Precast industry software: everything “in the green”?

Figure: W. Riemenschneider

Precast industry software enables the user to immediately recognize whether order and operational data are “in the green”

Figure: W. Riemenschneider

Figure: IBB Ehlert & Wolf

The key features of precast industry software include the management of customer data

Figure: IBB Ehlert & Wolf

Figure: Gesys

Key features are the management of product master data, …

Figure: Gesys

Figure: IBB Ehlert & Wolf

… of charged rates and specified times, …

Figure: IBB Ehlert & Wolf

Figure: Gesys

… the costing exercise, …

Figure: Gesys

Figure: GSB

… preparing the quotation …

Figure: GSB

Figure: IBB Ehlert & Wolf

… and, as a matter of course, invoicing

Figure: IBB Ehlert & Wolf

As part of the costing exercise, precast calculation tools help calculate more sophisticated element geometries

Figure: IBB Ehlert & Wolf

Figure: Gesys

Database-driven production plans help distribute orders optimally across existing production facilities

Figure: Gesys

Figure: SSB Dr. Strauch Systemberatung

Total overviews make it possible to capture at a single glance which production lines are busy with which orders, and which of them are available for new orders

Figure: SSB Dr. Strauch Systemberatung

The system not only generates delivery slips in the specific corporate layout but also inventories or shipping lists

Figure: SSB Dr. Strauch Systemberatung

Figure: Gesys

Diagrams make series of dry figures easier to grasp and render order trends transparent

Figure: Gesys

To remain in full control of things, filter features help monitor key order and operational data

Figure: Gesys

Additional modules such as the management of pending items or complaints assist with the professional handling of the less desirable aspects of order proc-essing

Figure: Gesys

Figure: IBB Ehlert & Wolf

Precast plants with in-house steel processing facilities are supported by optional steel modules, for example for the acquisition of steel data

Figure: IBB Ehlert & Wolf

There are quite a number of programs to manage and control orders and processes both at the administrative and at the commercial level, which makes it all the more difficult to select the most appropriate solution. This article shows what really matters in this regard.

According to industry surveys, only about 50 per cent of all small and medium-sized enterprises are using business software. The remaining companies rely on standard office solutions such as spreadsheet programs and text processors to manage their administrative and commercial processes. Standard software, however, is helpful only to a limited extent. It does not include any management and control options; nor does it fully leverage existing streamlining potentials.

Enterprises might get into serious trouble when business data, costs and scheduled deadlines run out of control at a certain point...