Gerdau Ameristeel Implements Quad’s QMOS System at Jacksonville
12/09/2008 - Quad Infotech Inc. recently completed installation of the [QMOS] Level 2 system at Gerdau Ameristeel’s Jacksonville, Fla., facility covering its meltshop, billet inventory, rolling mill, scheduling and quality control.
Quad Infotech Inc. recently completed installation of the [QMOS] Level 2 system at Gerdau Ameristeel’s Jacksonville, Fla., facility. The new system covers the facility’s meltshop, billet inventory, rolling mill, scheduling and quality control.
The [QMOS] system will seamlessly coordinate production operations from the scrap yard through the meltshop, billet yard and rolling mill to the bundling and shipping of finished product. The [QMOS] meltshop system incorporates the latest version of ladle management module that tracks the life of ladle components by the number of heats and/or hot metal contact time.
The system also includes a new application for auditing and physical count of inventory through hand-held devices. Custom reports and approval layers allow for tracking against SOX requirements and enables inventory activities and changes to be monitored. Combined with an electronic board for viewing and searching billet inventory based on grade, length and a multitude of other parameters, the new feature also helps to streamline billet yard management. The electronic billet inventory board shows billet movements, assignment and consumption as recorded by operators on one or more high-resolution screens.
[QMOS] also incorporates the dynamic calculation of specs on a heat-by-heat basis. Based on assessment of the first furnace sample’s chemical composition, QMOS is able to calculate the specs of the heat to optimize the use of alloys to meet the final chemistry requirements for the intended grade. Through complex reporting tools, [QMOS] also allows the management team to evaluate the performance of various crews with respect to meeting the chemistry aims of each heat.
[QMOS] program modules will also cover order entry and production scheduling for the meltshop, caster and rolling mill. Additional features include automatic spec checking and reshuffling of scheduled heats upon diversion.
Mill Setup Shop operations will also be coordinated by [QMOS] with the provision of a comprehensive inventory management system for rolls, guides, bearings, chocks and other important parts and equipment. The system will also facilitate setup of shop processes by providing customer-specific reports and work order management. On the production side, [QMOS] will provide real-time monitoring of consumables usage, delay recording and other production parameters; billet and bundle tagging, product disposition management, shift reporting, performance analysis and countless other features.
The [QMOS] system has helped the Jacksonville facility’s management team to identify process issues and bottlenecks. Through root cause identification, the management team has been able to address the underlying concerns and issues and come up with appropriate job aids.
Gerdau-Ameristeel is the second-largest minimill steel producer in North America with annual manufacturing capacity of over 9.0 million tons of mill finished steel products. Through its vertically integrated network of 17 minimills (including one 50%-owned minimill), 17 scrap recycling facilities and 46 downstream operations, Gerdau Ameristeel primarily serves customers in the eastern two-thirds of North America.
Quad Infotech is a software engineering and design company that specializes in the development of industrial computer software for the steel industry. Quad's unique combination of steelmaking and rolling process knowledge, combined with computer software design expertise, renders Quad's Level-2 and Level-3 software products unique in the global steel minimill market. [QMOS] has been operating in numerous steel plants throughout North America and Europe since 1994.
