Tag Archives: Steelwork

How does the BCSA’s mandatory introduction of CE marking affect me, and how can StruM.I.S help?

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CE Marking logoAs of 1st July 2013, the Construction Products Directive (CPD) will be removed and replaced by the Construction Products Regulation (CPR). The main difference between the two is that the CPR is mandatory and comes into effect in the UK and RoI law on 1st July 2013. The CPR makes CE marking mandatory in all member states including the UK and RoI for construction products covered by a harmonised standard or a European Technical Assessment that is in force.

What is CE Marking?

CE Marking is a regulatory mark applied by the manufacturer that is a declaration to public authorities and clients that the product satisfies required levels of health and safety (concerning such issues as release of hazardous substances and structural strength).

How does this affect you – steelwork contractors?

From 1st July 2013:-

From the 1st July 2013 steelwork contractors must have in place a purchasing system that will ensure that essential products (steel sections, structural bolting assemblies, welding consumables etc.) are covered by a Standard (specification), purchased and correctly CE marked.
The model purchase specifications for structural sections and bolting assemblies produced by BCSA may be used to develop a purchasing system that complies with the CPR.

From 1st July 2014:-

BS EN 1090-1- Execution of steel structures and aluminium structures – (Part 1) Requirements for conformity assessment of structural components (1st July 2014) 

The CE Marking standard for fabricated steelwork is BS EN 1090-1 and this is supported by the fabrication standard BS EN 1090-2 and the welding quality management standard BS EN ISO 3834. Those affected by CE Marking must put in place a Factory Production Control system (FPC) and have the system certified by a Notified Body.

Other things to consider

  • Selection of correct Consequence Class (CC) as per Eurocode 0 (EN 1990 standard)
  • Design in accordance with Eurocode 3 (EN 1993-series standards)
  • Designers material selection (EN 1993-1-10 requirements)
  • Selection of correct execution class (EXC) by designers, acc. to EN 1090-2
  • Workshop certifications to ISO 9000 and the relevant part of ISO 3834 for the workshop
  • The workshop must have a welding coordinator; his minimum qualifications depend on the EXC. For execution class EXC3 and EXC4 he must be certified welding engineer (EWE/EWI)
  • Generally the workshop must follow the EN 1090-2 standard for the fabrication of steel structures

Traceability and how StruM.I.S can help…

For Audit purposes traceability is now a key factor in gaining CE accreditation.

AceCad Software, along with StruM.I.S – a complete steel fabrication management system and Essentials by StruM.I.S – A light steel fabrication management information and production system for Small to Medium (SME) sized engineering and steelwork fabrication companies, will help you gain CE Marking accreditation, as we have off the shelf products available to assist you with traceability. Designed especially for smaller fabrication teams and with the features that smaller businesses need, Essentials by StruM.I.S is the perfect management system to assist in the tracking of production, purchasing and is a one stop solution for documenting the day to day running of your business.

Richard Brotherton, Managing Director of AceCad Software commenting on the release of Essentials by StruM.I.S said, ’Essentials opens a world of potential business advantages on the steelwork project to all in the sector. Smaller fabricators can now experience new levels of capability, unrivalled in the industry, to deliver benefits to their businesses and other project stakeholders’.

AceCad is aware of the current grievance felt by UK companies due to the recent changes in the construction industry. We have therefore created a cost effective solution that can not only be implemented smoothly, but also see you earn a return on your investment.

To learn more on how StruM.I.S can help you gain CE Marking accreditation:

  • Click here to read more about StruM.I.S and its Purchasing module –
  • Want to have a chat with a representative on how StruM.I.S can help? Click here to request a call back.
  • Request a personal FREE no obligation demonstration here –

Steel Purchasing webinar

 

Watch our webinar covering Better Purchasing with StruM.I.S  on our YouTube channel here

Essentials: A Roaring Success!

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Essentials, AceCad Software’s new steel fabrication shop production system, runs the entire company, it is ready to use in no time with minimal training and can often be paid for within a month on material savings alone!

Commenting on Essentials, Richard Brotherton, the Managing Director at AceCad Software, stated; ‘We felt there was an excellent market for a low cost system that allowed smaller fabricators or indeed fabricators in need of IT systems to control their costs and run their fabrication more efficiently.

Therefore, we extracted the ‘Essential’ features out of StruM.I.S, our world successful fabrication management system, incorporated them in a user-friendly interface and placed it on our website for fabricators to trial it for a month. Essentials has indeed hit a note with significant numbers of company’s trialing, liking and buying it.’

The simple and user-friendly features have already proven to generate valuable returns on investment and sales have come from all around the world including Africa, Australia, Europe, Middle East, South America and the USA.

If you belong to a smaller to medium sized steel fabrication company and want to grow your business, then you too can benefit and compete using the same resource strengthening and workflow advantages that many larger organization enjoy from implementing StruM.I.S.

To download Essentials, click here.

Or, to discover what our clients think about Essentials, click here.

Bar Code Tracking with StruM.I.S

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Bar code data-collection systems provide huge benefits during the manufacturing and processing stages of fabrication. Murray & Roberts subsidiary company, Genrec, has extended these benefits further by tracking individual items within large scale projects.

The bar code data-collection solution enables faster and more accurate data capturing with lower costs, minimised mistakes and easier data management through the StruM.I.S system including site materials and piece tracking.

A successful installation simplifies fabrication management

With Genrec’s principal RSA steel fabrication site in Wadeville, covering over 55,000m2 of undercover workshops and open areas, tracking of materials and fabricated items represented a major issue.

As StruM.I.S users they had already decided to extend shop floor feedback automation through bar coding for an optimised workflow and real time tracking. This implementation has been highly successful for quite some time and has shown real benefits in terms of processing steel through production efficiently and gaining the most out of the management  system; StruM.I.S.

Overcoming the growing pains

Following successes in several large projects around the world, Genrec has become the main contract steelwork fabricator for a substantial domestic infrastructure project. This resulted in the need to develop their own onsite fabrication facilities alongside the creation of a lay down storage area covering an area larger than that of five soccer pitches!

The sheer size of this storage area created a number of traceability issues for both raw materials and fabricated items and as such Genrec approached AceCad to see if it was possible to create a way of implementing bar coding through StruM.I.S into a new onsite process to enable complete onsite traceability.

GPS location of items enables accurate location on demand

Following development work between Genrec and the AceCad team, StruM.I.S is now able to use the bar code tracking functionality through a specially designed interface to track all site movement of materials and fabricated items.

Originally, the brief given by Genrec required the ability to scan items into the Production Delivery notes to define that these items were leaving the fabrication facility and headed for the site. Once the shipment is received at the site, the items are then scanned again as a confirmation of receipt to ensure that they have not been lost during transit. On confirmation, StruM.I.S will recognise the location, including GPS coordinates, for easy onsite traceability throughout the entire construction process.

Speaking on behalf of Genrec a spokesman commented; ‘With StruM.I.S, we have a system that enables us to manage projects from start to finish. Now with the extended bar coding functionality and the automation that this delivers we are able to benefit from the system more and more throughout our projects.’

6 Things to Consider Before Buying Steel Management Software

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1. Your Budget

How much money do you want to spend on the software? Ideally, you should conduct a cost-benefit assessment. Analyse what you really want to get out of steel management software and ask yourself, do the long-term benefits of such software reflect or outweigh the initial investment? Buying steel management software is a long-term decision and switching costs could be significant. Select software that is widely used, good value in terms of cost and functionality, and flexible enough to meet your business’s current and future needs.

2. Integration

Your new steel management software will need to work with as many of your current (and future) software and hardware products as possible. Does the software need to integrate with your production machinery? Will you be using consoles or bar coding on your shop floor? What about the workflow with your existing front office systems? Does the software use reliable technology platforms and will it integrate with your existing infrastructure?

3. Implementation

Time is money so when you’ve made your choice, the quicker you can get your new software in place, the better. Try to select a steel management software vendor with local representation if possible, or that can offer fast and efficient implementation online for maximum early benefits.  Make sure that apart from the implementation of the software, you are given the opportunity for appropriate training. Is it important to you where your training takes place?  Are there implementation documents or videos available and does the company have experienced trainers knowledgeable in your industry?

4. Functionality

What functionality do you need from the steel management software? What would you like the software to do for you? Draw up a list of desirables and see which software can fulfil them. Perhaps supplier analysis is important to you in your materials purchasing? Is revision management something you need to consider? What production control functionality is offered? Is integration with CNC machinery important? Check out what’s on the market and see what each piece of software does – there may be features available that you didn’t know existed. It is also useful to evaluate the ease-of-use of the software. Does the software supplier offer demonstrations or a trial period?

5. Return on investment

Your steel management software should not only provide maximum value-for-money but also be capable of providing you with immediate and rapid return on investment. Will you see visible savings from reduced time, materials savings or processing efficiencies from the outset? Determine how you will measure the success of the software and ensure that you monitor this regularly.

6. Support

Will your steel management software package include technical support? How will the vendor provide this support (e.g. telephone, e-mails, extranet, dedicated helpdesk)? Work out what times of day you are likely to need support. It can be difficult to guess how much technical support you will need but one thing’s for sure, you will need some help initially and will want to be reassured by the level of support offered by your chosen vendor.

Ayesha Shakil

We actually think our own steel management software is quite good… If you want to see whether it fits your requirements then grab your checklist and click HERE!

Heard about CNC Feedback Timings?

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CNC machinery automates many fabrication processes but imagine if you could accurately track the fabrication time that was spent on individual tasks, providing all of the relevant data that you would need to accurately provide a bid for future jobs. Imagine if you could do this automatically within a system! Making the task much simpler and easier to monitor and track production.

The StruM.I.S fabrication management system integrates with leading CNC machinery to deliver accurate automatic processing feedback timings to incorporate into future estimates. Thereby enabling fabrication companies to get ahead by understanding the resources available and true costs for accurate tenders at competitive prices, whilst still ensuring adequate profits are created.

How to get the most from your CNC machinery?

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Technology, in the present tense is expanding at a faster rate than ever before; with advancing technology becoming much more productive is an upgrade to the latest equipment the solution to all of your needs? Here at AceCad we believe that an organisation doesn’t primarily survive with the latest hardware; they need to connect their systems together for a smoother transition. That’s why we’ve developed our new MIS software in StruM.I.S. StruM.I.S can deliver a substantial increase in productivity throughout the entire business. The software not only increases productivity but saves costs and creates a much higher rate of efficiency. All of which means greater profitability.

If you have invested in state of the art CNC equipment you could revitalise your business and organise the production rate far more efficiently with the aid of the StruM.I.S steelwork fabrication system. Increasing productivity whilst decreasing costs is what pushes a business forward. Why take the risks when you can reap the rewards.