Plate Processors

Plate processor capabilities are continually expanding to meet customer requirements, changing the profile of these companies from plate cutting/burning to true value-add processors.

Many plate processors have expanded their operations to include multiple plate cutting options (oxy, plasma, laser and waterjet) as well as add-on processes such as bending, rolling, drilling, plate cylinder rolling, surface and blanchard grinding, machining, and heat treatment. In addition, the use of outside processors has dramatically increased the number of services that can be offered to customers who are frequently asking for production-ready parts.

STRATIX has extensive plate-specific functionality that is designed to help sales staff quote plate cutting orders more accurately through a comprehensive set of tables designed to estimate cutting time, as well as the ability to build in costs for outside processing so as to ensure a more accurate price and estimated profit.

SALES Plate Processing - Fast Burned Shapes Entry
Choosing from a list of custom burned shapes makes it easier and faster to enter the order.  Some of the shapes chosen include squares, rectangles, circles, rings, triangles, ring sections, trapezes, or irregular.  Based on the shape, the user is prompted to enter the required dimensions (e.g., ID & OD for rings) and STRATIX will calculate net, gross and required weights, calculate the inches of burning and format the product description.

A Cylinder Rolling function is also included that can be used to calculate the stretch-out width and length required to make a cylinder.  

STRATIX also includes a function that enables sales staff to attach various files to an order item that can include a diagram/drawing, CAD files, etc.

Plate Processing Pricing
STRATIX also includes a set of burning, grinding, and drilling pricing tables that is fully integrated with Quote & Order Entry.  Tracking the revenue and cost for each individual process on an order item can provide a host of information for later reporting and analysis. 

Fabrication & Assemblies
Assemblies through welding for example, can be processed in STRATIX, where multiple products from stock or through processing can be combined into a single item. 

Multi-Step Processing
Handling orders that require multiple processing steps such as Plasma, Drill and Bend at an outside processor are easily accommodated through a sophisticated yet simple to use production planning system. Transfers to and from outside processors are easily handled and fully integrated with the order status. 

Tests
As material is tested (Charpy) or heat treated, the additional certificates and tests results can be recorded and stored in STRATIX to enable copies of these certificates or a company certificate to be generated as required.

SigmaNEST
To further assist our plate processing customers, Invera provides an
optional SigmaNEST bi-directional interface so as to eliminate all double-entry and significantly improve the productivity of production staff and improve inventory utilization.

Once the order is entered, the inventory and orders are imported into the nesting software, the CAD department nests the job in the nesting software, and the ‘job’ is electronically created in STRATIX and is ready for scheduling and warehouse production. 

STRATIX Features
To see a summary of STRATIX features, click on a business area below! The features in bold are specifically targeted to Plate service centers.  

Inventory Control

• Product Coding based on native attributes familiar within industry
  • No part numbers to look up or memorize
  • Easier to view inventory
  • Metric or English coding
• Handles All Metal Types (carbon steel, aluminum, stainless steel, brass, copper specialty metals, & titanium)
• Handles all metal forms (i.e. structural, coils, sheet, plate, pipe, tubing bars, wire mesh, rebar, slabs, billets, blooms, & basic materials)
• Product 'Short-Cut Code'
• Dynamic Dimensions
  • Used to buy, sell, & stock any unique combination of width & length (length for bars/pipe, width for coils, width/length for sheet, length for panels & profiles, flashing, & trim)
  • Eliminate need to create product codes for each dimension (or unique set of dimensions)
• Comprehensive Side Cut/Drop/Remnant Functionality
  • Automatically tracks Drops (off-cuts, remnants)
  • No need to create new product codes for each drop
  • Can view drop & stock sizes in same inquiry
  • Planned Drops (anticipated drops from production are displayed as soon as job is created in order to increase overall job yields & product utilization
• Material purchased, inventoried, and sold by Pieces, Lineal measure (feet or meters), or Weight
• Material control by Lot/Location, Heat, or Tag to accommodate broad-based inventory control as well as critical nuances
  • Example: A service center can choose to tag PVQ grades and thicker plates with full tag tracing, and use a Location/Heat method for more standard A36 smaller thickness plate. 
• Specific Costing or Real-time Average Costing
  • Specific Cost by Tag or Bundle vs. Average Cost by branch, warehouse, dimension(s), etc.
• Precise Material Costing (to 2, 3, or 4 decimal places)
• Cost in various units of measure (piece, lineal measure (feet/meter), weight, etc.)
• Weight Control to decimals of a Pound/Kilogram for high-value products such as Titanium & Nickel Alloy
• Flexible Stock Search 
  • Specific or range of plate thickness, gauge
  • Specific or range of Chemistry or Physical/Mechanical test results
  • Metal Standard Specs (ASTM, etc.)
• Comprehensive Stock Inquiry
  • On-hand vs. Available Quantity
  • Quantity Display in Totals &/or Details
  • Column configuration by User (bold &/or move important columns to left for ease of view, suppress unimportant columns from view)
  • Export Stock Inquiry to Excel
• Ability to record Actual Measurements (Diameter, OD, ID, Wall, Gauge, etc.) 
• Extended Finish Code (Paint Color, Stencil, Indented, Polished, Threaded)
• Attach a Picture or any file type to Inventory Item (damaged, claim, secondary, etc.)
• Theoretical or Actual Quantity Control (for each of Pieces, Lineal Measure, & Weight)
• Material designated for specific Customer or Salesperson
• On-Line Plate Diagram for Sketch Plates
  • Integrated on-line accurate plate remnant drawing tool
  • Calculates area & theoretical weight 
  • Can include free form for irregular cuts 
  • Diagram can be viewed from within Stock Available
  • Ability to search remnant pieces by usable rectangles
• Vendor Consigned Inventory
• Customer Consigned Inventory
• Shop Floor Wireless Operations for Physical Inventory, Location Change, etc.
• Multiple Material Defect Codes by Tag/Bundle
  • Used for reference, searching, & can also be used to automatically place tag on Quarantine, Production, or Shipping Hold to prevent unintentional processing or shipment until condition is released
• Traceability & History
  • From original receipt, through each process, to final shipment to customer
  • Includes customer returns & inter-warehouse transfers
  • Can be accessed using any of the following:
    • Metal Service Center Tag Number
    • Vendor/Mill Tag Number
    • Outside Processor Tag Number
    • Customer Tag Number (for Customer-Owned inventory)
    • Metal Roofing Manufacturer Tag Number

Purchasing

• Standard & Blanket Purchase Orders
• Multi-destination Purchase Order
• Direct Shipments (Vendor to Customer)
• Buyout Purchase Orders for items that are not stocked
  • Eliminates need to create one-time product codes
• Copy PO Options
• Vendor Price Book
• Imperial and Metric Functions
• On-line Purchase History
• Purchase Analysis by Vendor & Product
• Purchase Material to multiple Metal Standard Specifications (ASTM, ASME, etc.)
• Mill Acknowledgement Function
• PO Change History
  • Due Date, Price, Quantity
• Sales Order Reservations
• Automated Alloy Surcharge Handling
• Landed Cost Options
• Print/Email/Fax Purchase Order document
• Custom Terms & Conditions on PO document
• Inventory Planning & Forecasting for quick decision making
  • On-line Replenishment Position Inquiry
  • Highlights items that require immediate replenishment

Receiving

• Warehouse &/or Office Model for Receiving
• Special receiving function for outside processing
• Pre-Receiving – Advanced Shipping Notice
• Customer Returns
• Label Printing
• Use applicable alloy surcharge rate

Material Quality & Certification

• Original Mill Test Certificate Scanning
  • View/print from stock inquiry
• Digital Signature on In-House Test Certificates
• Entry of Chemical & Mechanical Test Results
  • On-Line validation against multiple metal standards (ASTM, SAE, etc.)
  • Warnings issued when actual results are outside range of standard
  • Automatic verification of test results when reserving material to sale
  • Standard ranges for Physical Test results can vary by plate thickness
  • View/print test results from stock inquiry
• Automatic Print of Test Certificate(s) at time of Shipping/Delivery
  • Option to automatically print/email test certs without having to control inventory by Heat or Tag Number (General/Multi-Line)
• Scan additional certificates such as Heat Treat or Charpy Tests
  • Example: Some types of plates are impact tested in-house or by a 3rd party. STRATIX provides the ability to record the results &/or scan the impact test certificate for later viewing and automatic printing at shipping time, based on the requirements of the order.
• Quality Hold & Controls
  • Comprehensive Material Hold History
  • Indicates date/time of hold, reason for hold, & user information

Sales Order Fulfillment 
Sales Productivity & Profitability 

• Fast Quote Entry with access to real-time customer, inventory, & pricing information
• Simple Quote to Order Conversion
• Quick order to shipment fulfillment options (Same Day/Next Day)
• Lost Quote Analysis
• Counter Sales
• Blanket & Multi-release Orders
• Stock, Buyout, & Direct Ship Purchases & Sales
• Create Buyout PO directly from Sales Order
• Customer Part Specifications for repeat orders
• Multi-Currency Pricing
• Custom Terms & Conditions for Quote and Sales Acknowledgment documents
• Sales can specify exact Diameter, OD/ID/Wall for Bars, Pipe & Tube
  • Example: 10.115" OD x 6.815" ID
• Special features for Plate Cut Shapes (Circles, Rings, Ring Sections, Triangles, etc.)
  • Standard set of burned shapes for speedy quote/order entry
  • Computes lineal measure, number of pierces, net & gross weights (incl. Yield Loss)
  • Multi-Torch Efficiency Factor
  • Automatic Product Description Formatting (12" OD x 7.5" ID, 13.5” Diameter, etc.)
  • Attach sketch/file to Sales Order Item such as PDF, plate sketch, CAD drawing, etc. (plate)
  • Cylinder Rolling Function with stretch-out width & length
• Assembly/Fabrication Process
  • Assemble finished product (through welding, for example) from multiple stock or processed items
• Sell material by Pieces, Lineal measure (feet or meters), or Weight

Pricing 

• Flexible Metal Price Book
  • Generic pricing, Customer Pricing and Contract Pricing
  • Easy Replacement Cost Maintenance
  • Commodity Pricing (to allow quantity discount over group of items)
  • Primary & Alternate Unit of Measure for Quantity Brackets (for example, weight or total length for pipe & tube)
• Special Quoting View
  • Consolidated view of sales history, stock & incoming positions, price history & matrix, lost quote history, replacement & average costs, & more!
• Processing Price Book
  • Fully integrated with Quote/Order Entry
  • Default estimated processing time, cost, price to Quote/Order
  • Track revenue & costs for subsequent reporting & analysis
  • Provides more accurate cost & profit for item 
  • Sawing Pricing
    • Saw tables based on cross-section (bar) or OD & cross-section (pipe & tube)
  • Plate Cutting Pricing (Oxy, Laser, Plasma, Waterjet)
    • Accommodates various geometric shapes (circles, rings, rectangles, irregulars, etc.)
  • Drilling Pricing
    • Different types of holes (countersinks, straight holes, tapping holes, and ergots)
    • Drill advance & speed
    • Positioning Time
    • Validation to ensure plate thickness can handle size of hole
  • Plate Frinding Pricing
• Integrated Freight Tables
  • Fuel Surcharge option
• Flexible Pricing by Piece, Lineal Measure, Area, Weight, Lot, Roll
• Re-pricing Function (re-price item by any unit of measure, e.g., convert price per pound to price per foot, inch, or piece)
• Automated Alloy Surcharge Function
• Actual vs. Theoretical Billing Weight
  • Option to produce on actual & bill customer for theoretical 
  • Allows service centers to maintain accurate & consistent metal profit figures regardless of how material is sold

Order Fulfillment 

• Multi-Warehouse Process Route
  • Automatic creation of transfer orders
  • Used to make full use of material/processing options at sister warehouses 
  • Includes outside processing
• Standard Routes (used to pre-define sequences of processes that occur on a frequent basis)
• Integrated Capacity checking for realistic due date promises
• Integration with sigmaNEST

Outside Processing

• Fully integrated with Quote & Sales Order Entry function – seamless!
• Automatic creation of transfer orders for orders that require outside processing
• Automatic creation of Outside Processing Purchase Order
• Can include multiple outside processes such as Heat Treatment, Testing, Inspection, UT, etc.
• Test Certificate Scanning
• Automatic Fax/Print of all required Certificates at time of Shipping
• Fast conversion of internal work order to outside processing order

Value-Add Processing

• Each value-add service can be built into selling price or charged extra
• Includes outside processing
• Includes freight to & from outside processors and sister warehouses
• Estimated net profit based on value-add costs

Sales Order Status

• Comprehensive On-Line Order Status Inquiry
  • Improves productivity of sales and operations staff
  • Faster customer feedback – better customer service
• Includes internal and external processes
• Started and completed status for each process in the route
• Planned Shipment status or date and time of shipment
• Inter-Warehouse transfer status
• Outside Processing status
• Ready-to-Ship status
• Invoice status

Production
Production Planning

• On-line Production System for Planning, Scheduling, & Recording
• Eliminates needs for paper copies of orders
• Multiple sales orders can be combined on a single job
  • Plate Plan > Burn 4 orders from same master plate.
• Multi-step Processing
  • Orders that require multi-step processing can be grouped together. STRATIX links all the processes together to create a route, which allows WIP material to flow smoothly from one process to the next.
  • Includes internal & external processing, allowing for multi-warehouse process route
    • Example: Oxy > Grind > Drill (at outside processor) > Bend
• Create Planned Drops that can be viewed in stock inquiry prior to actual production
• Optional Automatic Job Creation
• Plate Layout Function
  • Used to specify which items are to be produced from which plates
    • Example: For the same thickness, some pieces might be burned from a 60 x 120", while some pieces might be burned from a 96 x 240".
  • Ability to specify planned Drop (rectangle, L shape, or plate diagram if required)
  • Serves as a guide for warehouse personnel
  • Ensures that right items are cut from the right stock size plates in order to maximize yields

Scheduling

• Capacity Planning
• Cut and Paste on-line schedule
• Re-schedule jobs from one warehouse to another with one click
• Change jobs from internal to external processing
• Warehouse Pick Lineup for on-line operation
• Work Center Scheduling for prioritization

Shop Floor Production Recording

• Real-time Production Recording in the Warehouse
  • View production lineup for a machine
  • All screens use larger fonts & buttons to accommodate dim lighting conditions in warehouse
  • Record Finished Goods, WIP, & Drops
  • Label/Tag Printing
  • Time Recording
  • Pro-rate value-add cost by weight or piece (sawing) 
  • Allowable scrap percentage by Process (saw, shear, etc.)
  • Scrap password if the scrap exceeds certain limits
  • Cost override for the produced items based on access security
• Integrated Plate drawing tool for remnants
  • For irregular-shaped plates, plate diagram can be used, allowing operator to quickly sketch the plate being returned to stock. Area & weight are automatically computed. Sales & production planning can view diagram from stock inquiry.
  • For simpler drop/remnants produced, like an 'L' shape, the operator can supply the larger & smaller rectangle of the shape. Area & weight of resulting drawing are automatically computed. 
• Pre-Pick function for production jobs
• Integrated Drop Cost Table (to devalue drops based on % or rate)
• Scale Interface
• Track Work-in-Process
• Value-added Costing based on actual or estimated costs
• Hand-held wireless functions for Picking & Location Change
• Barcoded labels for scanning and identification purposes
• Record Use of Strippable Film or PVC ('Consumables')
  • Consumables can be inventoried, so that operator can track cost.
  • Commonly used when shipping surface-sensitive material such as pre-painted, stainless, or architectural flat-rolled products
• Release Production to Next Step
  • For large orders, a service center may need to begin shipping finished goods before the entire job can be completed, so that the first truckload can leave. For example, if the customer ordered 500 pieces, and 100 pieces have been completed and are ready-to-ship.
  • Can also be used for multi-step processing (portion of WIP material can be 'released' to next step)
• Over-Produce some Finished Goods for Stock
  • Used when operator decides to overproduce for stock a specific burned part for a customer in order to optimize yields and efficiency
  • Overproduced stock items become available inventory as soon as they are produced.

Shipping

• On-line Transport/Load Planning by Route and Zone
  • Improves on-time delivery
• Includes transfers to sister warehouses and outside processors
• Identifies longest width & length for proper vehicle selection
• Multi-Stop Transports
• Real-Time Transport Status (% Ready-to-ship)
• Common Carrier or Own Truck Designation
  • Stop Charge
  • Fuel Surcharge
• Hand-held wireless functions for load verification
• Shipping documents include Manifest, Packing List and Bill of Lading
• Automatic print/email/fax of Original Mill Test Certificate &/or in-house certificate(s)
  • Can include Heat Treatment and other add on certificates (Charpy, UT, etc.)
• Inbound & Outbound Truck Scheduling
• Customer On-time Delivery Analysis Database   

Sales Management

• Customer & Product Sales Analysis
• Ranking Reports for Customers, Products and Sales staff
• Executive Management Dashboard (optional)

Financial Management 

• Invoicing
  • Invoices can be printed, faxed or emailed based on customer preference
  • Daily, weekly or monthly invoice consolidation
  • Automated invoice document archive
  • Auto Credit Note generation from customer return
• Credit Management
  • Integrated Credit checking at time of order entry
  • On-Line Credit Hold and Release function
  • Up to 16 credit hold verifications
  • Account Freeze Options
  • Flexible Credit Limits with Insured Amounts
  • Average Days to Pay
  • On-Line Credit narratives with follow up dates
  • Credit References
• Vendor Invoice Reconciliation
  • On-Line vendor invoice matching for material, freight and outside processing
• Automated accrual for material received but not invoiced yet
• Integrated AP, AR & GL
• Full GL Integration of all inventory, production, sales and invoicing transactions
• Financial Reporting
• Third Party Financial Product Integration (optional)

Security & Menu

• Menu Options by User Group
• Each user can be assigned to multiple user groups
• Customizable Menu
• User Menu Preferences for quick access to most frequently used menu choices
• Division, Region and Branch and Warehouse Access Security Options
• Price, Cost and Profit control by User
• Audit Trails for changes to parameters & reference files

Workflow-enabled

• Automated Notification of System Event or User Action
• Notification via Email or STRATIX Workflow Queue

International Features 

• Fully Multi-lingual software
• Document Control
  • Documents & reports print in the language of the customer and vendor
  • Localized document standards & envelope formats
  • Printing of information required by country
  • Print reason for shipment on shipping document (used in Italy)
• Multi-currency transactions
• Supports envelope formats for different countries
• Country specific sales tax computations
  • European & VAT sales tax computations
  • Mexican tax Retention
• Supports A4 Paper Size
• Date Formatting based on user profile (day, month, year)
• Currency Formatting where a comma is used instead of decimals (1.000,00)
• Localized Test Certificates
  • Supports European Certificate Standards (3.1a, 3.1b, …)
  • Test Certificate Charges (common in Europe)
• Mechanical tests in imperial or metric units of measure
• Support printing of up to three languages simultaneously
• Additional In-House Test Certificates to meet European standards
  • Example: Stamping Certificate with ability to enter Stamper initials during production recording (common in Germany)
• Terms of Trade & Discount Terms (many more options than what is used in USA)
• Display of information in localized time zone
• Order Header Charges (common in Europe for invoicing charge)
• Track Intrastat information (required in Europe)

STRATIX/MULTICO

• Used by companies with multiple divisions operating independently of one another, often with different operating requirements, at 'Arms Length', i.e., they exchange business transactions using independent sales, purchasing, shipping and receiving functions at a profit
• Provides ability to pool facilities & inventory together to provide operational synergies at minimal cost
• Includes features such as Consolidated Stock View & Inter-company transactions for sales order fulfillment or re-stocking

Internet Products
	Web Customer Service eCOMMERCE CRM Executive Dashboard

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