Quad Infotech Inc. has successfully completed the implementation of its QMOS MES system at the Gerdau Specialty Steel at Jackson, Michigan. QMOS covers scheduling, tracking and monitoring of the operation of their dual EAF melt shop, liquid steel refining, vacuum degassing, casting as well as the direct-charging process of billets all the way to the hot rolling and off-line operations.
QMOS has successfully addressed all the complex scheduling needs of the melt shop, rolling mill and finishing departments, with built in rules to accommodate lead and wait times, allowing for easy detection of delivery date risks and production constraints failure.
QMOS now provides end to end quality control management tools to allow the Jackson plant to perform its complex and exhaustive quality control operations which are essential to the high standards for specialty steel production.
At finishing operational areas, QMOS provides a complete suite of tools to plan, schedule and manage the operations of its various finishing lines which include mult-cutting, heat treating, bar turning as well as various inspection processes.
Some highlights of the implementation include:
- The successful interfacing with existing ERP and scheduling optimization systems in order to provide the schedule, customer specification, quality and production reporting capabilities to all areas of production.
- Providing end-to-end process tracking as well as collection of process and event data, providing data for more in-depth analysis tools in QMOS in order to make better informed decisions.
- The replacement of several legacy systems at Gerdau Jackson with one central MES system (QMOS), which also enables the standardization of execution and interface platforms to better align with the company’s global strategies.
The Jackson plant utilizes Quad Infotech’s APEX system for creating web based reports, live displays and alarm notifications. The APEX system enhances the visibility of critical production and performance information throughout the plant as well as the corporation. The operators as well as management can readily access the real-time critical information.
Gerdau Jackson uses the web based QMOS MI (Manufacturing Intelligence) system for detailed analysis of all production, performance and quality data. QMOS MI provides multi-dimensional and drill-down analysis of the vast QMOS data where the plant engineers can reach the desired information using a fraction of the time and efforts as before.