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.

CASE STUDY

By Sherri Telenko - Manfuacturing Automation

October 2004

Parkdale International Limited is part of a volatile industry. Recently, the Hamilton Ont.-based company went from a system that saw shop-floor employees using pen and paper to a fully automated data-and-inventory management software package integrated throughout the entire throughout the entire operation. The upgrading team worked with Toronto-based STEELMAN Software Solutions Inc.

Parkdale’s business is steel, an industry experiencing unprecedented global fluctuations. The company specializes in buying and selling devalued carbon steel products, primarily flat rolled. Extensive evaluation of every shipment is necessary, and often the product is slit or sliced into sheets. But this process isn’t simple.

“We may get a coil that’s 10,000 pounds and a customer wants sheets out of it,” says Stephen Margles, sales manager. Parkdale. “As we are running it out, part way through, we get some bad steel. Our machines are set up to separate the good from the bad and we steel the piles to different customers.” Previously this change was noted on a piece of paper and forwarded to accounitng. The company need a reliable system that would note the input item and divide the cost appropriately between each bundle.

“We put a lot of responsibility on our operations side to do their job properly,” Margles says. “With this software, we’ve given them the tools to do not just the physical labour, but the computer data entry which makes everyone’s job easier.”

Embedded with the Oracle 10g infrastructure software, STEELMAN’s suite of products includes warehouse management, manufacturing control and quality assurance, and it is designed for suppliers and prossors of steel and other metal products. According to Daniel Brody managing director, STEELMAN, “At an integrated mill that does everything, the system will take production from the liquid pot with its chemistry and apply it to the appropriate orders, then move it through the facility based on those orders.”

Other companies sell similar software but Parkdale says it selected STEELMAN because of the service they provide and flexibility of the product, Margles says. “Other companies weren’t as receptive to modifying their systems,” he says.

As with any new automation, the first few months weren’t perfect. The development team need to alter the reports that the system was producing, and servers needed to be coordinated. Margles offers this advice to anyone thinking of implementing a similar process: Don’t start by using parallel systems. “That was a disaster,” he says.

A mid-size company, Parkdale started almost 50 years ago as an extension of a family-run scrap metal business. Today, it is a lean automated operation. In one year, Parkdale went from Flintstone to Jetsons, according to Margles. “We hadn’t been keeping up with technology. Now we have more than we need, but we want to be able to adapt quickly to change.”

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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.