Energy & Pipe/Tube

Pipe & Tube distributors supply material to a variety of markets such as oil & gas, hydraulic cylinder applications, construction, mining and drilling and paper machinery.　The type and number of sizes carried can be substantial. Depending on the industry serviced, the operations range from high-volume orders with little or no processing to high spec material that requires extensive value-add work and careful attention to specifications and customer quality requirements.

For some companies, the use of outside processors has become an integral part of their services as customers demand more products 'ready to use'.

Processing beyond sawing, either through internal or external processes, is fast becoming a standard for many distributors in this sector.　Heat Treatment, Turning, Boring, and Coating are frequent requirements. In addition, in industries such as oil and gas, customers are demanding higher certification, inspection and quality requirements from their material sources.

STRATIX provides both the operational efficiencies required to take, fulfill, and ship orders as fast as possible, while, at the same time, very specific functionality to accommodate orders and materials that require more extensive certification and processing. For the Energy and OCTG markets, STRATIX users are able to track specific material quality and match inventory to customer requirements.

STRATIX includes a comprehensive multi-step production system in order to facilitate processing material through internal and external processes. This unique combination of functionality makes STRATIX ideal for this segment of the metal distribution and processing industry.

STRATIX is used by pipe and tube specialists who perform some of the following processes:

Fittings & Couplings
STRATIX can also track the inventory of fittings, couplings, and end-caps, where the cost of these items are typically by piece. 

Turning & Boring
To meet specific customer requirements some service centers provide additional services either using in-house facilities or outside processors that include processes such as Turning, Boring, Trepanning, Gun Drilling that change the OD, Wall or ID to specific customer requirements. To accommodate these specific requirements, STRATIX includes specialized features that enable sales, production and purchasing staff to dynamically specify precise OD, ID and Wall dimensions as sales, purchase and work orders are created. This eliminates the need to create separate product codes for each unique combination of OD, ID/Wall sold.

OD/Wall vs OD/ID
For certain segments of the industry, a product is purchased by Mill standards such as OD & Wall, yet the same products are often sold by OD/ID. The flexible STRATIX product structure enables sales and purchasing staff to reference the same product by either method thereby eliminating the need to manually override product descriptions.

Outside Processors and Third Party Storage Yards
STRATIX keeps track of inventory at every location where material is stored or processed. Detailed inquiries and listings can be produced by location.

Job Supply
For those service centers that supply material jobs such as construction projects, a special quote and order entry option is provided that further speeds up the entry of the quote, while enabling the sales person to record piece and location mark numbers.

In addition to Tube, Pipe, Piling and Bar products, as well as related fittings, flanges, and valves, STRATIX also accommodates other products such as angles, plate, sheet, coils, & other metal products.

STRATIX Features
To see a summary of STRATIX features, click on a business area below! Features in bold are specifically targeted to Pipe & Tube service centers.

Inventory Control

• Product Coding based on native attributes familiar within industry
  • No part numbers to look up or memorize
  • Specialized Product Coding for Round Bars & Pipe/Tube
  • Ability to turn &/or bore tubes to customer-specified measurements without the need to create new product codes
• Handles all Metal Types (carbon steel, aluminum, stainless steel, brass, copper specialty metals, & titanium)
• Handles all Metal Forms (i.e. structural, coils, sheet, plate, pipe, tubing bars, wire mesh, rebar, slabs, billets, blooms, & basic materials)
• Product 'Short-Cut Code'
• Dynamic Dimensions
• Comprehensive Side Cut/Drop/Remnant Functionality
• Material purchased, inventoried, & sold by Pieces, Lineal measure (feet or meters), or Weight
• Material control by Lot/Location, Heat, or Tag
• Track inventory in third party yards, docks, & other facilities
• Specific Costing or Real-time Average Costing
• Cost in various units of measure (piece, lineal measure (feet/meter), weight, etc.)
• Weight Control to decimals of a Pound/Kilogram for high-value products such as Titanium & Nickel Alloy
• Comprehensive Stock Inquiry
• Ability to record Actual Measurements (Diameter, OD, ID, Wall, Gauge, etc.)
• Entry of Total Lineal Measure (feet/meters) for Random Length Bundle (pipe & tube)
• Extended Finish Code (Paint Color, Stencil, Indented, Polished, Threaded)
• Theoretical or Actual Quantity Control (for each of Pieces, Lineal Measure, & Weight)
• Material designated for specific Customer or Salesperson
• Length Control Options for better inventory utilization
  • Fixed Length
  • Mill Length (Single/Double Random, etc.)
  • Length Range (16.5’ to 21’)
• Special Features for Valves & Fittings (for example, unique product coding)
• Vendor Consigned Inventory
• Customer Consigned Inventory
• Shop Floor Wireless Operations for Physical Inventory, Location Change, etc.
• Multiple Material Defect Codes by Tag/Bundle
  • Used for reference, searching, & can also be used to automatically place tag on Quarantine, Production, or Shipping Hold to prevent unintentional processing or shipment until condition is released
• Traceability & History

Purchasing

• Standard & Blanket Purchase Orders
• Multi-destination Purchase Order
• Direct Shipments (Vendor to Customer)
• Buyout Purchase Orders for items that are not stocked
• Copy PO Options
• Vendor Price Book
• Imperial and Metric Functions
• On-line Purchase History
• Purchase Analysis by Vendor & Product
• Purchase Material to multiple Metal Standard Specifications (ASTM, ASME, etc.)
• Mill Acknowledgement Function
• PO Change History
• Automated Alloy Surcharge Handling
• Landed Cost Options
• Print/Email/Fax Purchase Order document
• Custom Terms & Conditions on PO document
• Inventory Planning & Forecasting for quick decision making
  • On-line Replenishment Position Inquiry
  • Highlights items that require immediate replenishment

Receiving

• Warehouse &/or Office Model for Receiving
• Special receiving function for outside processing
• Pre-Receiving – Advanced Shipping Notice
• Customer Returns
• Label Printing

Material Quality & Certification

• Original Mill Test Certificate Scanning
  • View/print from stock inquiry
• Digital Signature on In-House Test Certificates
• Entry of Chemical & Mechanical Test Results
• Automatic Print of Test Certificate(s) at time of Shipping/Delivery
• Scan additional certificates such as Heat Treat or Charpy Tests
• Quality Hold & Controls

Sales Order Fulfillment
Sales Productivity & Profitability

• Fast Quote Entry with access to real-time customer, inventory, & pricing information
• Simple Quote to Order Conversion
• Quick order to shipment fulfillment options (Same Day/Next Day)
• Lost Quote Analysis
• Counter Sales
• Blanket & Multi-release Orders
• Stock, Buyout, & Direct Ship Purchases & Sales
• Create Buyout PO directly from Sales Order
• Customer Part Specifications for repeat orders
• Multi-Currency Pricing
• Sales can specify exact Diameter, OD/ID/Wall for Bars, Pipe & Tube
• Sell Tubes by any combination of OD, ID, Wall (Buy by OD/Wall, sell by OD/ID.)
• Special Features for Turning, Boring, Honing (pipe & tube)
• Assembly/Fabrication Process
• Sell material by Pieces, Lineal measure (feet or meters), or Weight

Pricing

• Flexible Metal Price Book
  • Generic pricing, Customer Pricing and Contract Pricing
  • Easy Replacement Cost Maintenance
  • Commodity Pricing (to allow quantity discount over group of items)
• Special Quoting View
• Processing Price Book
  • Fully integrated with Quote/Order Entry
  • Sawing Pricing
• Integrated Freight Tables
• Flexible, specialized Pricing by Pieces, Lineal Measure, Area, Weight, Lot, or Roll

Order Fulfillment

• Multi-Warehouse Process Route 
  • Automatic creation of transfer orders
  • Used to make full use of material/processing options at sister warehouses 
  • Includes outside processing
• Integrated Capacity checking for realistic due date promises

Outside Processing

• Fully integrated with Quote & Sales Order Entry function – seamless!
• Automatic creation of transfer orders for orders that require outside processing
• Automatic creation of Outside Processing Purchase Order
• Can include multiple outside processes
• Test Certificate Scanning
• Automatic Fax/Print of all required Certificates at time of Shipping

Value-Add Processing

• Each value-add service can be built into selling price or charged extra
• Includes outside processing
• Includes freight to & from outside processors and sister warehouses
• Estimated net profit based on value-add costs  

Sales Order Status

• Comprehensive On-Line Order Status Inquiry
• Includes internal and external processes
• Started and completed status for each process in the route
• Planned Shipment status or date and time of shipment
• Inter-Warehouse transfer status
• Outside Processing Status
• Ready-to-Ship Status
• Invoice status 

Production
Production Planning

• On-line Production System for Planning, Scheduling, & Recording
• Eliminates needs for paper copies of orders
• Multiple sales orders can be combined on a single job
• Multi-step Processing

Scheduling

• Capacity Planning
• Cut and Paste on-line schedule
• Re-schedule jobs from one warehouse to another with one click
• Change jobs from internal to external processing
• Warehouse Pick Lineup for on-line operation
• Work Center Scheduling for prioritization

Shop Floor Production Recording

• Real-time Production Recording in the Warehouse
• Pre-Pick function for production jobs
• Integrated Drop Cost Table (to devalue drops based on % or rate)
• Scale Interface
• Track Work-in-Process
• Value-added Costing based on actual or estimated costs
• Hand-held wireless functions for Picking & Location Change
• Record Use of Strippable Film or PVC ('Consumables')
• Release Production to Next Step

Shipping

• On-line Transport/Load Planning by Route & Zone
• Includes transfers to sister warehouses and outside processors
• Identifies longest width & length for proper vehicle selection
• Multi-Stop Transports
• Real-time Transport Status (% Ready-to-ship)
• Common Carrier or Own Truck Designation
• Hand-held wireless functions for load verification
• Shipping documents include Manifest, Packing List and Bill of Lading
• Automatic print/email/fax of Original Mill Test Certificate &/or in-house certificate(s)
• Inbound & Outbound Truck Scheduling
• Customer On-time Delivery Analysis Database

Sales Management

• Customer & Product Sales Analysis
• Ranking Reports for Customers, Products and Sales staff
• Executive Management Dashboard

Financial Management

• Invoicing
• Credit Management
• Vendor Invoice Reconciliation
• Integrated AP, AR & GL
• Full GL Integration of all inventory, production, sales and invoicing transactions
• Financial Reporting
• Third Party Financial Product Integration

Workflow-enabled

• Automated Notification of System Event or User Action
• Notification via Email or STRATIX Workflow Queue

International Features

• Fully Multi-lingual software
• Document Control
  • Documents & reports print in the language of the customer and vendor
• Multi-currency transactions
• Supports envelope formats for different countries
• Country specific sales tax computations
  • European & VAT sales tax computations
  • Mexican tax Retention
• Supports A4 Paper Size
• Date Formatting based on user profile (day, month, year)
• Currency Formatting where a comma is used instead of decimals (1.000,00)
• Localized Test Certificates
  • Supports European Certificate Standards (3.1a, 3.1b, …)
  • Test Certificate Charges (common in Europe)
• Mechanical tests in imperial or metric units of measure
• Additional In-House Test Certificates to meet European standards
• Terms of Trade & Discount Terms (many more options than what is used in USA)
• Display of information in localized time zone
• Track Intrastat information (required in Europe)

STRATIX/MULTICO

• Used by companies with multiple divisions operating independently of one another, often with different operating requirements, at 'Arms length', i.e., they exchange business transactions using independent sales, purchasing, shipping, & receiving functions at a profit
• Provides ability to pool facilities & inventory together to provide operational synergies at minimal cost
• Includes features such as Consolidated Stock View & Inter-company transactions for sales order fulfillment or restocking needs 

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