Good Tools Cost Less Than Ruined Work and Overtime

Our e-commerce manager, got a message today from a customer who is reclaiming electronics in an unheated warehouse. They’re having a lot of problems with their screwdriver bits rusting, which leads to the bits wearing out quickly and slipping in the screws.

He wanted to know if we had anything that would help them.

We had two suggestions.

First, we sell screwdriver bits that are coated with TiN, titanium nitride. This coating won’t rust and it significantly improves wear resistance compared with uncoated bits. In practical terms, that means the tips hold their shape longer and continue to grip the screw head properly.

Second, we also offer screwdriver bits coated with titanium nitride that contains carbide particles. The tiny, rough carbide grains create an extremely good contact surface between the bit and the screw. This improves grip and reduces the likelihood of cam-out—the moment when the bit slips out of the screw head under torque.

Underlying all of this is a basic but often overlooked reality: screwdriver bits are precision tools.

If you’re reading this, the odds are good that you already know tooling wears. As tooling wears, dimensions can get slightly larger or smaller. This is true with screwdriver bits, and it’s also true with screws. You can get screws with slightly oversized or undersized slots, just as you can get screwdriver bits that are slightly oversize or undersize.

When those two things stack up in the wrong direction—a worn bit and a slightly small screw slot—you get slipping, stripped heads, and frustration.

We have a couple of customers who buy screwdriver bits in packs of 100 on a regular basis. Their policy is simple: the bits are used for a defined period of time and then replaced. It’s not because the bits are completely unusable—it’s because the cost of replacing them is much lower than the cost of problems caused by worn tooling.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we have been rebuilding equipment in our shop. The question from the customer about screwdriver bits had me looking at my own hand tools.

I like to keep a set of appropriate hand tools and spare parts near each machine. If a rubber drive belt breaks, for example, I really like to get that machine back up and running as soon as possible. Having a spare belt of the right size and the correct Allen wrench immediately available makes the whole process fast and simple.

It also avoids that familiar scavenger hunt around the shop for the one tool someone borrowed yesterday.

I am pretty good at making sure we have good quality tools in production. But I could check them more often than I do now, and I could train the staff to be more conscious of tool wear. And I certainly need to apply the same thinking to hand tools used in support operations.

Small habits around tools tend to compound over time—for better or worse.

One of my operating principles is that nothing is more expensive than rework.

In 30 years in business I’ve found that people are generally pretty happy to get a little overtime if we are that busy. When demand is high and the work is moving, overtime usually feels like progress.

Rework is different.

Trying to get caught up because the machine went down or because parts have to be fixed just has a different feel to it. People don’t seem to like it as much—and I purely hate it—because I know we are losing money on it.

And most of the time, problems like that start with something small.

Sometimes it’s even as small as a worn screwdriver bit.