STEELMAN: Order Entry and Inquiry

The STEELMAN Order Entry and Inquiry Module is operated as an integrated system with the Production Planning Module to allow sales staff, and order entry clerks to handle order inquiries and to immediately determine when an order can be produced and shipped. The module will permit the sales management to immediately calculate prices, discounts and determine delivery dates. On-line access to information will allow staff to negotiate with the customer to obtain premiums for rush orders, short delivery times, etc. Large orders can be divided into phased deliveries to meet the buyer's requirements and to fit with the company's production schedules.

Shipping dates for all orders of standard products in the company' catalogue can be confirmed while the customer or the agent is on the telephone, except when re-scheduling is required for new high priority orders. All orders for non-standard grades, sizes or rolling requirements which require consultation with Metallurgy and Production Planning can be responded to within one day. The main benefit for this module is to create a competitive response time for the customers.

Order Entry and Inquiry: SPECIAL FEATURES

• Tables are maintained for the calculation of prices and discounts, including the extra charges for all standard products, grades and finishes. Prices are calculated from these tables, including extra charges for width, thickness, finish and extra services. Discounts for volumes come from the order level or from the customer files. An override features for sales management is included.
• Calculations are made from tables of the rail charges and time allowances for orders.
• Conversion tables are maintained for the automatic conversion of customer information to/from metric and imperial measurements, pricing conversion to 5 currencies and translation tables for producing the contracts, and shipping documents for five languages.
• The ability to recall past orders from the customer file and repeat the data on the screen, to avoid entering all the data again.
• Credit and outstanding account information is available to sales staff when new orders are being placed.
• The production planning data base includes the status of all work in process and finished goods inventories, including the hot and cold rolled coil inventories, and the slab inventories. This provides the ability to check whether an order can be filled from inventory thereby reducing holding costs, or to introduce the order into the steel production schedules.
• The system provides automatic entry and scheduling of all orders for standard products, and all shipping dates which can be met within the production schedule, and which are acceptable to the customer.
• Metallurgy and Production Planning only needs to approve orders for special grades of steel, special partial orders, and orders with special dimensions or finishes which are not included in the company's internal production catalogue.
• At any time, the salesperson has the ability to check the status of an order in production, and to determine from the system whether the promised shipping date will still be met.
• Production errors automatically generate status reports when delivery dates will be missed to give notice to the customer for maximum lead time.
• Preparation of shipping documents, customs documents and sales invoices upon the shipping of the order, with the precise weight of the material using the same data as in the order, providing consistency and accuracy of data.
• Customer invoices in one of several languages and currencies can be generated and sent to Accounts Receivable to monitor collection.
• Customer allowances for damaged goods, or credits for returned goods are entered into the invoicing/accounts receivable system upon the creation of authorization for the credits.
• Reports of orders status, orders booked each week, orders shipped each week, and orders with missed shipping dates are prepared for management.
• Data transfer to decision support tools or spreadsheets for analysis and preparation of custom reports such as sales analysis, projections, statistical reporting and presentations.