Copyright ibtimes
Manufacturing leaders rarely set out to "do tool control." They set out to ship on time, with fewer interruptions, cleaner handoffs, and line layouts that anyone on the floor can navigate. That's the lane Cody Spears, founder of TraceMySpace, says his team tries to keep clear. "First and foremost, this is what we do and how we are different; we just need a picture," he explains. "Lay out the drawer, take a photo on your phone, send it to us, and we'll take it from there."That picture-first workflow is the spine of TraceMySpace's offering. Instead of shipping tools back and forth or photographing every wrench tool one by one, customers arrange a drawer once, upload a single image, and receive a laser-cut insert made to that layout, avoiding downtime and extra handling steps that can slow a shift. Spears frames the benefit in everyday terms: "You are not spending hours taking pictures of every single tool or packing them to ship out. That's time back on the line."For manufacturers running Lean and aiming to hold the gains, the approach maps neatly to 5S Lean Manufacturing. Spears breaks it down: Sort and Set in order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. TraceMySpace even calls out 5S alignment in its product materials for teams formalizing Lean practices.Spears is careful to connect the organization with outcomes leaders actually track. "Time is the obvious one," he notes. "If every tool has a spot, you are not losing minutes hunting or damaging a part because something was left where it shouldn't be." He also points to accountability as a cultural dividend: standardized drawers make end-of-shift inspections straightforward and reinforce shared expectations. "If a wrench is missing, you'll know. That accountability builds culture," he says.TraceMySpace has worked to keep its own throughput predictable, a concern for any ops leader wary of supply snags. The company highlights state-of-the-art lasers and software for consistent turnaround on custom work. Internally, Spears says the team added a second large-format laser to save time and reduce bottlenecks. "Our manufacturing is streamlined now," he adds. "We are always forecasting. We stay stocked on foam, and those two big lasers keep us moving." The company's channels consistently emphasize the simplicity of photo-to-insert to minimize ordering friction.On the customer side, TraceMySpace has been tuning the quoting and approval loop, crucial for custom jobs that touch multiple cost centers. "We have rolled out a streamlined quoting system so teams can make edits, tailor what they need, and turn quotes into POs more easily," Spears says. "We never cut or ship anything until the customer gives full approval." That approval-first policy complements the one-photo intake: it reduces rework while keeping buyers in control of spec and spend.Many users explicitly mention 5S and ease of use when they talk about their experience. For manufacturers, repeatability is the quiet value: lines change, crews rotate, and new models come to life, but a shared layout, digitized from a single photo, helps the floor operate as one system rather than a set of personal workarounds.Spears sums up the intent simply: "Everybody's under time constraints. With a custom product, there are a lot of steps, so we are cutting those steps down. The idea is a faster product with the same high quality." For plant managers who measure improvement by minutes saved, fewer interruptions, and standards that actually stick, that's the kind of plain-spoken promise that fits neatly on a production board, and, more importantly, survives a busy Monday.
