Amazon Cloud Configuration

Data Survival of Instance Failure

Amazon EBS is designed to allow you to attach any instance to a storage volume. In the event you experience an instance failure, your Amazon EBS volume automatically detaches with your data intact. You can then reattach the volume to a new instance and quickly recover.

1. You are running an Amazon EC2 instance that is attached to an Amazon EBS volume, when your Amazon EC2 instance fails or is experiencing problems.
2. To recover, you detach the Amazon EBS volume from your instance (if it has not already automatically detached), launch a new Amazon EC2 instance, and attach the Amazon EBS volume to the new instance.
3. In the unlikely event the Amazon EBS volume fails, you can create a new Amazon EBS volume based on the most recent snapshot of your failed volume.

Amazon EBS API Overview

To configure and use Amazon EBS, we provide eight new API functions. This section provides a brief overview of each function.

API List

• CreateVolume—Creates a new Amazon EBS volume using the specified size or creates a new volume based on a previously created snapshot.
• DeleteVolume—Deletes the specified volume.

  This function does not delete any snapshots that were created from this volume.

• DescribeVolumes—Describes all volumes, including size, source snapshot, Availability Zone, creation time, and status (available, in-use).
• AttachVolume—Attaches the specified volume to a specified instance, exposing the volume using the specified device name.

  A volume can only be attached to a single instance at any time. The volume and instance must be in the same Availability Zone and the instance must be running.

• DetachVolume—Detaches the specified volume from the instance to which it is attached.

  This operation does not delete the volume. The volume can be attached to another instance and will have the same data as when it was detached.

• CreateSnapshot—Creates a snapshot of the volume you specify.

  Once created, you can use the snapshot to create volumes that contain exactly the same data as the original volume.

• DeleteSnapshot—Deletes the specified snapshot.

  This function does not affect currently running Amazon EBS volumes, regardless of whether they were used to create the snapshot or were derived from the snapshot.

• DescribeSnapshots—Describes all snapshots, including their source volume, snapshot initiation time, progress (percentage complete), and status (pending, completed).

Creating Amazon EBS Volumes and Snapshots

Creating an Amazon EBS Volume

To use Amazon EBS, you first create a volume that can be attached to any Amazon EC2 instance within the same Availability Zone. This example creates an 800 GiB Amazon EBS volume.

To create an Amazon EBS volume

1. Enter the following command.

   PROMPT> ec2-create-volume –size 800 –zone us-east-1a
   

   Amazon EBS returns information about the volume similar to the following example.

   VOLUME vol-4d826724 800 us-east-1a available 2008-02-14T00:00:00+0000
   

2. To check whether the volume is ready, use the following command.

   PROMPT> ec2-describe-volumes vol-4d826724
   

   Amazon EBS returns information about the volume similar to the following example.

   VOLUME vol-4d826724 800 us-east-1a available 2008-07-29T08:49:25+0000

Attaching the Volume to an Instance

This section describes how to attach a volume that you created to an instance.

To attach an Amazon EBS volume

• Enter the following command.

  PROMPT> ec2-attach-volume volume_id -i instance_id -d device
  

  Amazon EBS returns information similar to the following.

  ATTACHMENT volume_id instance_id device attaching date_time
  

Example

This example attaches volume vol-4d826724 to instance i-6058a509 in Linux and UNIX and exposes it as device /dev/sdh.

PROMPT> ec2-attach-volume vol-4d826724 -i i-6058a509 -d /dev/sdh

ATTACHMENT vol-4d826724 i-6058a509 /dev/sdh attaching 2008-02-14T00:15:00+0000

This example attaches volume vol-4d826724 to instance i-6058a509 in Windows and exposes it as device xvdf.

PROMPT> ec2-attach-volume vol-4d826724 -i i-6058a509 -d xvdf

ATTACHMENT vol-4d826724 i-6058a509 xvdf attaching 2008-02-14T00:15:00+0000

NoteDescribing Volumes and Instances

After creating Amazon EBS volumes and attaching them to instances, you can list them using the DescribeVolumes and the DescribeInstances operations.

DescribeVolumes returns the volume ID, capacity, status (in-use or available) and creation time of each volume. If the volume is attached, an attachment line shows the volume ID, the instance ID to which the volume is attached, the device name exposed to the instance, its status (attaching, attached, detaching, detached), and when it attached.

DescribeInstances lists volumes that are attached to running instances.

To describe volumes

• Enter the following command.

  PROMPT> ec2-describe-volumes
  

  Amazon EBS returns information about all volumes that you own.

  VOLUME vol-4d826724 us-east-1a 800 in-use 2008-02-14T00:00:00+0000
  

  ATTACHMENT vol-4d826724 i-6058a509 /dev/sdh attached 2008-02-14T00:00:17+0000
  

  VOLUME vol-50957039 13 us-east-1a available 2008-02-091T00:00:00+0000
  

  VOLUME vol-6682670f 1 us-east-1a in-use 2008-02-11T12:00:00+0000
  

  ATTACHMENT vol-6682670f i-69a54000 /dev/sdh attached 2008-02-11T13:56:00+0000
  

To describe instances

• Enter the following command.

  PROMPT> ec2-describe-instances
  

  Amazon EBS returns information about all running instances and volumes attached to those instances.

  RESERVATION r-e112fc88 416161254515 default
  

  INSTANCE i-3b887c52 ami-3fd13456 ec2-67-202-27-216.compute-1.amazonaws.com domU-12-31-38-00-35-94.compute-1.internal
  

  running gsg-keypair 0 m1.small 2007-11-26T13:20:35+0000 windows vol-4d826724
  

  RESERVATION r-e612fc8f 416161254515 default
  

  INSTANCE i-21b63c22 ami-3fd13456 ec2-67-202-18-227.compute-1.amazonaws.com domU-12-31-38-00-39-28.compute-1.internal
  

  running gsg-keypair 0 m1.small 2007-11-26T13:21:51+0000 windows vol-6682670f
  

Using an Amazon EBS Volume within an Instance

Inside the instance, the Amazon EBS volume is exposed as a normal block device and can be formatted as any file system and mounted.

Linux and UNIX

This section describes how to make a volume available to the Linux and UNIX operating system.

To create an ext3 file system on the Amazon EBS volume and mount it as /mnt/data-store

1. Enter the following command.

   $ yes | mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdh
   

2. Enter the following command.

   $ mkdir /mnt/data-store
   

3. Enter the following command.

   $ mount /dev/sdh /mnt/data-store
   

Any data written to this file system is written to the Amazon EBS volume and is transparent to applications using the device.

Using an Amazon EBS Volume within an Instance

Inside the instance, the Amazon EBS volume is exposed as a normal block device and can be formatted as any file system and mounted.

Linux and UNIX

This section describes how to make a volume available to the Linux and UNIX operating system.

To create an ext3 file system on the Amazon EBS volume and mount it as /mnt/data-store

1. Enter the following command.

   $ yes | mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdh
   

2. Enter the following command.

   $ mkdir /mnt/data-store
   

3. Enter the following command.

   $ mount /dev/sdh /mnt/data-store
   

Any data written to this file system is written to the Amazon EBS volume and is transparent to applications using the device.

For more information please contact Daniel Brody @ Steelman

Related articles by Zemanta

• Amazon EC2 in 10 Easy Steps (socializedsoftware.com)
• Eric Hammond: Identifying When a New EBS Volume Has Completed Initialization From an EBS Snapshot (alestic.com)

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 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.

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.

About Sales Order Entry

Overview

SEMS Sales order entry provides a powerful and flexible capability to record, manage and effect customer requirements. There are many set up options, defaults and preferences that impact the behaviour and enforced business rules within the Order Entry process.

This guide is intended to provide a broad overview of the components within the Sales menu, without too much detail for each functional element. Each of these is described in greater detail in linked documents.

The Sales Menu

Master Orders

Master Orders are used to record and plan on-going customer requirements. They can describe demand for several months or years ahead, with expected delivery weights for each month. A master order describes the needs of one customer, with potentially multiple ship to addresses.

• Records and sets a standard price
• Describes what will be required and when it should be shipped
• Standardizes a production process
• Is basically the same data as a sales order with the additional concept of planned release in the future. Each release creates a sales order for that release.
• Automates the distribution of weight to be delivered over a period of time
• Tracks releases versus commitments
• Lists Sales orders related to each master sales order
• Releases are used to decrement the Master order quantity by creating Sales Orders

Releases

• Lists Sales orders related to each master sales order
• Releases are used to decrement the Master order quantity by creating Sales Orders

Contract Management

Provides on-going management information related to the master order, including Tag reservations, Receipts, Sales Orders, Service Centers, Purchase orders

Orders

Sales Orders are used to record purchases by customers. The Order is comprised of a header which records standard information and some of the default values used in all order lines, and details which record the requirements for individual products.

The Header

• Records the status of the order
• The Customer and ship to address
• The ship from location
• The standard terms
• The shipping and delivery date and terms
• Various reps and agents
• The rules for documentation
• The billing address, currency and terms

The Detail

• Specifications for the product required
• Shipping detail variations
• Weight or pieces required, Standard and Grade, bundle size
• Dimensions and Tolerances
• Properties, Standards, Chemistry and Tests required
• Special instructions
• Pricing and costing
• From the detail form there is easy navigation to associated work instructions and work orders, inventory applied and associated production orders
• Substitute local product names to customer product names
• Relationship to the customers PO

Query

Orders

• List all of the Orders and the associated Detail items
• By using SEMS QBE all sales orders for specific criteria can be listed and “drill down” used to review details.

Inquiries

• Show Inquiry details and expiry date – an inquiry is a quote in a pre-order state
• Drill down to the Inquiry

Line Item query

• Provide QBE ability to find specific orders line item detail without going through the header,
• Can launch the detail screen directly
• Searches for order details based on sold to or shipped to
• Provides the ability to close orders at the detail level based on shipments being completed.
• Works in two stages: 1 – select the items to close, click View selected items, 2 – close items
• [Note review is needed of the menu (only one option) and two stage process (View selected items) seems redundant]
• Provides a one page snap shot view of order status
• Includes all details for the order including releases, production status and shipment

Closing

• Searches for order details based on sold to or shipped to
• Provides the ability to close orders at the detail level based on shipments being completed.
• Works in two stages: 1 – select the items to close, click View selected items, 2 – close items
• [Note review is needed of the menu (only one option) and two stage process (View selected items) seems redundant]

Status

• Provides a one page snap shot view of order status
• Includes all details for the order including releases, production status and shipment

Tasks List

• Provides an overview of the progress made on selected sales orders
• Shows status at the order header level and at the associated line item level
• Is used for review and drill down to items that need attention

Offerings

• An offering specifies items that are available for sale that are offered at a special price to a specific customer.
• The offering is created, approved, released then printed to send to the customer via Fax, Email or by Mail
• When a customer accepts an offer, the offering can be converted to a sales order or added to an existing sales order
• Offers can be related in a parent/child relationship to link a series of offers for the same inventory to different clients or to link a series of offers to the same client.

Pricing

Pricing is used to maintain a complex pricing capability, based on the product, dimensions and processing required. See [About Pricing]

Rate Tables

• Contain various values, ranges and associated multipliers that are compared to sales order values in order to work out the multipliers from base price for the product in the order being priced.
• An unlimited set of customizable pricing rules can be applied
• Any sales order value can be used as a parameter to pricing

Definition

• Lists the price tables and their parameters
• Provides a drill down to pricing detail amendment

Price rates

• Direct entry and update of price table details
• Generally a carefully controlled access item to avoid inadvertent pricing errors
• Lists the rebate codes that can be used in sales orders and the associated GL segment codes to be associated with the rebate
• Can amend an existing rebate code or add a new code
• Lists the price schedules that are available
• Provides drill down to price schedule maintenance
• Is the sequence of calculations used to determine a price for a specific ordered requirement
• The sales order detail item specifies which price schedule to use in Price table in the pricing area.
• Can be edited or listed
• Are like a spreadsheet calculation, they are of unlimited size and complexity
• Each step in the schedule returns a value that becomes input to the next step unless it is a final result to be displayed
• Uses the rate tables to return values based on the current sales order line
• Can be used to display intermediate totals on the invoice

Rebate codes

• Lists the rebate codes that can be used in sales orders and the associated GL segment codes to be associated with the rebate
• Can amend an existing rebate code or add a new code

Price Schedules Listing

• Lists the price schedules that are available
• Provides drill down to price schedule maintenance

Price Schedules

• Is the sequence of calculations used to determine a price for a specific ordered requirement
• The sales order detail item specifies which price schedule to use in Price table in the pricing area.
• Can be edited or listed
• Are like a spreadsheet calculation, they are of unlimited size and complexity
• Each step in the schedule returns a value that becomes input to the next step unless it is a final result to be displayed
• Uses the rate tables to return values based on the current sales order line
• Can be used to display intermediate totals on the invoice

Invoices

Shipment

Shipment Invoice

• Used to create an invoice based on a shipment from a sales order
• A load is identified, which is flagged as ready to ship. The invoice is based on the shipped quantity or weight, referencing the shipment see [Load Planning and Load Shipping]
• Tag numbers are specified
• UOM may be adjusted to suit the customers requirements
• Freight charges, Additional charges, Rebates and Duty can be updated or calculated

Invoice Registry

• Lists all invoices to be printed/emailed/faxed
• Can selectively approve invoices and print or send them

Service Invoice

• Used to create an invoice for service items such as storage or toll processing
• Tags are not required, however if SEMS Tags are specified, they can be associated with full inventory genealogy, grade, standard and dimensions etc. The customer tag can also be specified.
• It can be important to record tags due to a potential for claims if the inventory is alleged to be damaged during toll processing. Any inventory that is officially received into SEMS can have full testing and quality recorded.
• Invoice amounts based on per qty, or per time, multiplying a unit price
• Additional charges can be added
• Taxes can be charged (The customer has to be set up in AccPac with tax codes)
• The shipping costs are charged on another invoice if required – mostly customers pick up toll processed or stored items so they are not shipped.

Storage Invoice

Uses the service invoice with the following additional data

• Storage Code
  • Used to set up storage rates for inventory for specific customers
  • The storage code implies a grouping of rates based on Class code that applies to specific customers
  • Includes minimums, storage in and storage out rates and UOM.
• Customer Invoice List {ask Ghazi – seems not working email sent}
• Service Invoice [see metalink]
• Records Outside sales agents commission rates
• The sales agent must already be set up in the BPM area
• The commission rate can be varied from a specific start date
• Commission payments are calculated in AccPac from commission amounts reported on invoices

Sales Agents

• Records Outside sales agents commission rates
• The sales agent must already be set up in the BPM area
• The commission rate can be varied from a specific start date
• Commission payments are calculated in AccPac from commission amounts reported on invoices

Documents

Sales Order

• Generate Sales order documents for a series of sales orders based on specified criteria
• Customer, Order # range and date ranges can be specified

Shipment Invoice

• Generate Invoice documents for a series of shipment invoices based on a sales order, Bill to customer, sold to customer
• Apply a date range or an invoice number range

Service Invoice

• Generate Invoice documents for a series of service invoices based on a sales order, Bill to customer, sold to customer
• Apply a date range or an invoice number range

Queries

Offer/Order Query

• Associates all of the orders related to an offering
• Can be found via Order Number , Order ID or Offering number

Sales by Customer per year

• A quick reference to annual sales by customer and which was the best year for sales for the customer
• Used to manage all consignment inventory
• Review by Customer or by location
• Can create an invoice for storage
• Query specific tags
• Can manage storage dates and extend expiry dates
• Create a variety of reports including those items for which the free period is ending
• Release inventory
• A free form version of the sales history available in Sales Order Entry
• Review and navigate to ales orders for a specified customer
• Filter by closed, Confirmed, unconfirmed and on hold orders.

Storage Program

• Used to manage all consignment inventory
• Review by Customer or by location
• Can create an invoice for storage
• Query specific tags
• Can manage storage dates and extend expiry dates
• Create a variety of reports including those items for which the free period is ending
• Release inventory

Sales History

• A free form version of the sales history available in Sales Order Entry
• Review and navigate to ales orders for a specified customer
• Filter by closed, Confirmed, unconfirmed and on hold orders.

Compete on equal terms with industry leaders, use the tools they use

Component module

1. Inventory
   1. Manage Inventory to maximize value, customer satisfaction and ROI. SEMS provides the most comprehensive metals-industry specific inventory management capability. This focus and ability infuses every related business module and process.
   2. Gain the advantage of practical, advanced and comprehensive processes for metal processing inventory management, including handling shape and attribute-based properties.
2. Order Entry
   1. Seize a sales and business advantage in processing orders through a combination of capabilities:

1. i.      Comprehensive metals-specific customer requirement specification
2. ii.      Advanced competitive and comparative pricing and costing ability to win the right quotes
3. iii.      Management and monitoring of production to meet customer expectations every time
4. iv.      Production and inventory delivery planning that can deliver on time.
5. Get the financial control you need to run your company effectively from a fully integrated advanced accounting system of your choice
6. Take control of operations with immediate and real-time review and summation of:
   1. purchase invoices
   2. receipts
   3. accurate inventory values in multi-locations and transit
   4. sales based on shipment, storage or toll processing
   5. freight
   6. credit and debit notes
   7. Accurate records of Production transformation of inventory, including scrap and production loss ratios

1. Management Reporting
   1. In these challenging times, understanding the flow and trends in your business are exceptionally important. You require information summaries that are based on real-time data with drill-down capability that will quickly identify issues and problems and provide you with the ability to make an early impact and right the ship. SEMS places critical information in your hands for decisions today based on today’s data.
   2. Gain control of multi-plant, multi-location business with consolidated reporting and effective comparative data that identifies potential problems immediately.
2. Production
   1. Manage the production resources effectively; demand a clear view of order requirements, inventory availabilities, planned shift time, competing order priorities, throughput rates and critical dates.
   2. Enhance the critical customer relationship that relies on delivering what you promise. Monitor and plan each work centre, which potentially represents a road block or bottle neck to a multi-million dollar order.
   3. Do every small thing right to provide customer satisfaction and gain dramatic competitive advantages.
   4. Gain the ability to handle shape transformation and complex fabrication steps which are just two of the advanced abilities in SEMS that make production effective.
3. Purchasing
   1. Buy what you really require, no more, no less. Understand the very dynamic relationship connecting what you buy and what you sell in determining purchasing needs.
   2. Know what inventory you can handle by including production capacity availability in the purchasing decision.
   3. Make appropriate and accurate purchasing decisions based on Inventory demand planning
   4. Gain an inherent business advantage from purchasing inventory that matches your process requirements, like delivery direct to outside processors or staged delivery.
4. Comprehensive ERP modules
   1. Claims
   2. Costing
   3. EDI
   4. Fabrication
   5. Inventory
   6. Production
   7. Purchasing
   8. Quality
   9. Receiving
   10. Management Reporting
   11. Sales Order
   12. Shipping
   13. Warehouse operations
   14. Business process definition
   15. Setup
5. Accounting

1. 1. Integrate with Oracle EBS or AccPac (or your current accounting system)
2. Oracle
   1. Go with the leading product. Oracle is the number 1 Relational database with 48.6% share (Gartner 2007)
   2. Be secure in your technology Investment. As Oracle business partners, Steelman has 100% support for all customers in all aspects of business systems deployment and operations.
   3. See www.oracle.com
3. Logistics
   1. Increase load efficiency and reduce shipping costs by pre-planning loads, optimizing delivery routes and managing dispatch scheduling.
   2. Remove a bottleneck by automatically scheduling packaging as a work center operation.
   3. Reduce processing delay by automatically adding transfers to the routing for operations in different locations
   4. Gain greater inventory control by using metals industry specific receiving procedures including receiving in transit.
   5. Reduce the overhead of paperwork by capturing all shipping documents and associating them with the Bill of Lading
   6. Increase efficiency and track inventory in real time through RF bar code scanning support for receiving, inventory movement, inventory reconciliation and shipping.
4. Adaptability to your business
   1. Customization to fit your business without changing standard core code to keep your version of SEMS standard and upgradeable.
   2. Build in your business control by making SEMS work the way you work, by using extensive set-up and business process options for almost every aspect of your business
   3. Expand international operations through support for Mexican operations and local Government regulations and requirements

Dynamic Pricing Sheet

How to prepare a pricing process for automating the pricing calculation in the sales order.

The following reference materials for the example can be reviewed:

The Excel Worksheet

The associated price schedule that performs the same function as the worksheet

The sales order that needs a price generated

The sales order report with the price generated

The price tables that were set up for this example

Steps for setting up a new Price Schedule

1                    Set up a worksheet like the example shown in MS Excel that describes the pricing process for the product. Setting this up in Excel for one example provides the intermediate and ultimate test results required to check that the pricing process is working as expected.

2                    Identify or create the price tables that will be required to provide the data for the formulae. Note that if a new table needs to be created, it is better to create multiple tables that provide simple, easily verified results than complex tables that are harder to set up and maintain.

3                    Create the price schedule that follows the same pricing process as the worksheet. This is typically set up one line at time then tested before adding a subsequent line, to ensure that the intermediate results are valid before performing the next calculation. The price schedule is tested by setting up an order for the product using the quantities and specifications established in the worksheet, then running the pricing process by pressing the “Get price” button. The results should be the same as the intermediate results in the work sheet.

4                    Once the price schedule is working for the work sheet example test further by setting up the extremes and variations (quantity, dimensions, weight and any other pricing parameters that affect the eventual price) of the product specification in the worksheet and then amending the sales order to simulate the calculations (as in step 3). Multiple test samples are required to ensure that the calculations work appropriately under all circumstances. We recommend setting up and storing a spreadsheet of the test matrix of the tests to be performed so that regression testing can accurately replicate the conditions when any amendment is made.

Warning: DO NOT RELEASE A PRICE SCHEDULE TO A PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT WITHOUT CAREFUL AND ADEQUATE TESTING.

Excel Worksheet

Price Schedule

This price schedule performs the same calculations as the Excel spreadsheet. Each formula delivers a result which is either used in the next step of the calculation or appears on the sales order. The intermediate results steps can be identified because the last step of the formula has an entry in the “Save in” column. These intermediate results are then used in the “Use” column of a subsequent step. Note that the “Save in” and “Use” columns can be specified as either a number or a short name. We have chosen in the example to identify the results of formula “100” as “100”. The following table illustrates the calculation in each formula:

Sales Order Header

Sales Order Line Item

The sales order item shows the results of the Pricing Schedule formula lines that do not have a “Save in” specified. These are accumulated to Total.

Sales Order Report

This illustrates how the final calculation appears on the sales order report.
Price Rates

Discount

This illustrates a simple table that allocates a discount rate based on the Weight. No discount if the weight is below 5,000 LB, 2% if the weight is from 5,000 to 10,000 LB and 3% if the weight is greater than 10,000 LB. Note that because the various components that comprise a total price are added to arrive at a selling price, the discount percentage is expressed as a negative multiplier.

Markup

The Mark up is 15% and could be varied according to Grade, thickness width and length. Currently as set up here, all grades get the same mark up.

Packaging Cost

Paint Cost

Paint cost is set at 3 cents per unit.

Important note: In the example, the cost is per square foot painted, however note that the Unit is set as CWT, because the eventual calculation requires cost per CWT. Introducing a different unit here such as Square Foot would complicate the calculation and lead to additional conversion processing that can make calculation more difficult to check. There is no translation between square foot and CWT, so any translation attempt would fail. Alternatively leave the unit blank. Only put a value in “unit” if it can directly be converted to the units required by the order.

Processing Cost

Processing cost can be varied by thickness in this example. 50 cents per CWT if the thickness is less than .2, 60 cents per CWT if it is greater than .2.

SO Density

This is a simple look up table that based on grade will return the density of the steel. Only one density is supplied for all grades for this example.

SO Length

This table looks up the value “Length” from the sales order and returns it multiplied by 1. This illustrates how the value returned by a table can be a mixture of active values from the sales order item, logical criteria and business rules and multipliers that can modify or categorise the actual values. Note that you cannot specify a multiplier that is not a column, however the column need not have any parameters set in min and max.

SO Pieces

A straight look up of the number of pieces from the sales order item

SO Thkns

A straight look up of the thickness requirement from the sales order item.

SO Width

Start Cost

The start cost can vary according to the product and the thickness. For less than .2 thickness the start cost is $20.00 per CWT. For anything greater than .2, the start cost is 18.00 per CWT.

Software solutions prove efficient

By ADRIANNE HARTLEY, SUN MEDIA

Many industries face logistical challenges, but with the help of supply-chain orientedsoftware, challenges are being met head on. Richer Systems Group Inc. offers one suchsoftware solution, Enrich, which is used throughout North America by companies in thecommercial transportation field.It features online, real-time data processing to give clients up-to-the-minute information fromany area of their operation, regardless of size and number of facilities — from front-office operations to maintenance and materials to lease and rental information.”Information is playing a more important role than it ever has before in the success of ourcustomers in this industry,” says Tim Bowes, vice-president of sales and services withRicher Systems Group Inc.”The need to provide more information increases in order to make the supply chain moreefficient.”Bowes says a specific solution is vital for most companies, because there is morecompetition in the marketplace.Also, as companies outsource to other companies, the need for information and progressreports on operations must easily be generated beyond just invoicing.”A consolidated system provides accurate and timely data back to customers,” he says.Enrich consolidates transactions so that companies can provide key performance indicators to their customers.”The supply of information is becoming critical in this age, and the ability to collect it and make sure it’s accurate and then deliver it in a timely fashion is what Enrich does,” saysBowes.In the steel industry, Steelman Software Solutions Inc.’s Steel Enterprise ManagementSystem Version 4 creates a collaborative environment for customers, suppliers andprocessors of steel and other metal products.In the past, the metals industry kept track of inventory with a series of cumbersomedatabases.Steelman’s system makes sense of all the confusion by delivering end-to-end solutionsbased on industry best practices as well as their customers’ unique operating practices and processes.”This is very current and specific enterprise resource planning technology designed to suitthe steel marketplace,” says Daniel Brody, managing director of Steelman.