July 2006 — Broner Metals Solutions has announced that Usiminas is now using Broner advanced supply chain management solutions, in production, as part of its ‘Novo-PCP’ business improvement project.

The Novo-PCP project is a major initiative by Usiminas to re-engineer its business management systems by implementing a new, and fully integrated, infrastructure with Broner solutions for Sales & Operations planning, Order promising, Production planning and Production scheduling. The Broner modules are integrated to SAP solutions for business management and to level 2 process control systems.

Broner and Usiminas have worked closely in strong partnership to take advantage of the functionalities delivered by an extensive suite of 14 Broner modules, as these move from implementation into production.

These new solutions are already providing substantial benefits to Usiminas. Francisco Amério, Production Manager said, “The new solutions give us greater material flow through the plant and reduced bottlenecks. Earlier decision making before problems emerge and greater adherence to schedules leads to reduced lead-times, better on-time delivery and reduced stocks. This enables us to achieve our goal of meeting the customers’ requirements with higher value-added, top quality products and differentiated services.”

Usiminas Siderúrgicas de Minas (Usiminas) is one of the largest steel producers in Brazil and has an integrated plant at Ipatinga in Minas Gerais with a capacity of 4.7million tonnes per year of crude steel. The Usiminas Group is made up mainly of Usiminas and Cosipa, and has an annual capacity of 9.3 million tonnes of raw steel. Usiminas makes a wide range of flat steel products, including: heavy plates, hot-rolled steel, cold rolled coil, sheet or blanks, and hot-dip galvanized and electrolytic galvanized coils and sheets.

Broner Metals Solutions provides Supply Chain Planning, Scheduling and Manufacturing Execution Systems and Consultancy to the steel and other metals producing industries. The Broner Metals Solutions team is the global corporate standard supplier of production scheduling and MES solutions to the world’s largest steel company, Mittal Steel, as well as supplying metals companies such as Baosteel, Dofasco, Corus, Cosipa, CSN, Gerdau, Nippon Steel, Norandal, and Usiminas.

Broner Metals Solutions is part of Hyperion Systems Engineering Ltd.