ERP for sheet metal and roofing profile manufacturers

In sheet metal production, product cost comes out two different ways: the figure in the accounts, and the reality on the shop floor.

The gap is usually fifteen to twenty-five per cent, and it comes from one place — offcut.

When a coil is cut, material is left over. If it is not accounted for, cost appears lower than it is. Some orders are then produced at a loss and nobody notices.

Four industry-specific processes

A generic ERP does not fully work here. The reason is four processes that do not appear in other sectors.

Coil-level inventory. Raw material arrives as coils, not units. Each coil has its own weight, thickness, width and colour. Inventory has to be tracked at that level, or the stock figure becomes meaningless.

Cutting plans. Order dimensions do not match coil width. The better the plan, the less offcut. This process affects margin directly.

Waste and remnants. Where material goes after cutting: reused, sold or lost. In many plants it is not recorded at all.

Make-to-order production. You produce to order, not to stock. Every order has its own dimensions, colour and deadline.

Why costing comes out wrong

Three causes, working together.

Offcut is excluded. If eight per cent is lost in cutting and never reaches the cost calculation, you are selling eight per cent cheaper than you believe.

Coil price is averaged. Stock holds several batches bought at different prices. If the system does not record which coil was consumed, cost becomes an average that sits well away from reality.

Rework is not captured. When something is rejected it gets made again. That is a second consumption of material and time, and it is usually never charged back to the original order.

What the system provides

The largest change is in the fourth row. Knowing real cost changes how you price — which orders are profitable and which are not becomes visible.

How the rollout runs

A separate interface for the shop floor

This is the part most often overlooked, and it is what breaks projects.

The terminal on the floor has to differ from an office computer:

• Large buttons — pressed with gloves on
• Few fields — the task completes in three or four steps
• Contrast readable in poor lighting
• Continues working when the connection drops, syncing afterwards
• Hardware tolerant of dust and humidity

A polished interface designed from an office does not survive on the floor. The supervisor carries on the old way, data arrives second-hand, and the system loses its purpose.

What to measure

Record at the start of the project and measure again after three months:

The first two are the important ones. They point straight at money.

Ready system or custom build

Processes in this industry are fairly similar across plants: coil, cutting, waste, order. A ready system therefore fits most of them.

A custom build is justified only where cutting optimisation is your competitive advantage. In most plants it is a standard process.

In summary

In sheet metal production the system starts at the coil and is settled at the offcut.

Practical steps:

1. Weigh a month of offcut and convert it into money
2. Calculate the cost of three products two ways and look at the gap
3. Prepare coil records — that is work before the system
4. Document your norms; that is a process engineer's task, not the system's
5. Test the shop floor terminal together with the supervisor