Lisa Nagaki

In 1991, Don Kafka, an electrical contractor at the time, knew that his tools were slowly disappearing. The idea of spending valuable time searching for them was not appealing, but missing tools also meant he was unnecessarily losing profits. After futile efforts to find an immediate, off-the-shelf solution to this problem, Kafka decided to develophis own system. The first iteration of ToolWatch addressed many of Kafka’s tool-related challenges. However, it wasn’t long before he developed the vision of a total solution for tool, equipment and materials management. Over the next decade, this vision gained rapid acceptance in an industry long plagued by high levels of tool loss, damage and hoarding. Since then, Kafka and the ToolWatch team have implemented thousands of customer-suggested improvements and enhancements, culminating in what is today the world’s leading tool and materials management solution. More than 4,000 organizations in more than 20 countries use ToolWatch to streamline the process of managing tools, equipment, materials and consumable items across their organizations. Easy to use and delivered through the cloud, ToolWatch uses one centralized database to securely store critical information on all warehouse and field operation assets.