IAT – SU vision is to work towards a national effort to build the innovation capacity of the South African tooling industry. The IAT works with companies aiming to improve their competitive position towards domestic and international competitors; change tooling manufacture from a resource driven to a knowledge driven process by offering a balanced combination of technology enablers for all steps of the extended life cycle to small medium enterprises (SME’s) in the tooling sector. The IAT aims to create a foundation for a new mould making business concept based on technology innovation which, concerning the particularities and the typical dimension of the South African SME’s, pushes the sector towards a new position as high added value engineering service providers. The IAT further stimulates the shift of the tooling industry, which is traditionally less R&D intensive, to a high added value sector.