While steel service centers and manufacturers may, technically speaking, fall under the heading of manufacturers, they are not at all like most manufacturers. This is a unique industry defined by a vast variety of metals, production operations and customer demands.
The business technology often used by other manufacturers does not even begin to address the needs of the metals industry. As such, RealSTEEL was designed exclusively for the metals industry to support the specific needs of steel service centers and manufacturers.
One Size ERP Does Not Fit All
While many manufacturers in other industry sectors can use modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, today’s ERP doesn’t fully align with the needs of businesses in the steel and metals industry. Inventory management must be handled with a variety of qualifiers, such as dimensional, physical and chemical attributes.
In addition, estimates during the quoting process need to take into consideration yield and scrap, packaging, tolerances, transportation and other costs. Manufacturing operations can also be so unique it’s difficult to measure and monitor those activities, and associated resource needs, with basic ERP systems.
Dig Deeper with the Manufacturing Execution System
RealSTEEL is a business management solution that was specifically designed to support the complex needs for the steel and metals industry. The Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is one particularly robust functionality you won’t find in any ERP solution. This feature allows supervisors and operators to see the machine schedule and capture all activities related to a production order.
Managers can measure and monitor process time, down time, inspection activities, finished goods, raw material usage, scrap and remnant recording. Slitting operators can also view complete slitting instructions for each coil including head setup and planned sheers. Cut-to-Length and Plate Cutting operators can view precise cutting instructions including cut diagram, layout and reserved lot information. All operators can then enter actual production results with corresponding quality data.
RealSTEEL offers the control and insight from most ERP systems with additional tailored features designed for the steel and metals industry. Contact The Wolcott Group to learn more about the specialized features built into RealSTEEL that can deliver complete control over operations with the visibility you need to improve customer service, reduce waste and drive growth.
By The Wolcott Group, providers of RealSTEEL, a ‘real world’ solution for the steel and metals industry.
