Bradbury Flat Trak Leveling Monitor Gets Patent
The Bradbury Co. Inc., Moundridge, Kan., has received a patent for its Flat Trak Strip Evaluation System for monitoring and evaluating strip flatness and leveling.

Flat Trak is said to enable operators of both old and new levelers to achieve superior strip flatness. Thanks to its touch-screen graphic display, Flat Trak gives the line operator a real-time graphic representation of each strip’s profile immediately after it leaves the leveler. The real-time display shows a cross-section view of the shape of the strip being processed and allows operators to see the effects their adjustments have on the material immediately after they make them. Flat Trak takes measurements across the moving strip without mechanical contact. The measurements are automatically compared to determine the degree of flatness. The degree of out-of-flatness is indicated using a scale that provides direct numerical measurements. Besides measuring strips being processed, the system records flatness data for each finished strip and bundle and can print the results, the company says.

In addition to the detailed display on the Flat Trak touch screen, a three-color status light mounted near the top of the unit signals strip condition. A green light indicates that the strip being processed is within an acceptable customer-defined range. An amber light warns operators the strip is approaching an outer limit of the flatness standard that has been programmed. A red light alerts operators that material flatness is out of the pre-set limits and that they should readjust the leveler to bring the process back into the desired range.

When coupled to a Bradbury Hydraulic Leveler, Flat Trak controls enable an operator to view leveler performance and adjust settings from a remote location. Flat Trak is designed to eliminate the seat-of-the-pants approach to leveling and produce a flatter product in a single pass. The system reduces demands on the operator, speeds production, and cuts costs associated with the need to reprocess sheets, according to Bradbury.

For more information, call 620-345-6394 or visit www.bradburygroup.com. (2007)

AXIS Helps Users Streamline Operations,
Enhance Customer Responsiveness
AXIS Computer Systems, Marlborough, Mass., a Consona business unit and provider of enterprise resource planning software for the metals industry, offers release 5 of the AXIOM Enterprise Management System. The recent release contains over 100 new features developed to directly address current issues affecting the industry, including increasing customer price and delivery pressures, rising raw material and freight costs, and the expanding use of electronic commerce throughout the supply chain.

One of the most significant new capabilities in AXIOM 5 is Dynamic Order Fulfillment. This suite of related enhancements simplifies order processing and product management for companies that make a range of products based on variations in attributes (such as grade, specification, size, shape and finish). Specific functionality includes order entry and pricing by attribute; dynamically generated product descriptions, customer comments and routings based on attributes; and sales analysis by attribute.

AXIOM 5 also features a number of new capabilities in the following areas:

• Cost Management—Numerous enhancements that enable a company to use either a standard, actual or average actual approach to cost management.
• eCommerce—An enhanced XML-based infrastructure and expanded range of supported inbound and outbound transactions.
•  Freight and Carrier Management—New capabilities for handling fuel surcharges, truck scheduling, rail routing and preferred/restricted carriers.
• Sub-Contract Management—A stream-lined management method for outside processing from planning to shipping, visibility of material, receiving and costing.
• Cut To Length/Slit Order Management—Enhancements to support both service centers and cold finishers.

For more information, call AXIS at (800) 370-AXIS or visit www.axiscomp.com.

Compusource Document Management Software
Helps Users Electronically Store, Retrieve Data
The MC DMS (Document Management System) module is now available as part of the MCMS software suite from Compusource, La Palma, Calif.  MC DMS provides the capability to electronically store and retrieve any document associated with your business directly from within your MCMS applications. This ability includes documents created both internally by MCMS, such as sales orders, confirmations, purchase orders, invoices, and shippers, as well as externally generated documents, such as vendor invoices, company procedural manuals, customer part drawings, and so on.

One of the key benefits of MC DMS is the ability to allow access to business-

critical documents by anyone on your local or wide-area network, on demand in a matter of seconds. A DMS user can retrieve a shipper to see who signed off on the receipt, e-mail a part drawing directly to an outside processor, verify an internal procedure by hot-keying to your internal procedures manual, or request a credit application be faxed to the prospect you have on the phone. With MC DMS, any pertinent document can be quickly retrieved to view, fax, print or e-mail, removing the costly file/copy/re-file cycle.

For more information, call 714-522-8300 or visit www.compusource.com. (2007)

Invera Enhances STRATIX 7.5
STRATIX from Invera, Newtown Square, Pa., is designed for the special requirements of metal service centers, distributors, processors, toll processors and manufacturers. STRATIX Release 7.5 includes over 150 new features and enhancements that run across all major applications. 

Major enhancements include:

• New Vendor Price Book to automatically price a purchase order.
• On-line back order sales review function.
• Price coil based on footage or square footage.
• Search for inventory based on an industry specific standard (ASTM, MIL, SAE, EU).
• Increased audit-trail logging for changes to mechanicals and chemistry.
• Multi-stranding blanking layout functions for flat-rolled operations.
• Record the use of  “consumables” like strippable or PVC for flat-rolled operations.
• Bundle multiple finished items together in one lift for shipping purposes.
• Additional WIFI functions for the warehouse.
• Streamlined quote entry for companies that specialize in supplying the construction industry.
• Save STRATIX standard reports to Excel.
• Improved view in the Logistics Planning module to more quickly identify delivery routes, number of stops and over dimensional loads.

For more information, call 514-925-8558 or visit www.invera.com. (2007)

SigmaTEK Introduces SolidNEST
SigmaTEK Systems, Cincinnati, Ohio, has introduced SolidNEST for integrated nesting within the 3D CAD environment. SolidNEST offers the ability to create true-shape nesting layouts and NC programs for laser, plasma, oxyfuel, waterjet, router, turret punch presses and profile/punch combination machines without ever leaving the CAD environment.

SolidNEST utilizes CAD sheet metal unfolding abilities and maintains associability between the nest and the CAD parts and assemblies. SolidNEST is powered by the SigmaNEST automatic nesting system.

For more information, call 513-674-0005 or visit www.solidnest.com. (Published IT Solutions 2006)

Paragon Consulting Adds CRM,
Report Writer to Metalware Suite
Paragon Consulting Services Inc., Baltimore, Md., offers two new products as part of its Metalware software suite. The Paragon CRM solution is a customized customer relationship management tool that ties directly with the Metalware system to provide sales teams with critical sales, credit and transactional information. The product can be used remotely or when connected to the Metalware system, allowing sales teams to retain and develop customer relations.

The second product is the Paragon Report Writer. This program is designed to work with a number of different databases and allows for management and end-user custom reporting. Report Writer is said to contain many advanced features while remaining user friendly, allowing the user to see the result of the report during each step of the process. It also offers a number of different options for creation, distribution and scheduling of the completed report.

Metalware is part of the Package Software Division of Paragon Consulting Services and specializes in software solutions for the metals industry. For more information, call 443-461-1070 or visit www.paragon-csi.com. (Published IT Solutions 2006)

AXIS Service Center Management Software
Provides New Capabilities
Release 5.1 of the AXIOM Enterprise Management System from AXIS Computer Systems Inc., Marlborough, Mass., delivers a number of new and enhanced capabilities designed to streamline key service center business processes. AXIOM is a comprehensive business system built around the unique requirements of the metals industry.

AXIOM’s new Dynamic Order Fulfillment capability helps metals producers, processors and service centers improve customer responsiveness and market agility while eliminating non-value-added data maintenance requirements. It streamlines order processing and product management activities by automatically generating sales order and work order details based on the specific “attributes” (e.g. grade, specification, size, shape, finishing, etc.) of an ordered product without requiring individual pre-defined product codes, process routings, pricing and descriptions for every possible variation.

An entire family of products or processing capabilities can be defined using a combination of user-defined tables, templates and rules that represent a service center’s capabilities and knowledge in a manner that is natural and easy to understand, while at the same time supporting the real-world sophistication of their processes. Specific features include: order entry by attribute, attribute-based pricing, dynamic commercial descriptions and customer instructions, dynamic routing generation, and sales history by attribute.

According to AXIS, AXIOM provides integrated support for everything from sales and customer service to inventory, production, quality and financial management—all built around the special requirements of metals companies. AXIOM helps service centers quickly respond to customer needs with instant access to inventories and capacities. It provides the tools to help orchestrate inside and outside processing, packaging and shipping; collect and deliver all the required quality information; and increase inventory turns while realizing the full value of every coil, sheet, tube or bar. It also helps managers understand and manage costs to maximize profitability.

AXIOM is built specifically for companies that manage, sell and process metal products, from coils, plates and sheets to seamless and welded tube, bar, rod, wire, and coated and plated products. AXIOM helps service centers handle slit order processing, coil tracking, inventory management and look-up by attribute, palletization, customer-supplied material tracking, truck scheduling and more.

AXIS is a business unit of Made2Manage Systems. For more information, call 800-370-2947 or visit www.axiscomp.com/
servicecenter. (Published IT Solutions 2006)

Optimize Production Flow with Steel Manager III
Steel Manager III from 4GL Solutions, Markham, Ontario, is an integrated production scheduling program, which is a key component of any true metals ERP/ERM solution. This Windows-based production scheduler allows the service center production staff to view and manipulate the data in a wide variety of ways.
Sorting by machine or material thickness with the click of a mouse eliminates countless hours of sifting through stacks of paperwork.

The production schedule also clearly displays other crucial fields besides the raw material, such as the customer, finished goods, quantity, work order number and estimated time needed on each processing machine, taking into account cut speeds based on material thickness, number of heads and pierces. A total scheduled time and a running total on selected jobs is clearly displayed allowing the scheduler to distribute the workload evenly and maximize machine time. This technology also allows the scheduler to re-assign any number of jobs quickly in case a machine should go down and need maintenance.

The production software offers the flexibility to run off individual schedules for each machine operator so they know exactly what they are responsible for each day. There is also an option to print the actual nested drawing or customer part drawings automatically with the schedule to ensure clarity and accuracy with each job.

Complex customer parts involving multiple processes traditionally have been challenging to schedule accurately, as some of these processes could be in-house while others need to be outsourced. Steel Manager III’s production scheduler also accommodates multiple processes and a combination of both inside and outside processing. This technology not only displays the processes and the details of external processors, but also takes them into account as it recalculates the total days required to complete each job. Production, both internal and external, can be fully tracked every step of the way so customer service reps can offer a status report immediately when customers call.

Steel Manager III also automatically monitors production costs. The user can record material consumption, machine and labor costs prior to production using base values and easily update these values during actual production. Consumption and production costs are automatically posted to the general ledger, cutting down on possible errors from manual data entry and allowing the user to compare estimated vs. actual production costs. Actual inventory is automatically updated from the warehouse in real time once it is consumed, while remnants are automatically returned, revalued or scrapped.

For more information, call 905-479-6727 or visit www.4glsol.com. (Published IT Solutions 2006)