Guide to using Steelman Metalink

Introduction

The metalink is a useful on-line reporting tool that facilitates a clear understanding of how action requests (AR’s) are processed by Steelman. An action request can be any of the following types of request:

1. A bug in the software – you may find by searching our database that this is a known bug or you may need to report a new bug. The more detail you can provide of which form it occurred in and the context of the problem, the better.
2. An enhancement request
3. A request for an upgrade of any aspect of your system components
4. A catastrophe – fire, flood etc. that means you need help now!
5. A procedural question
6. Anything that you think we can help you with – customer service request.

How it works

After you have entered a request, it gets directed automatically to our service desk. The Service desk manager monitors requests and assigns them to appropriate support technicians to resolve. Any time the AR gets worked on, you will get an email that tells you what has changed. At some point the issue will be resolved. You will have been notified of the progress every step of the way.

This Steelman Metalink system is based on “Bugzilla” reporting software, which is in use in many of the Fortune 500 companies. You can read more about Bugzilla at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org

This guide talks more about the specifics of the Steelman Metalink and our standards. Since we are in relatively early adoption, we may amend a few of the finer adjustment points, but fundamentally, the AR’s that you report will become a permanent record for later reference, and you will always be able to refer to them.

Your initial usage

We will set you up as a user, based on your email address. You will be able to set your own password. The initial password is “test123” and you should change that on first login.

The system is located at http://metalink.esteelman.net. You can bookmark this page or even more useful, you can add a Bugzilla search to your toolbar. It looks like this:

This is set up by clicking on the “Install the Quick Search plugin” from the common actions list on the Steelman Metalink  “Go Home” page. It allows you to click into the AR quickly by typing one word or identifier for the AR into the search. It will log you in and display the AR immediately.

To enter your first AR

• Click on Enter a new Action Request
• You will see a list of products appear: AccPac, Miscellaneous, SEMS

• Click on “SEMS” – assuming that the issue is with Steelman software
• If you are writing an AR for a Bug, you should read “bug writing guidelines” which will provide some useful tips on clearly describing your issue.
• Assign the Version – most recent is 4.2, 4.5 is the development version.
• Assign the Component – this governs who is the default assignee, so pick your appropriate customer issues component
• Platform and OS should be specified for bugs to let us know which environment you were in when the problem occurred
• Initial state is NEW – it means unassigned so far
• Estimated hours is a useful guide if you want to specify it. We will amend it when we have assessed the problem
• Deadline should only be specified if you truly have a deadline that you would have mentioned to a support person in a live call.
• Alias is a simple one word Alias that you will remember to use to search for this AR. It is not required.
• URL describes a page that is useful in understanding this issue – not required
• Change Workflow. – For anything that changes the code we have a quality process that goes through a cycle of direction and approval. We will enter this field.
  • Service Desk assessment – Your AR may be resolved without software changes by the Service desk.
  • Change Manager Approval – If your AR requires a software amendment, it is first assessed by the Change Manager. He will make an assessment of the scope of the change and submit it to the Change advisory Board – (CAB)
  • The CAB is comprised of the system architects for SEMS. The CAB assesses the requirement and plans when the change can be accomplished. For more complex changes they will assign a Business Analyst to design the change. Otherwise they will assign a developer to make the change
  • Once a change has been completed and tested by the development team and the BA, it is passed to Quality Assurance for a final review.
  • The Change Manager reviews the change and assures that all of the appropriate documentation is completed
  • The Release Manager assigns the release number to the change and groups it into a release.
  • The Service Desk coordinates with the customer to arrange the installation of the release into the customer’s testing environment.
  • The Customer then reviews the changes made in the release and approves moving the changes to the live environment.
• Customer – identifies which customer reported this request
• Form Id – identifies the Form associated with the AR
• External Ref. – identifies the identifier in any external system that is associated to the AR
• Summary – A really good and succinct description of the AR (Required)
• Description – the details of the AR (Required)
• Attachment – add an attachment – attachments can be uploaded if they are smaller than 6MB. AR’s can have multiple attachments
• Keywords – Keywords can be helpful in identifying or classifying AR’s. More standard keywords will evolve as our usage of Metalink continues.
• Depends on – If this AR cannot be completed until another AR is completed, this box refers to the AR that has to be completed first.
• Blocks – This AR blocks another AR and must be completed first. For example, if an OS upgrade is required before a feature will function.
• Only users in all of the selected groups can view this bug: – You can set a flag that effectively makes this AR private to your user group and to Steelman staff only. The lowest level of privacy access is to only be able to see your own requests. In the case of multiple individuals reporting from one customer, it is a good idea to make the AR accessible to the others in your user group.
• Commit – this saves the changes and sends Emails to the assignee and QA – Note that if you go straight from the Notes edit field to the Commit button, the screen will appear to jump and you will have to press commit again – this is because the editor has to exit before commit will work.

To find out what is outstanding and what progress is being made

• Every time any of your AR’s is updated, you will receive an Email that details who has made a change and what it entails. It looks like this:

You can see that for AR 48, Marcel Gagne has changed the status from New to Assigned,  and added himself to the CC list. To see even more details, you can click on the http link and see or update the entire AR.

• If you want to see all of your AR’s in a list, use the search option in the menu bar. There are two search levels provided, the “Find a specific Action Request” and the “Advanced Search”.  There is also a search menu item called “My Action Requests” that lists every action request that you have initiated.
• The advanced search provides very detailed search capability based on almost any possible parameter or criteria. Once you have established a standard search, you can save the search parameters for subsequent re-use.
• The list that is displayed can be customized and extended according to your specific requirements by clicking “Change Columns”. It can be sorted by clicking the column header.
• You can output the list in CSV format by clicking CSV
• You can see the details and report every action request in your selected list by clicking on “Long Format” – useful for management meetings.
• The Reports facility provides tabular and graphic views of selected AR’s. Once you have a favourite format you can save it for easy re-use.

How will your staff remember to service my requests?

The Metalink has an automated “whining” process that complains if items are left open and unattended for a specified period of time. However as you can see from the attached chart of “How to use Priority and Severity in Metalink” the support staff are directed to accept and clear AR’s in priority sequence. That may mean that lower priority items may be delayed by emergency response requirements. We will monitor response times and ensure adequate and prompt service.

When is an AR closed?

An AR is closed when you have agreed that the problem or issue is resolved. At that time you can change the resolution to FIXED. It will stop appearing on your open AR list. If subsequently the problem reoccurs, you can re-open the AR.

Summary

We suggest that you try out the Steelman Metalink and then let us know if you have any further questions or issues. Metalink is designed to be a friendly and useful system for setting expectations and communicating and monitoring progress. Please provide feedback on your use of Metalink to: janp@sems.us

Appendix 1  How to use Priority and Severity in Metalink

About SHM

The SHM folder contains all of the forms that have been documented through the SEMS HELP MAP process, and exported to the Help system. See SEMS HELP MAP for the technical description of SHM creation.

SHM details every field, block and form used in SEMS. It is an essential link required to provide context-sensitive help at the field level. (If there is no SHM entry, the link does not work).

Describing the content requirement for each field is useful, but is not as valuable in understanding the way to use the form as the About and Example entries.

SHM is designed to be updated as forms are amended through change management. When that happens, the amended form can be exported from the SHM Oracle table using XML and imported to the SEMS Help, completely replacing the definition of the form. This is performed by the SEMS Help Maintenance Manager at Steelman.

About Shipping

Overview

Image via Wikipedia

• plan a load for shipment, see About Load Planning
• add material to the load that has a Shipment Status of “Ready”,
• print the shipment documents (automatically)
• pick and ship the load, relieving inventory of the material shipped. – See About Load Shipping

• maintain carriers and carrier freight rates,
• maintain customs brokers, and
• maintain customs duties.
• maintain default freight modes and weights

See Flags That Affect Shipping for details on how company settings affect shipping processing.

In addition, the default FOB point for customer pickups is set in the General Company Setup (STCOMP), General tab.

Documents to be produced on shipping are set up as part of company information in the customer profile.

About Setup

The setup menu contains the forms used to maintain data variables used throughout SEMS. Normally these are set-up initially and are only changed when new business variables are required or when employees leave or are reassigned or new employees are hired.

Often these variables provide limitations or choices for drop down lists used throughout the system. For example an inside sales rep code required on a sales order must be classified as an inside sales rep in the setup process.

Setting up these choices often involves making business decisions, the implications and practices implied represent the range currently in use by SEMS users. Where a standard or best practice has been identified, that practice is set as the default setting.

About Receiving

See Flags That Affect Receiving Functions for details on how company settings affect receiving processing.

In addition, the default location, grade standard, and shipment method for purchased goods is set in the General Company Setup (STCOMP), General tab. For goods received with defects, the default code standard is also set there.

Receiving has these main objectives:

• It adds material to inventory
• It records the Genera Ledger transaction for the value of the inventory received
• Until inventory is received and checked, the invoice for the PO that ordered the materials should not be paid

The receiving menu contains 6 functions:

1. Enter Receipt
2. Enter Consumable Receipts
3. Enter In-Transit Inventory
4. Enter Mill Heat Info
5. Receipt From Consignment
6. Confirmation Receipt

Each of these functions is described in the associated Links

Receipt Types

Receipts of the following types can be generated:

• Purchase Order (receiving material purchased through a PO)
• Customer-Owned Material (receive material owned by the company and received for internal processing or storage)
• Customer Return (receive material sold to a customer as part of a sales order and currently has a claim against it)

• Miscellaneous (receive material for internal purposes such as physical inventory count or opening balance
• Transfer – receive from another company location

Receipt Structure

All receipts have the same structure regardless of order types.  Certain pieces of information may, however, differ or be optional depending on the receipt type. There are also some differences in the way SEMS handles each type of receipt.

Each receipt has a header and one or more line items. The header contains information that applies to all line items. Each line item includes information regarding a single steel product or single consumable item being received.

About Production

The production process has a number of very useful capabilities that manage the complexity of production and support accurate planning and scheduling processes. In general, the journey from input materials to finished goods follows a pattern or sequence, with plenty of variation possible.

The production process is initiated by two demand streams:

1. Sales Orders
2. Independent Work Orders

(Note that a number of flags affect production processes.)

Normal Production Sequence

1. A sales order is entered and confirmed, specifying the required finished items, (or an Independent Work Order is created).
2. For each requirement, a SOI is created, requesting a weight or number of pieces of finished material product.
3. For each SOI, a WO is created, specifying the work steps and sequence that are required to process from the input material to the required finished material.
4. Each step requires specialized processing that is accomplished at a work center with the appropriate equipment to perform the required operations.
5. The work center’s list of grouped work orders  is called a Production Order. A single production order may contain work steps from a number of work orders for different customers or for a number of  Independent Work Orders.
6. A processing plan may be associated with a Production Order  to provide details of exactly what to do at each step in production. There are four types of process - Manufacturing, specifiying production Recording, Packaging to describe the packaging process, Transfer, to transfer inventory between locations and Shipping to request and schedule shipments
7. A group of production orders is scheduled through a Production Schedule.
8. Production demand planning is used to monitor the work steps for each work order through the production process, including the allocated input and output material weights from each step.
9. Production Recording is performed as each Production order is processed. Production Recording records start and stop times, the materials actually used and the WIP produced. It also specifies the production loss or wastage that occurred during the production process.
10. Specific material tags can be allocated to the work steps at any stage: during sales order entry, in the Production Order,  or when production recording begins. Production cannot be recorded without the application of real material, however production planning can use dummy tags or generalized ICI specification as placeholders to plan production processing in advance of the actual tagged material being known. As real tags are created, they replace the dummy tags orICI specifications in the production process.
11. When all works steps preceding  the ship or transfer step have been completed, the finished materials are packaged (if packaging is required) and if the production is for a Sales Order, shipped using the Load packaging and shipping process. Finished materials for Independent Work Orders may be added to inventory or transferred.
12. If the production is for a Sales Order, Invoices are created when the material is shipped.

See About Production Processing Exceptions for details about variations to the standard production process

About Inventory

Use the Inventory module to control the steel products inventories (work in process inventory and finished goods inventory), consumable items inventories, and scrap inventory.

Steel Products: may include merchandise steel products (purchased for resale which form is not altered prior to resale) and job-specific steel products that require further processing before completion and sale. Inventory item is not defined prior to receiving. When received, each item is given a unique tag that becomes the item identifier.

Consumable Items: office supplies, janitorial supplies, shipping supplies, equipment maintenance supplies etc. Inventory Item is completely defined in item setup.

The Company Setup form determines if a reason code is required when inventory item cost is adjusted (on Inventory form) and what the default adjustment codes should be.

About Fabrication Modules

The core modules for Fabrication are BOM Items, Bill of Material, and Product Routing.

This topic explains:

• BOM Structure
• BOM Items
• Bill of Materials Form
• Product Routing Form

BOM Structure

The BOM describes an unlimited structure of materials requirements and processing requirements that together make one unit of the required finished product. Materials can be added or used at any level of the structure. The BOM describes what is required and how much of it is consumed during the process.

Ordering a number of finished items that are the product of a BOM process creates an array of requirements for materials to feed each process, and for processing time on all of the work centers that are required to complete the fabrication process.

Materials required can be multiple units of different items. The input to a process could be several burned parts, some consumable items such as nuts and bolts, some purchased items such as wheels or gauges, or some ICI items.

When a Bill of Materials structure is built and confirmed, it becomes a version. If an amendment is required, to change the materials or the processes, a new version is created and becomes the current version. Previous versions of the structure are still available if required to make the “old” version of the finished product.

Different departments can use the same BOM structure but have variations in routing, which means the same finished item can be made differently in different departments. If a departmental detail is unconfirmed for one department but confirmed for another department, the overall BOM can be confirmed in the first department and unconfirmed in the second department.

The time required to make a finished item can be calculated by accumulating the throughput time for each of  the processes required to make the item.

Finished items can also be components for other BOM structures. If a sub-assembly BOM is changed, it alters the release version of the parent BOM.

BOM Items

Every item that is to be included in a BOM has to be described on the BOM Items form. The BOM items data is additional or supercedes the standard information recorded about the inventory item. It also includes the departmental routing variations which occur, for example, when one department makes an item from raw materials, while another department buys the part or transfers it from the other department.

These items can be customer parts (specific for one customer) or company parts (for anyone to use). Other options for BOM items include ICI or Consumable. An ICI implies a metal item described by an ICI. A consumable is an item such as paint or nuts and bolts which is consumed in a non-specific way, although purchase lots are recorded and lot costing is used in calculating costs.

The BOM provides a template, similar to work instructions, that helps set up production processes and production orders required to produce the required final product.

Bill of Materials Form

The Bill of Material form is used to display and update the Bill of Materials components and levels. The navigation tree on the left panel is used to navigate in the BOM tree structure. The data at the top of the form and in the tabs on the right change as different items are selected in the navigation tree.

BOM Tab

Displays the routing and components used to make the part. In the example shown above, the part is made from five components which are assembled in theKitting operation in step 10 and then shipped in step 20. Note that the routing can also include an option to backflush the production recording (non-steel items only) and/or the costs of the step.

Indented Expl Tab

Displays all of the sub-levels of materials used to make the parent. In the example, there is only one level below the parent. If the Level was 2, it would be indented in the level field, as would each succeeding level.

Single Level Used Tab

Displays all of the immediate  parents for a specific component. In the example, the paint is used in four other BOMs.

Top Level Used Tab

Displays only the finished items where the component is used.

Multi-Level Used Tab

Displays the combination of top level and single level used.

Summarized Expl. Tab

This is a calculator that shows the requirement of materials for any quantity – in the example the calculation has been performed for 51 items.

Summarized Routing Tab

Displays the equivalent of the Work Order for the routing required.

Product Routing Form

The Product Routing form is used to build the routing (work steps) for a BOM part.

There are two types of costing in SEMS:

• Product Costing (or Actual Costing), which is used for the costing of individual inventory items and is the cost that will be booked to the General Ledger.
• Standard Costing, which is used at the time of Sales Order entry to provide an estimated cost of a Sales Order item. It is not used for any accounting purposes other than providing an estimate for the margin of a Sales Order .

Site Setup and Company Setup may affect costing.

About Product Costing

Product Costing is used for the costing of an individual inventory item, and is the cost that will be booked to the General Ledger. In short, it is made up of the actual landed cost of an inventory item, including applicable freight-in, taxes, duties, brokerage, handling and other charges incurred in bringing the item into a facility.

If an inventory item has been processed, the processing cost will also be included in product costing. Processing cost is calculated based on the actual time of processing and / or processed weight (captured in SEMS Production Recording) multiplied by the standard processing rates as defined by the user. If processing is done off-site, whether at the company‘s facility or by an outside processor, the freight in / out will also be included in the product cost.

Because most of the components in Product Costing are based on actual costs, with the exception of standard processing rates, Product Costing can also be considered as Actual Costing.

About Standard Costing

Standard Costing is meant to provide an estimated cost of a SOI so selling price and margin can be gauged accordingly. Standard costs are meant to be approximation of the actual costs only. As such, they are not as accurate and detail as the Product Costing.

Standard Costing is generated at the time of order entry. After all the relevant information for an order item has been entered, including completing the work instructions, click Calculate Cost at the bottom of the form to obtain the standard cost for the item. If using a price table to get the selling price for the SOI clickingGet Price will also calculate the standard cost. In the example below, the standard cost for the item is $44.73 / cwt versus a selling price of $52, providing an estimated margin of $7.26 / cwt.

Right-click on Cost to drill down to the make-up of the cost.

The Claims Module

Image via Wikipedia

Use the Claims module to create and maintain customer claims issued by a customer and vendor claims issued against a third party and/or vendor. Use it to create and maintain credit memos and debit memos once a particular claim has been issued.

When claims are disposed of, a disposition letter is sent to the customer. The Employee Definition form determines which employee this letter comes from.

Site setup contains a number of flags that affect how claims are processed: see the Claims tab of Site setup.

Working with Claims

Use the Customer Claims form to create, maintain, and modify claims that are filed by the customer against the present company. Use the Supplier Claims form to create, maintain, and modify claims that are filed by the company against a supplier. Claims can be created against a specified sales order and/or invoice(customer claim) or supplier (supplier claim), which will automatically associate all relevant data from those items.

Each claim is given a state that keeps track of its progress and governs the functionality that is available at that level of progress.

Every claim also has a type that influences the way each claim is processed and ultimately completed.  These types are Steel Problem, Order Error, and Invoice Error.

At the detailed level, each claim has one or more corresponding claim item(s).  Each item is identified with the tag number of the material being claimed by the customer/supplier.

For each claimed item, details such as quantity and the grounds for making the claim are specified to clarify that the claim is legitimate.

Each claimed item also has its own state.  These claim item states are used to keep track of the investigation progress on the item to confirm that it is a valid claim.

Claim States

The sequence of claim states is illustrated below:

Each of the five claim states shown maintains its own set of rules that regulate the functions available to the claim at its state of progression:

• Open: Each claim begins in an Open state. This means that no information has been entered against this claim as of yet. An open claim cannot be approved or closed.
• Under Investigation: Once any information is entered against the claim, the state of the claim will automatically change to Under Investigation. While the claim resides in this state, changes can be made to the to claim level and item level information. The claim can also be changed to the Approved or Rejectedstate. For supplier claims, this state is reachable only if all claim line items have completed their investigation, and all  claim line items have been returned (i.e.Material Returned checkbox is checked for all items).
• Approved: At this state, the claim in no longer editable. All information has been finalized and the claim is now ready to be closed.  If changes are required, change the claim to the Under Investigation state and make the changes. For customer claims, this state is reachable only if all claim line items have completed their investigation, and all  claim line items have been returned (i.e. Material Returned checkbox is checked for all items).
• Rejected: Once the claim has reached the Rejected state, it can no longer change to any other state. The claim and all of its contents (including the claimed items) are discarded.
• Closed: This state confirms that the claim has been approved and can now be filed as closed. No further transactions against the claim will be made.  This will render all claim functions for this claim inoperable.

Depending on Site Setup, items may be able to be returned before a claim is approved.

Claim Types

Claims can be one of three different types:

• Steel Problem:  The claim in question is for a problem with steel material that the customer or company has purchased.
• Order Error:  The claim in question is for incorrect material specified on the sales order for a customer or given to the company.
• Invoice Error: The claim in question is for incorrect material specified on the invoice for a customer or given to the company.