Tooling ownership

In practice

Ask for tool tags or an asset list that identifies customer-owned tools, and agree on who pays for maintenance and replacement at end of tool life.

Related terms

Amortized tooling

Amortized tooling is tooling whose cost is spread across the piece price of a set quantity of parts instead of being paid up front. It lowers initial cash outlay, but the buyer usually pays a financing markup, and the terms must state what is owed if volume falls short.

Bridge tooling

Bridge tooling is lower-cost, faster tooling, often aluminum or unhardened P20 steel molds and soft dies, used to make production-intent parts while hardened production tooling is built. It covers pilot builds, launches, and early sales at volumes from hundreds to tens of thousands of parts.

Dual sourcing

Dual sourcing is qualifying two suppliers for the same part so production can continue if one has a capacity, quality, or supply problem. It usually costs more than single sourcing because of duplicate tooling and split volume, and buyers weigh that cost against supply risk.