Steelman Software Solutions Inc.

 STEELMAN: Manufacturing Modules
The purpose of the manufacturing component of the STEELMAN System, is
two fold:

• to support the sales order entry function in providing on-line response
  to customer order inquiries, and
• to assist in the medium and long term production planning of all Processing
  Units, so as to balance their work loads and to maximize utilization
  of the bottleneck operations.

The complete system is composed of several modules. The foundations of
the manufacturing component of STEELMAN are the Production Routing Module
and the Capacity Planning Module. When combined these form a Capability
Model of the steel producing facilities. These modules are fully integrated
to the other modules of STEELMAN and to the 3rd Party Financials.

Order inquiries are introduced into the manufacturing system via the Order
Entry and Inquiry Module and the Product Descriptions Module, in an effort
to establish a delivery date for the order based on; real time confirmed
and reserved loading against the production capacity of the Processing
Units. Orders determined to be manufacturable are then planned to establish
delivery dates.
Based on the Product Numbers, a corresponding Production Routing Way
is defined taking into account specific parameters such as:

• width
• surface qualities
• thickness
• coil diameter (inside and/or outside)
• steel grade
• finishing and trim requirements
• length
• packaging requirements

The production planning stage will establish both the product routing
and material requirements, (based on a grade and physical dimension dependent
consumption rates) for each Processing Unit included in the product routing
in terms of semi-finished product passed out of the Processing Unit. Once
the required Product Routing Way individual processing times have been
established they will be fed into the 'Constraint Based Finite Scheduling
Program', as part of the Production Planning Module. The resultant output
of the finite scheduler through Production Planning is:

• the confirmation of the requested promise (delivery) date,
• the establishment of a new promise date, or
• the establishment of an alternate promise date.