---
alias: tutorials-durables-management-introduction
description: "Understand what durables are, why they matter in production, and which assets support this tutorial."
---

# Introduction

In Critical Manufacturing MES, **Durables** are reusable physical tools or assets that work together with a **Resource** to produce specific **Products**. Typical examples include fixtures, jigs, molds, stencils, and reticles. Unlike consumable materials, **Durables** are reused across many operations, but they still require tracking, validation, and maintenance.

![Example showing reticles used as reusable durables in an exposure process.](images/durables_reticle_example_primary.png)

![Example showing additional durable tooling used during exposure processing.](images/durables_reticle_example_secondary.png)

## Why Durables Matter

Use **Durables** to support the following manufacturing needs:

- Match the correct tooling to each **Product** and **Step**.
- Support operations that require more than one **Durable** at the same time.
- Share a durable pool across multiple **Resources**.
- Constrain scheduling when **Durables** are scarce.
- Validate setup before production starts.
- Plan maintenance for each **Durable**.

| Benefit | Impact |
| --- | --- |
| Product-specific tooling tracking | Ensures the correct setup for each **Product**. |
| Shared durable pools | Improves the utilization of scarce tooling assets. |
| Scheduling integration | Prevents conflicts between **Resources** and **Durables**. |
| Setup validation | Reduces defects caused by incorrect tooling. |
| Track-in traceability | Confirms that the scheduled **Durables** are the **Durables** that the **Resource** uses. |
| Maintenance planning | Helps reduce unplanned downtime. |

Table 1: Durables Benefits

!!! warning
    Enable durable scheduling only when Durables are a real bottleneck, because durable scheduling can affect scheduling performance.

## Security Features

The permissions used to manage **Durables** are available under **Administration** > **Security** > **Feature**.

![Screenshot showing the durables-related permissions in the security configuration.](images/durables_security_features.png)

## Tutorial Assets

Use the [Master Data file](masterdata/durables_masterdata.xlsx) to create the example model used in this tutorial.

Continue to [[tutorials-durables-management-configuration]] to build the durable-specific model used in this tutorial. After you complete that setup, go to [[tutorials-durables-management-scenarios]] to run the three execution scenarios.