PSImetals production management system optimizes railway car demand and disposition
Berlin, 6 July 2009 – In the project to integrate the railway car logistics at Swiss Steel AG, the PSI subsidiary PSI BT GmbH has successfully merged the existing systems for production planning, warehouse administration and shunting at the Emmenbrücke site. The process, which was previously organized primarily with paper, was automated and the processes simplified by means of integrating the information systems. As the leading system within the new railway car logistics PSImetals takes over the task of providing all the data for a demand-based and timely provision of the railway cars for transporting the rolled products.
The Swiss Steel AG has been planning and controlling the production in the rolling mill on the basis of PSImetals for more than seven years. Panlog AG, an affiliated company of Swiss Steel, is responsible for the rail transportation of the rolled steel and providing railway cars. The integration of all the systems involved in railway car logistics, from the PSImetals production planning and control, to SAP and the systems for warehousing and shunting is being handled by PSIintegration. PSI won the contract in November 2008; about six months later at the beginning of June, the integrated railway car logistics was successfully integrated into the productive operations.
The rolling sequences in PSImetals are used to automatically determine which types of railway cars are required for the load at what time. Changes in the production of the rolled material, new deadlines or loading locations are taken into consideration automatically and on short notice when cars are ordered, thus allowing rental costs to be reduced. All the areas involved in railway car logistics at Swiss Steel and Panlog now work with the same data and are therefore able to provide information more quickly. Processing times could be significantly reduced and the quality of data significantly increased.
Swiss Steel AG and Panlog AG belong to the SCHMOLZ + BICKENBACH Group, with 11,000 employees worldwide, the largest manufacturer, processor and distributor of stainless steel long products. The Swiss Steel AG is a production company for stainless steel and machining steel. The Panlog AG belongs to the business unit Distribution/Services and is responsible for the organization of railway cars at the Emmenbrücke for transporting Swiss Steel’s rolled products.
PSI AG develops and integrates complete solutions, on the basis of its own software products, for the management of energy networks (electricity, gas, oil, heat, water), cross-company production management (metals, automotive, mechanical engineering, logistics) and infrastructure management for telecommunications, transport and safety. PSI was founded in 1969 and employs 1,250 persons in the group.
