STRUMIS will be exhibiting in booth 7041 from March 22-24 2017 in the Henry B. Gonzalez Covention Center and also sponsoring the event. 

To get a free access pass to the event please click here.

NASCC: The Steel Conference is the premier educational and networking event for the structural steel industry, bringing together structural engineers, steel fabricators, erectors and detailers. The Steel Conference offers more than 130 sessions on topics ranging from “Practical Advice for Reviewing Software Generated Connection Designs” to “Lateral Torsional Buckling and its Influence on the Strength of Beams” to “Keeping OSHA out of your Bank Account.”

To learn more about the NASCC click here.

Looking for answers while everyone has their heads buried in the sand? Not us, V10.1 is yet another STRUMIS release to answer our customers’ needs.

Waiting around for something can be frustrating, especially when you’re asking questions but not getting answers. At STRUMIS we pride ourselves on talking to our customers and helping them in anyway we can.

V10.1 is a product of the care and attention that we pay to our customers on a daily basis, as it was solely produced to provide added features and benefits based on our customers’ needs. STRUMIS is revolutionizing the future of steel fabrication, not just by ourselves, but along with our customers and partners.

V10.1’s release continues the tradition of providing invaluable enhancements and continuous updates, including an array of functionality and control that is unique to STRUMIS and unmatched in the industry.

These new features are driven by our continuous collaboration and communication with all of our customers, demonstrating our on-going commitment to our customers and the steel fabrication industry worldwide.

New and improved features also mean new and improved benefits. STRUMIS V10.1 ensures better material and time savings, in turn reducing your overheads. In addition V10.1 provides increased efficiency and improved productivity.

The proof is in the features, V10.1’s new additions provide unrivalled benefits for steel estimating and fabrication:

Change Order Management

Adding/Editing Existing Nests

Contract Material Rates

Prelim Revisions

Planning Enhancements

User Purchase Order Limits

Improved Plate Girder Management

Batch Update Estimate Lines

Improved Fittings In Estimating

To see all of the new features being used in STRUMIS click the link below to watch a recording of the STRUMIS V10.1 webinar.

STRUMIS V10.1 Webinar

Iconic and visually stunning steel construction projects like the Forth Bridge, Burj Khalifa, Queen Elizabeth ii Bridge, The Shard , Dubai Airport, STRATA SE1 London (the tall building you see on the Apprentice TV program), Derby Multi-Sports Arena, Terminal 5 Heathrow, Burj Al-Arab, Golden Gate Bridge and too many more to mention here, are the master piece of the architect, designer and the steel construction company (The Fabricator).

Their combined expertise and skills have forged our landscape for many years and as steel structures become more free-flowing and seemingly able to defy our limited imagination, our landscape takes on a very futuristic look, you only have to look at some of the brilliant sports stadiums produced around the world to see how steel as a building material and the people behind these amazing structures can produce not just somewhere functional and practical to live, work and play but they are simply amazing and beautiful. For what it’s worth, I  can’t stop staring at Burj Khalifa when in Dubai!

For all the glorious achievements, accompanied by richly deserved “back-slapping” rituals by architect, designer and steel construction companies, we hear very little about the source of the projects steel skeleton that wow us each and every day – the Steel Supplier and Steel Manufacturer (Steel Mill).

Without the steel supplier and mill, none of the previously mentioned projects would be possible, without the steel supplier and mill working in harmony – most of the time – with the architects and designers from a build ability and strength perspective and the steel construction company from a supply/demand perspective our landscape my look very different, very concrete looking!!

At STRUMIS Ltd we understand the need for collaboration on a grand scale, from design and detailing models at the front-end to steel erectors at the back-end but in the middle there is a great deal of additional integration and collaboration going on especially when it comes to the STRUMIS MIS System. This is when we join up the 3D model with the steel requirements and the steel manufacturers and suppliers. There has been an established link for many years on this critical data flow path between steel construction company and their steel suppliers, it’s called STRUMIS EDI and is available to all steel suppliers and fabricators to ensure an error free, automatic transfer of material requirements for a project, through nesting/optimisation of material requirements against available stock lengths and automatically feeding this information back to the fabricator in a timely and error free fashion.

In the bad-old days before STRUMIS was well established and globally renowned as the “go-to” Management Information System for steel fabricators there was very little mileage in any steel supplier installing the STRUMIS Supplier EDI licence simply because there were only a few select steel fabricators who had adopted STRUMIS at their end, however, with the regional and global spread of steel fabricators who have now implemented STRUMIS within the steel construction factories, the steel supply chain has never been so streamlined and automated which in-turn contributes to the delivery and construction of the most amazing steel structures we all enjoy viewing and working in today.

Steel suppliers who have implemented the STRUMIS Supplier EDI licence within their workplace have found distinct commercial competitive advantages through offering to streamline the steel fabricators steel supply chain, in-turn, providing significant cost and time saving benefits to both the supplier and the fabricator.

For more information on the STRUMIS Supplier licence visit http://www.strumis.com/supplier.php to learn more about the competitive advantage a steel supplier can achieve.

Billington Structures Ltd employ ‘Just in Time’ strategy with the help of STRUMIS 

For all steelwork fabrication businesses, increasing raw material costs present a significant burden and can, if not managed properly, result in substantial finances being tied up with inventory, leading to wakened cash flow through inefficient management of the production cycle.

‘Just in Time’ is a production strategy that aims to maximize business returns on investment by minimizing process inventory and associated carrying costs.

For steelwork fabricators, a ‘Just in Time’ production strategy would generally involve the preliminary reservation or ordering of material. Once the final production requirements are received, the fabricator can then call off material by consolidating what has been reserved. The associated benefit of this is that long lead items are ordered by the supplier, with Mill orders now completed through the stockist. Consequently, materials are available when they are required, with the additional advantage that the material is purchased at the price at the original reservation time, often resulting in cost savings.

A ‘Just In Time’ philosophy is adopted by many users of STRUMIS to maximize the business advantages that this approach can deliver. With the added benefits of traceability and process control, STRUMIS also enables materials to be managed more proficiently. Fabricators can also simultaneously profit from materials optimization through reducing raw materials wastage and streamlined inventory levels through ‘Just In Time’ production strategies, procurement and associated logistics.

Inventory Management

In order for a business to run efficiently, it is vital to ensure that the cash flow associated through inventory is not squeezed, whilst optimum materials must be in place to allow the smooth running of production to deliver contract performance.

Just in Time Solution

STRUMIS offers an instant overview and the management of all materials across multiple locations, including control of details for each section type, with transaction reporting and trend/Supplier analysis. By using STRUMIS for inventory and purchasing management, Billington Structures and other users benefit from:

• Comprehensive control of stock levels and effective dates.
• Detailed inventory transaction reporting and multi location management including supplier sites.
• Materials prelim and automated purchase order generation.
• Instant overview of all materials on order enabling all materials and inventory to be handled efficiently.

These facilities combined enable a ‘Just In Time’ strategy to be adopted and used effectively to deliver business efficiency to production from optimized inventory and procurement.

Traceability of inventory is provided through the provision of a complete inventory management system in STRUMIS including non steel items and multi location materials management including supplier sites or materials on order. Similar results are achieved through the control of stock levels and effective dates with detailed inventory transaction reporting.

Purchasing and Suppliers

Structural steel construction businesses need to purchase wisely and efficiently to deliver successful returns. However, due to often complicated multiple simultaneous project requirements, the structural steel purchasing function is critical to business success.

Solution

The STRUMIS purchasing and suppliers module features allow the management of Suppliers and integration of Purchasing – with pricing, nesting and purchase orders all generated automatically with all costs allocated to the project for future cost analysis.

Such benefits could also be achieved through the implementation of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). This approach is adopted by Billington Structures and through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) with their supplier they achieve material optimization and automatic generation of cutting plans.

Conclusion

STRUMIS enables departments’ data to interact seamlessly. This facilitates transparency of production requirements and gives companies such as Billington Structures the information to optimize inventory management and procurement for a ‘Just In Time’ production strategy. With the added benefits of traceability and process control this strategy can deliver many business advantages to the steel fabricator.

Billington Structures Ltd is one of many STRUMIS users who have adopted a ‘Just In Time’ philosophy through STRUMIS to increase their business advantage. A spokesman for Billington Structures commented; “We were an early adopter of STRUMIS and are extremely pleased with our investment.

By linking our Inventory with Procurement and Production, STRUMIS enables agile procurement based on optimized project planning and shop floor routing, such that materials are ordered and delivered just in time. This results in better time management and cost savings for our business. STRUMIS has indeed strengthened and enhanced our materials logistics process enabling superior administration of our production cycle.

To read the full case study visit http://bit.ly/2lnhwkS and to see how STRUMIS can benefit you visit www.strumis.com

Around the world, BIM mandates are seeing increased take-up – the European Union have encouraged BIM for publicly-funded construction and building projects in 2016, while Dubai Municipality recently mandated BIM for all mechanical, electrical, and plumbing projects for large and internationally-delivered projects and specialised buildings.

Qatar is the GCC’s fastest-growing construction and infrastructure market, with more than $200-billion worth of projects by 2021. Right now, across the Middle East and especially in Qatar, while there is strong awareness of BIM technology, organisation-wide adoption of the system has been lagging.

Existing and prospective strategies, procedures, technologies, standards, challenges and opportunities for adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) by the Qatari construction industry and major consultants and project owners are considered as high level requirements to facilitate lifecycle information flow, reflecting the global construction trends.

Simply put, BIM is a design management and project planning tool. Used correctly and fully it has the capacity to minimise project delays and cost over-runs- major issues in Qatar and to maximise the on-site management for planning and executing construction or infrastructure projects. It enables all stakeholders to access relevant information to manage projects faster, with less unexpected costs and more sustainably. It can also fully manage the design process and ensure that the original designs and project specifications can be fully carried through the entire life-cycle of the project from designer to consultant to contractor and sub-contractors.

With Qatar witnessing its ongoing construction boom, the country must adopt a national approach towards developing BIM standards. A variety of international standards is available worldwide, and used by different countries. Government may mandate its use on the major infrastructure projects. Dubai Municipality already led the way with this. BIM is being implemented on Lusail City, Qatar Rail projects and most Qatar Foundation projects.

With so many developments in the industry, we at STRUMIS would like to partner with the Steel Fabricators to provide with the necessary BIM tools to cater to the need of the hour.

Visit www.strumis.com to see all of the benefits that STRUMIS can provide you.