grow toolmakers, protect trial days and keep drawings and know-how in the building.
Not sure what you need? Tell us about your business in six short steps and we will come to the first meeting prepared.
Share your requirementsA tool and die manufacturer designs and builds the tools that other factories use to stamp, mould or form parts. A job begins with a customer part drawing, passes through design, programming, rough machining, heat treatment, grinding, wire cutting, fitting and a trial on a press, then goes back for correction. Work is one-off, so every job has its own risk and delivery date. The floor mixes designers, CNC and EDM operators, grinders and bench fitters, and the best fitters have spent twenty years learning by hand. Trials often run late at night because the customer press is free then. Overtime peaks before a tryout and idle weeks follow. For the wider sector, read HR for manufacturers.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in tool and die manufacturers. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
Fitting a die to close tolerance is learned over years, and one resignation delays three jobs.
Young trainees clean the floor for a year, see no path and move to a CNC job elsewhere.
A drawing that cannot be machined comes back late, and the delay is argued over rather than fixed.
Tryouts follow the customer's press availability, and the same few people go every time.
Pay swings with the job calendar, and good people look for steady work.
Heat treatment settings, clearances and correction tricks are in notebooks, not in job files.
A job waits for heat treatment or coating from a vendor, and nobody owns the follow up.
Revisions arrive after rough machining, and the team reworks without extra time or recognition.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Learning and Development; Career and Succession Management; Retention and Attrition Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a tool and die manufacturers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Rotate trainees through grinding, EDM, fitting and trial, with a mentor and a skills log.
Rotate trainees through grinding, EDM, fitting and trial, with a mentor and a skills log. Tie it to learning and development.
A short note per tool covering clearances, corrections and lessons, filed with the drawing.
A short note per tool covering clearances, corrections and lessons, filed with the drawing. Keep it with employee and job records.
A rota for night and Sunday tryouts with fixed compensation and rest the next day.
A rota for night and Sunday tryouts with fixed compensation and rest the next day. See attendance and shift rules.
A manufacturability check before release, attended by a senior fitter, so errors surface earlier.
A manufacturability check before release, attended by a senior fitter, so errors surface earlier.
A clear overtime and incentive rule linked to completed trials, so pay does not swing wildly.
A clear overtime and incentive rule linked to completed trials, so pay does not swing wildly. Compensation benchmarking shows where you stand.
One coordinator tracks heat treatment, coating and outside machining with dates visible on a board.
One coordinator tracks heat treatment, coating and outside machining with dates visible on a board.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
An apprentice track and skills log that turn trainees into toolmakers.
A fair rota for night and Sunday trials with rest built in.
Pay and incentives for scarce toolroom skills compared with nearby units.
Job notes and training records stored so know-how outlasts one person.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in manufacturing, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why the best operator often struggles as shift supervisor, what it costs the line, and a practical way to choose, prepare and back new supervisors in any kind of plant.
7 min readRead article
A founder's guide to hiring freshers and running a first-year programme: campus or open drives, a screening round, a training plan by quarter, mentors and checkpoints.
6 min readRead article
A two-hour exercise that names the roles you could not fill quickly, who could cover them, and what readiness would actually require.
7 min readRead article
What really keeps mobile app and web developers in a small firm: stay conversations, growth paths, fair release rules and a risk sheet an owner can use this month.
6 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Pay fairly for scarce skill, give him charge of training and a say in scheduling trials. People stay where their craft is respected.
Keep a written plan, rotate across sections, assign a mentor and review progress quarterly. Confirm statutory apprenticeship requirements with a qualified professional.
Keep a rota, fix a rate for night and Sunday trials and give rest the next day.
Introduce a pre-release review with a fitter present, and record every change request with its date and cost.
Use them for training, tool maintenance and documentation, and avoid unpaid leave for skilled staff unless the policy is clear.
We would look at the apprentice path, trial rota and the way job knowledge is recorded. Scope, timing and fees are written down so you know what you are buying.
All 255 business types in manufacturing · Find another business type
Tell us what is slowing your team down. We’ll help you find a practical way forward, starting with a conversation.
