Steelman Software Solutions for service centers provides two editions of its SEMS product.  SEMS Enterprise Edition is for larger metal service centers. It is highly configurable and customizable included are more multi divisional functional-laity along with MRP Fabrication modules and more future planning tools. STEELMAN SEMS Major Module Comparison

SEMS Overview of Modules

The following is a summary of the key modules included with SEMS® (Steel Enterprise Management Systems) for the Metals Processing industry and is configured for each client’s needs:

Business Partners

The BPM application includes the functions that are required to create and maintain information regarding entities with which the company does business. A business partner may be classified as a customer and/or a vendor. Support for multiple ship-to locations and national accounts are provided. CRM like functions are built within this section.

• One central management system to control a partner that also may be a Customer, Vendor and even a Mill.
• Customer Profiles, classes, CRM, Credit Management/review system, Customer Parts Mgt, Pricing, Multi-Ship-To addresses, plus capturing of metal specific data like properties, tests required, EDI to and from docs, surcharges, mills preferred, cross-referencing part numbers-customer part #s, billing, accounting detail codes, included in each SHIP-TO is address, contact, email, territory, tax group, Ship modes with ship instructions, pack and load codes, packaging rules, preferred carriers, document mgt for delivery of BOLs, INVOICES, ORDER ACK., SHIPPERS, MSR, CERTS, etc.
• Credit management linked into Sales and optionally Production and thru to Shipping for checks against limits, links to accounting system data (real time), Properly linked into Contract Mgt system and only effecting sales orders released against a contract or master order from a customer, with REVIEW management functions.
• Customer Consignment Mgt, Rebate Programs, Surcharges, EDI document setup for Vendor or Customer, User defined Properties for CRM like functions, Next Cal, Last Call, Notes, birthdays, etc.
• Vendor Profiles, Vendor Parts order mgt, Mill lead times and Mill Rates and Mill Agreement Pricing (product costs) management.

Product Catalog

This module provides the functions that are required to define the products that your business supports. Product information that is entered at the time of order entry or purchasing can be validated against the information available in the Product Catalog. This uses the Product Configuration “ATTRIBUTES” subsystems and build hierarchy such as Shapes, Dimensions, Standards, Grades, Properties, required Tests, Chemistry, Production Processes and other process to complete a product sales order through to packaging, shipping/logistics, including work flow parameters, and alert notifications to staff and departments

• Shape Table Properties – user defined
• Dimension Table set up to 10 dimensions for the shapes defined above used in processing and quotes/sales
• Product Class definitions for further management of sales, inventory valuations and decision making reporting
• Product Class Definition – The heart of the SEMS® system for classifying a Product down to the ROOT level usually by shape then into more details that include class, shape, standards, properties, tests, processes required, source materials and output of resulting products – Parent, Child, Sibling hierarchy in nested views

Contract and Sales Order Management

Sales Management provides tools to promptly enter, price, quote and confirm an order. The production or shipping status of any order can be easily tracked by a sales representative or even by the customer via a secure Internet-ready interface.

• Master Orders – Contract Management for scheduled releases of order quantities over a specific period and entered into the Sales Order system as it is needed to properly reflect credit management.
• Contract Orders management options for linking sales history into the forecasting and demand planning module and is used to plan for future sales and inventory budgets throughout the year
• Contract and Master order system properly manages credit at the time of each release, links all other aspects of the system including claims/defects/holds, purchase orders linked to contract, inventory tags
• A Sales Offering provides the ability to proactively initiate sales and select the inventory items from a queried list to be included in the offering as line items.
• A fully configurable pricing tool provides maximum flexibility with formula and attribute based pricing, including COST-Plus Margin capable pricing option
• Excellent Credit review and management from SO to Shipping
• Quick Order Entry system for Distribution & a more detailed entry system for advanced order processing
• Offers Mgt – opposite of normal sales management, where you manage offerings of products to outside buyers at bid pricing
• Pricing tables, methods, Schedules – Can be Standard Price Book or Individual Customer pricing in a detailed matrix spreadsheet style chart for materials, processes, adders, freight, etc or COST PLUS using cost of materials and processes and using last cost, standard cost, high, low, average costs to determine a price using a markup using a MARGIN % up or down to determine final customer price. Reviews historical data to determine market price for each customer or product being quoted or sold.
• Invoicing methods – can be process flowed to time of shipping and sent via printer, fax, email, EDI etc.
• Sales Agent and commission management
• 3^rd Party Storage and Invoicing, releases, for process sales of customer owned inventory
• Outside Processing and full management from logistics to invoicing
• Detailed Sales History forms and reports built into Menus and especially useful having them embedded in all of our screens/forms for quick pop-up of data in forms or reports for review of critical information to make decisions.

Production Management

Production module provides the functionality necessary to manage and control the production process.  It gives you the ability to create and manage work orders and production jobs, reserve stock against orders and quotes, schedule production and record production on-line and MILL production order. There is METAL Processing functionality for work center metal processing like slitting, cut-to-length, laser cutting, plasma cutting, and rolling, shearing, sawing and forming functions. For parts manufacturing, STEELMAN has designed a METAL FABRICATION MRP module.

• Set Up of tables for: Process Codes, Work Center Definitions, Shifts, Costing Methods (Inventory types, Rules, WIP, etc), Work Instructions for Routings, Source Materials, Equipment Work Center Capabilities, capacity thru-put rates, yields, scarp tables, scheduling by work centers
• Work Order creation and management based upon confirmed sales orders, etc.
• Production Order creation and specific metal details for each routed step or work instruction
• Material Hard or Soft Allocation management
• Detailed Cutting Planner for maximizing material cuts or processes, with scrap, drop/remnant mgt using allocated materials
• Production Scheduling by work center, allowing foreman or Planner to manually optimize the production orders scheduled for each work center and align the optimum for processes of each work center to reduce set up costs and maximize thru-put
• Packaging system and processes – skid types and costs
• Outside Processing Management – including shipment transfers
• Multiple Service Center, Multi-warehousing set up, management of inventory by location codes based upon same product code defined earlier by tag # received or bundles of tags (tag breaking mechanisms), purchasing rules and approvers
• 3^rd Party storage mgt set up and processing requirements

Metals processing specific

• Linked to user-defined pricing rules
• Discontinued and superseding product defined
• Tracking by weight or pieces or by other measure such as linear feet, square feet etc.
• Product shapes are user-defined with up to 10 user-defined dimensions
• Shapes can be defined with a set of dimensions
• Multiple allowable size ranges for any product to validate order entry
• Multiple allowable standards and grades
• Any number of standardization systems such as ASTM, AISI plus internal and customer-specific standards
• Each standardization system can include any number of user-defined standards
• Products can be further described using user-defined properties with a customizable list of allowed values
• Product definition includes: the parent product, the shape of the product, a list of standards that are supported for the product, a list of grades that are supported within each standard, a list of properties (other than shape attributes), a status flag
• Automatic specification of possible input and output products for each production process – avoids mismatch of material and work center
• Automated advanced product search to find the best materials for a process
• Automated interface to nesting software to combine orders for most efficient laser burning
• Scanned bar code identification of materials to quickly identify actual input to a work center
• Automatic substitution of general inventory allocation based on Inventory Code to allocation of a specific tagged input item.
• Work orders are generated based on Sales Order requirements in a fully integrated process between order entry and production. A hold in Order entry immediately holds the production order.
• Work orders contain multiple production steps which are allocated to separate production orders

Production advanced scheduling system

SEMS® has a production scheduler by work center that the Production Planner can manually adjust daily, the production orders, to meet their needs/demands of orders at each work center.

• Scheduler for production work center sequencing, loading schedules, set up, provisioning-processing at each work center reviewing thru-put capacities, purchasing-sales order, quote demands against a promise date for processing/delivery, CTP/ATP, Capability and Availability To Promise shipments on a specific date.
• Monitor and compare all aspects of the business operation to find “best practices”
• Gain flexibility and increase work center production throughput by scheduling work to work centers across multiple departments and locations
• Automatic linking and data transfer of work in progress from a completed work step specified as input to the next step
• No paper handling required. All details available by scanning bar codes or on RF handheld devices. Work is distributed through the plant with no paper work required.
• Freely integrate Outside Processing operations with the same control and reporting as internal processing operations, providing greater production capacity flexibility
• Monitor actual profit margin through production processes based on real waste and production loss and specific input materials used for each order line item
• Ensure that the right inventory is used in the production process
• Reduce claims by using a fully specified process with customer-specific tolerances with order line details based on one-time data entry to reduce entry errors.
• Advanced EDI integration for inter-plant or inter-company data transfer to reduce or eliminate paperwork
• Completely integrated production calendar for shift planning and up-time allocation.
• Added versatility and profitability from using the Fabrication capability to add additional value and provide more service to your customer
• Increased income from scrap sales which are managed and invoiced in an integrated process.
• Supports a wide range of standard steel processes including slitting, cut to length, shearing, galvanizing, pickling, straightening, burning and pipe and tube manufacturing.
• Handles shape transformation
• Manages bundle break operations. Bundle break elements can be allocated to production orders in virtual form prior to physical bundle break, once the bundle break occurs; the actual new tag is substituted automatically.
• Input materials can be customer-owned for toll processing
• Provides a detailed sequence of steel making and finishing processes customized specifically for the order line requirement
• Designed for the rigors and realities of shop floor operations under harsh conditions
• Most input is scanned and start and stop timing is then automatic, for accurate real cost allocations
• Work orders are automatically generated from Sales Order Work Instructions.
• Work orders are grouped to production orders automatically, with similar work from other Sales Orders
• Work order provisioning is highly automated to minimize potential errors, it is also carefully validated to ensure compatibility with predecessor steps
• Transfer steps between production work centers in different locations are generated automatically
• Multi-time zone facilities can be managed with one integrated system with location-sensitive time and date display
• Packaging processes managed as a separate production process with extra flexibilities
• Tags can be partially allocated to a number of different orders
• Physical tag allocation automatically substitutes for general allocation by ICI or “dummy” tag
• Production orders are automatically assigned to the default work center and can be quickly re-allocated to another similar work center during the scheduling process to balance loading
• Shift calendar is driven from a master calendar with amendment available at each level – Company, Department/Division, Warehouse, Work center
• Add production steps to a work order even after it has been sent to production. (Cancel production, amend, re-provision).
• Add new work centers or add extra shifts to a work center to create greater capacity in bottle-neck areas
• One shift calendar with local variations and time shift by time zone

Inventory Management

• Shape Catalog, using “Attributes” of each metal product, such as Standard, Grade, Chemistry, other user defined properties, processes required, test management, source material and finished
• “Tagged” numbered inventory master with all related details, Purchasing/Receiving data, dimensions, weight, linear info, last cost-replacement costs, standard costs, avg cost for reporting, cost breakdown summary showing all accumulated costs raw material, processing, scrap, freight, duties, others, plus defects, hold codes, claims, parent-child relationships for tracking, related customer parts, tests, chemistries, documents, UOM, dates in/out/age, etc.
• Material Hard or Soft Allocation management
• Optimize inventory levels to have the right quantities of products on hand, by calculating real booked demand against on-hand inventory and “days of inventory-on-hand” targets, using material demand projections
• Inventory accounting performed automatically for transfers between locations, internal shipping costs added automatically to material costs
• Stock search automatically applies best-fit criteria to speed up the identification of available tags and the allocation of materials to the order, detailed stock search and reservation system
• Demand Planning System – linking product codes to user defined historical sales analysis and average day’s usage, all sales order, purchase order demands, inventory availability and then a buy quantity to meet the current period DEMANDS and Purchasing Quantities required for these DEMANDS.
• Product/Shape/Sales Codes for analysis, location code, item name, disposition code, type
• Physical Count
• Tag-Heat-PO History, Genealogy –to track-trace finished material back to source material and mill using parent-child tags, drill down views

Purchasing and Receiving

Allowing you to create and issue purchase orders and later receive against them.  This process can be fully automated using our Electronic Data Interchange integration.

• SPOT purchase orders, task lists for POs, releases, push outs, apply inbound materials to use against confirmed sales orders, linked into Master Contract Mgt system to link on-going demands to PO s required at specific dates
• Buy Requests by approved sales staff directly from Sales Order entry header screen, which is linked via our ALERT system and business process rules, created in work flow system, to notify purchasing of materials needed for out of stock or special stock orders, from a sales rep for a customer, and tracked by SEMS®.
• Vendor pricing and costing tables, parts, agreements, contract management
• Detailed Receiving entry with links to properties, tests required and recording, MILL CERTS entry and mgt, standards, defect mgt codes, claims interface, serial, lot, weight/pieces, against PO, Inventory “TAGGED” by piece or bundle received that manages “PARENT/CHILD” tags of materials as they pass through the system to record and log the genealogy of the initial “Parent Tag received, document management and attachments

Demand Planning

This module is linked directly to inventory, product catalog, purchasing, and sales modules:

• Predictive planning of all materials and parts based up historical sales data, current sales demands and purchasing activities and current production orders in the system for a specified period of time
• Giving you analysis of the 5 “W”: “What to Buy?”; “When to Buy?; Where (locations); What we have in Stock”, What Quantities to Buy” to meet current demands of customers – Product mixes
• Showing On-Hand, On-Order, Allocated, Available, Required Amount Needed to Fulfill Demands

Warehouse Management

Warehouse module tracks and controls your inbound, in-house and material processor’s stock and work in process. Material quantities are summarized and tracked by any combination of product, grade, size, warehouse, and owner (for vendor and managed inventory).  Heat data, such as chemistry and test results are also stored, in addition to cost data for each item. The history of each inventory item is maintained to provide complete traceability from the mill-heat through to the finished product.

• Multi-Service Centers with multiple warehouses that allow for real time inventory look-ups, queries in reports and forms throughout the system, from QUOTE/SALES ORDER system, Inventory Mgt., Production Mgt, to Shipping.
• Inventory Transfer system including from warehouse to warehouse, Service Center to Service Center, or Service Center/Warehouse to OP –Outside Processor and back to direct ship to customer
• Custom Brokerage management
• Customer 3^rd Party Inventory Mgt.
• Mill Heat Entry and Mgt
• Test recording and Test required at specific stages
• Defect Codes at receiving

Cost Management

Tracks the actual cost of production to help understand the real costs of products and services. Accurate sales order costing ensures that appropriate pricing applied that covers any hidden costs.  Analyzing the variances between predicted and actual cost will identify problem areas where corrective actions can be taken using ACTUAL Costs against a standard cost system, plus have a cost building series of tables to generate simple to complex costing mechanisms and can be applied to COST PLUS pricing, plus calculate work center process costs and properly cost WIP inventory in the Production recording system to apply to customer, inventory, or scrap the appropriate drop costs during processing and accurately reflect inventory values.

• Last Cost- Replacement costs and Standard Costs with variance analysis and Average cost reporting
• Work center cost definitions and also tables that can create simple to complex matrix driven charts to define any formula for costs of materials, processes, fabrication, add-ons, and can be used in a Formula-based Price Table or COST Plus price table that uses historical data to determined a markup price by a margin percentage.

Logistics Management

Shipping provides the tools to easily build, schedule and dispatch loads to ensure that each order is filled and shipped on time. Necessary paperwork is prepared to accompany the order, including customizable invoices, bills of lading, and product documentation including mill test reports or extracts.  Document delivery can be handled manually, through fax, or through automated EDI. Automatic generation of documents can be set up to print, email, fax, EDI, all related and needed customer and vendor documentation.

• Freight mgt, carriers, rates, routes
• Rules based linkage from sales, production mgt automate invoice creation and distribution via documents including Bills of Lading, Consolidate BOLs, Invoices, Acknowledgements, Certifications, etc, all can be set up via customer profile to email, print, fax these documents via the method required by each Business Partner.
• BROKER DUTY Mgt system for handling Duty tables for products bought from or sold to Foreign countries
• Choice of using a Shipping Maintenance form for quick creation creating shipments, dispatching, loading, and BOL/Invoice Creation or
• Load Planning, Loading Scheduling, and Load Shipping functions which are used to optimize shipments starting from the time Sales Orders are created, using dummy tags to represent products being shipped. This allows your Shipping/Logistics department staff to correctly and efficiently matching the needs for shipments and matching to Common Carriers or Private Trucks for route planning, stops, or pickups.
• Also, through the use of handheld bar code and other RF input devices, the shipper can verify that the correct TAGS are loaded onto the correct truck or mode of transportation. (Modes can also be defined such as Truck, Rail, Barge, Ships, etc.)
• Routes via each Carrier (set up as Vendors) can be automated with exact distances point-to-point, with rates from each of your locations to each city-destination, better accuracy in shipping costs at Sales time

Claims and Quality Management

The issue resolution modules provide the functions that are required for creating and processing CUSTOMER and/or Supplier claims. It also includes the functions required for creating and maintaining credit and debit memos. Digital photos can be attached to a claim for reference. The claims systems includes both a customer claims reporting system that can be processed and flowed into our VENDOR Claims system to include all reason codes and also integrated into the CAR system (Corrective Actions Reporting system in the Quality reporting module).

• These modules are extremely powerful reporting tool for collecting all defects, test data, and applying them to all concerned parties. (Vendor, Customer, Company)
• Debit and Credit Memos are created in this module
• CAR system (Corrective Actions Reporting) allows you to report and manage ISO related and other Regulated Governances with Problem Identifications and then Resolutions sections, all tied into Staff Management and User notifications, date/time stamped for audit trails, alerts to notify each responsible person. With References to previous or current customer orders, products and related mills-vendors from above Claims Mgt., and with it Description, Containment, Root Cause ties to defect mgt, source of cause, and then Corrective Action plan, Preventative Actions, and Next Steps.

Alerts and Messaging

A variety of Integrated Alerts and Collaborative Messaging can be sent within SEMS® to notify users that a pre-defined action or event has taken place. For example, when entering a sales order, the sales representative could trigger an alert to the credit manager to approve the credit. This simple tool provides a powerful means to control the workflow between departments and users.

Document Management

Manages associated module documentation; such as office documents; Word, Excel, PowerPoints, CAD Drawings, PDFs, TIFF and other documents such as MILL CERTS required by customer, vendor, mill and easy referral throughout the system to locate and use. SEMS allows you to store scanned images from your scanning system into SEMS and links our reports to create on the fly PDF documents for sending or direct import into Excel to manipulate data and analyze data or create sales and budget reports.

Click for next Page!