NoGo” for shipment to a customer. This data can also be electronically
recorded and linked to the melt chemical properties data in the available systems in use today. Once again, a large amount of data to keep track of depending on the sampling plan required by the customer. Using a system to manage this data makes the process much easier and efficient. Paper records get lost right? Of course they do! But, electronic records are much safer now than they ever were in the past. However, perhaps even more
important than tracking the results of the melt processing are the melt planning tasks. Customers can have varying specs for a particular alloy as mentioned earlier. For economic reasons, many metalcasters attempt to combine more than one customer order or part production effort into a single heat. This requires planning tools that can manage the various recipes and specifications required, as well as the availability of the individual metal material components to make up the recipe. Putting all those facts together into a cohesive plan can be daunting. Once again, some ERP systems for metal casters incorporate the idea of “Heat Planning” to make the most efficient use of available materials and furnaces to keep the economics profitable. Some metal processing specific
ERP systems have the full range of capabilities mentioned above as part of the offering of those systems. No custom coding is required. Additionally, these ERP systems are also quite capable of producing the various types of certification documents required to go with the product when shipped to the customer. Systems always make the management of this kind of data easier and more efficient. Many of the suppliers of these systems are involved in Foundry 4.0 efforts to connect the factory, making the management and use of large amounts of data associated with making perfect part, economical and with as little “paper-pushing” as possible.
About the Author Patrick McCrevan has been with B&L
®
Information Systems since 2006 - first providing technical customer support and then in business development helping potential customers understand the benefits of ERP. Prior to joining B&L Information Systems, McCrevan spent 20 years with a software firm whose MRP solutions included shop floor production and process monitoring systems for scheduling, quality systems, production reporting, maintenance planning, and labor tracking. McCrevan is an Air Force veteran and received an Associates of Arts and Sciences in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Northeastern University. He also holds an Associate’s degree in Accounting from Southwestern Michigan College and has participated in manufacturing
quality certification (ASQC) classes at Indiana University-South Bend.
About B&L Information Systems B&L Information Systems is the global leader in cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for foundries, die casters and investment casters. Since 1976, B&L has implemented their unique ERP solutions at over 450 metalcasting operations, making their cloud-based Odyssey ERP match how metalcasters operate. With Odyssey, metalcasters maximize their resources, minimize costs, and make better decisions faster.
For more information, visit
www.blinfo.com.
May 2021 ❘ 21
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28
