The control of cutting tools within a large-scale manufacturing environment has been studied and a routing through a 'linked' tool control system designed and implemented. Previous contributions in the field of cutting tool control have focused upon a number of specialist areas, and these can be divided into three broad categories:- (a) At the point of application upon individual machine tools. (b) The tool planning element within Process Planning systems. (c) Tool material supply systems. However, in terms of viewing the problem of tool control from a Manufacturing Systems perspective, i.e. the study of the 'whole' system, then this particular subject area has been neglected. A claim to originality is made with respect to the contents of this thesis which consider the interactive nature of the essential control disciplines inherent in (a), (b) and (c) and these are then linked together within a single tool control system framework. Applying this linked systems approach to one tooling family (indexable inserts) within a factory embracing jobbing, batch and flow line production systems resulted in the achievement of a package of economic benefits which included significant reductions in related inventory levels, expenditure, labour content, and through Improvements in the utilisation and output of selected machine tools.