# GoSmarter AI | Traceability for Metals Manufacturers — Curated Core Corpus

> GoSmarter - the end-to-end traceability and compliance platform for metals. Streamline production planning, reduce waste, and automate compliance

Last updated: 2026-08-21

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## Knowledge Hubs

### AI Cutting Optimiser: The Complete Guide to Linear Cutting Optimisation

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/cutting-optimiser/
Description: AI cutting optimiser software for metals manufacturers. Reduce rebar scrap by 50%, generate optimised cut lists in minutes. Stop wasting material you paid for.

GoSmarter Cutting Plans is AI cutting optimiser software that reduces rebar and long product scrap rates to under 2.5% — from the industry average of 5–8% — by calculating the mathematically optimal way to cut your stock for every open order. A production trial with Midland Steel across 734 tonnes confirmed 50% scrap reduction versus manual planning.
What Is Cutting Optimisation Software? Cutting optimisation software calculates the mathematically optimal way to cut standard-length stock bars into customer-specified lengths, minimising material waste. For long-products manufacturers (rebar, sections, pipe, bar stock), it replaces manual cut planning with an algorithm that evaluates thousands of combinations in seconds. The result: a bar-by-bar cut list your saw operators can follow directly.
GoSmarter Cutting Plans is cutting optimisation software purpose-built for metals manufacturers. It is also cut list software and cutting plan software: it takes your inventory and open orders as inputs and outputs a structured cut plan, exportable as PDF or CSV. See Production tier →
Every tonne of scrap you generate is material you paid for and cannot sell at full price. Scrap steel goes out at 40p in the pound. That is a 60% loss on every kilogram that lands in the skip instead of in a customer order.
The reason most of that scrap exists is not careless operators. It is a planning problem. The number of ways to cut 50 orders from 200 bars of stock is far beyond what any human can optimise by hand. The best answer requires an algorithm. That is what cutting optimiser software is for.
GoSmarter Cutting Plans is available with 50% off your first month. No credit card required. See Production tier →
What Is Linear Cutting Optimisation? Linear cutting optimisation solves one specific problem: given a set of required cut lengths and a set of available stock lengths, what is the minimum-waste combination of cuts?
The industry calls this the one-dimensional cutting stock problem (1D-CSP). You are working along a single dimension: the length of a bar, beam, or section. Unlike sheet metal cutting, which involves two dimensions, linear cutting optimisation applies to long products: rebar, structural beams, angle iron, hollow sections, tube, pipe, and bar stock.
The maths behind it is well-established. The problem belongs to a class called NP-hard, meaning the number of possible solutions grows exponentially with the number of orders and bars. A good algorithm explores that search space and finds the near-optimal answer in seconds. A human with a spreadsheet cannot.
Why the 1D Cutting Stock Problem Requires an Algorithm For a small job (ten orders from five bars), an experienced planner can work through the combinations in a few minutes. For a typical day at a service centre (80 orders across 150 bars of different grades and lengths), the number of valid combinations is in the billions. No human can evaluate that search space in any reasonable time. The algorithm can. That is the core reason cutting optimiser software exists: not because the concept is complicated, but because the scale of the problem makes human computation impractical.
How Cutting Optimiser Software Works Cutting optimiser software takes two inputs: your stock inventory (what bars you have, their actual lengths and grades) and your open orders (what lengths your customers need, in what quantities and grades).
It outputs a cut plan: a structured list of exactly which bars to cut, in what sequence, into what lengths, with the predicted scrap per bar. This cut plan is your production schedule for the saw.
The workflow is straightforward:
Upload or sync your inventory and orders The algorithm runs, typically in a few minutes You review the cut plan and override any cuts you want to change (the software recalculates scrap impact immediately) Export to PDF or CSV for the shop floor What you do not do: sit with a calculator, a yellow legal pad, and a very strong coffee trying to figure out how to squeeze 14 orders from three bundles of 12-metre bar. That morning is over.
What Happens When You Override a Cut Cutting optimiser software is not a black box that takes control away from the planner. GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans generates the first-draft cut plan and gives it to you to review. If you know something the system doesn’t (a bar is reserved for a specific job, a customer has moved their delivery forward, the saw is down for maintenance), you override the cut and replan. The algorithm recalculates in seconds, incorporating your change and generating a fresh minimum-waste plan for the remaining work. The expertise stays with your team. The algorithm handles the maths.
The Steel Cutting List Generator The steel cutting list generator is the output layer of a cutting optimiser. It translates the algorithm’s solution into a format your shop floor can actually use.
A good steel cutting list generator produces:
Bar-by-bar instructions — exactly which bar from your inventory, exactly what cuts in what order Offcut tracking — every remnant above your minimum usable length is flagged for re-stocking rather than binning Scrap percentage per bar — so your floor team can see in real time whether the plan is working Export formats — PDF for printing and pinning, CSV for feeding into your ERP or CNC machine Grade compliance flags — cut instructions that respect grade and certificate requirements per order GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans includes a steel cutting list generator as standard. Export your cut plan to PDF in one click or to CSV to feed into downstream systems.
Why the format of the steel cutting list matters A cut plan is only useful if the people doing the cutting can follow it without stopping to ask questions. The best steel cutting list generators present the information bar by bar: one bar, all cuts, the remnant. Simple. The worst ones produce a matrix that requires interpretation. Your saw operator does not have time to interpret.
GoSmarter’s cut list is designed for the saw floor, not the office. Each bar gets its own section. The cuts are listed in sequence. The expected remnant is shown. If the remnant is above the minimum usable length, GoSmarter flags it as a stock item with a label to print.
How the Cut List Connects to Your ERP and Systems The cut plan is only useful if it reaches the right people in the right format. GoSmarter exports cut lists as PDF (for printing and pinning at the saw) and CSV (for importing into your ERP, job management system, or production scheduling tool). If you use a REST API, you can pull the cut plan programmatically and push it into any downstream system. No dedicated connectors, no middleware project. The same open-standard formats that every ERP understands.
Rebar Cutting Optimiser: Why Rebar Is the Hardest Case Rebar is the most demanding application for a cutting optimiser. Here is why.
Rebar fabricators typically handle hundreds of jobs simultaneously. Each job has multiple bar sizes. Each bar size has many different cut lengths. Every bar must be certified to the correct grade: BS 4449, A500, or Grade 60 depending on the specification. And it all needs to be planned before the saw starts for the day. In the UK, BS 4449 is the dominant standard for structural rebar. The planning burden is compounded by the range of diameters and delivery lengths that UK stockholders and fabricators routinely hold.
Manual planning in this environment consistently produces scrap rates between 5% and 8%. Industry best practice targets 2.5%. The gap between 5% and 2.5% sounds modest. At scale, it is the difference between a profitable operation and one that is quietly haemorrhaging margin on every bundle cut.
A rebar cutting optimiser closes that gap. GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans was built and tested with Midland Steel, a UK rebar and long products manufacturer. In a two-week production trial across 193 jobs and 734 tonnes of steel, the optimiser delivered a scrap rate of below 2.5%.
What makes a rebar cutting optimiser different from generic software Not all cutting optimiser software is built for the rebar environment. The best cutting optimiser for rebar handles the specific constraints rebar fabrication imposes:
Multiple bar diameters within the same cut plan Grade and certificate compliance per order (no mixing S355 material into an S275 job) BS 4449, A500, and Grade 60 specifications Manual overrides without breaking the plan integrity Offcut tracking back into inventory as usable stock, with heat number and certificate linked Works from your live order book, not a batch file Exports in formats your shop floor already uses — PDF for the saw operator, CSV for the office Because grade is a hard constraint, the optimiser never substitutes a BS 4449 bar for A500 material, even when the lengths are identical. Multi-grade stock is sorted automatically. Each specification gets its own allocation pass.
If your rebar operation is currently planning cuts on a spreadsheet or a basic MES, the best way to see the gap is to run the optimiser on a single week of real orders and compare the predicted scrap to what you are currently generating.
Rebar Cutting Optimisation in the UK: BS 4449, A500, and Grade 60 UK rebar fabricators work primarily with BS 4449 (the British and European standard), though A500 and Grade 60 material arrives via import routes, particularly from Turkish and Spanish mills. A rebar cutting optimiser must treat each specification as a separate grade pool — A500 material allocated to a BS 4449 job is a compliance failure, not just a planning error. GoSmarter enforces grade separation as a hard constraint. When your stock includes multiple rebar specifications, the optimiser allocates each pool independently and never mixes grades, even when the bar lengths are identical.
Optimise Steel Beam Cutting: The Structural Steel Case When you need to optimise steel beam cutting, the stakes are higher per cut. Structural members — universal beams (UB), universal columns (UC), parallel flange channels, hollow sections cost significantly more per tonne than rebar. A mis-cut 610×305mm UB goes straight to scrap. You are not bending that back into shape. Getting the plan right first time matters.
The cutting optimiser handles structural sections alongside rebar and other long products. If your business handles a mix of rebar fabrication alongside structural beams you can plan both within the same system.
Where beam cutting efficiency breaks down Structural beam cutting typically fails at two points:
Under-optimised batch planning. Structural beams are purchased in standard lengths, but project orders require non-standard cuts. Without a cutting optimiser, the default is often to buy new full-length beams when shorter offcuts from previous jobs could cover the requirement. The optimiser checks your offcut inventory first.
Offcut waste. Structural offcuts are valuable because the sections are expensive. A 300mm offcut from a 7m UC might cover a short-span column in a future job. Without systematic offcut tracking, it goes to scrap. GoSmarter tracks every offcut above the minimum usable length automatically, with its certificate and heat number attached.
The difference between 1D optimisation and manual beam planning Manual beam planning for structural steel often works on a job-by-job basis: allocate stock to this job, deal with offcuts later. A cutting optimiser works across all open jobs simultaneously. It sees that the offcut from Job A can service Job B, and plans accordingly. The result is lower aggregate scrap and lower raw material consumption across the whole production window, not just a single job.
Pipe, Tube, and Bar Stock Optimisation The same 1D cutting optimisation logic applies to all round and hollow long products: circular hollow sections (CHS), rectangular hollow sections (RHS), square hollow sections (SHS), round bar, flat bar, and pipe. The planning challenge is identical — fulfil a set of required lengths from a set of available stock lengths, minimise scrap — and the algorithm handles it the same way.
For pipe and tube, the additional complexity is wall thickness specification. GoSmarter treats bore and wall thickness as separate stock attributes, ensuring a 114.3×4mm CHS is never allocated to a job specifying 114.3×6mm. The compliance constraint logic that applies to rebar grades applies equally to structural hollow section specifications.
When to Plan Multiple Product Types Together Many metals service centres and fabricators hold mixed stock: rebar, structural sections, hollow sections, and bar in the same yard. Planning them together in a single optimisation pass means the algorithm can identify cross-product efficiency opportunities — for example, fulfilling a short structural section order from an offcut that would otherwise be scrapped from a beam job. GoSmarter handles multi-product planning runs in a single pass.
Cutting Plan Efficiency: The Metric That Matters Cutting plan efficiency is the percentage of material in your cut plan that ends up in a saleable product rather than in the skip.
Formula: (saleable output weight ÷ total material consumed) × 100
A cutting plan efficiency of 97.5% means 2.5% scrap. That is the industry target for rebar and long products. Manual planning often delivers 92–95% efficiency. A well-tuned cutting optimiser consistently delivers 97–98%.
The difference sounds small. It is not.
At 500 tonnes per month of rebar throughput:
5% scrap = 25 tonnes of scrap per month 2.5% scrap = 12.5 tonnes per month At £600/tonne new material vs £220/tonne scrap recovery, the cost gap is £380 for every tonne of excess scrap 12.5 extra tonnes per month × £220 = £4,700 per month in avoidable losses Over a year: £57,000 in margin you didn’t have to lose Measuring cutting plan efficiency also tells you when something has gone wrong. A plan that should deliver 97.5% efficiency but is delivering 94% on the floor means either the plan is not being followed, the stock data is wrong, or material has been measured incorrectly. The metric gives you the signal. GoSmarter’s reporting gives you the breakdown by job and by period so you can find the source.
How to Calculate Your Current Cutting Plan Efficiency To get your baseline, take the last four weeks of cut records. For each day’s cutting:
Add up the total weight of material allocated to the saw (your opening stock for that run) Add up the weight of finished product that went to picking and despatch Divide finished weight by opening weight and multiply by 100 The result is your actual cutting plan efficiency for that period. If the number is below 97%, you have identifiable margin sitting in the skip. At 500 tonnes per month and 3% excess scrap, that is 15 tonnes — roughly £5,700/month at the average scrap recovery price versus the cost of new prime stock.
What Efficiency Target Should You Aim For? Industry best practice for rebar and long products is ≥97.5%. Most operations planning manually sit between 92% and 95%. The gap between 95% and 97.5% is the addressable yield improvement that a cutting optimiser delivers. For structural sections, where material cost per tonne is higher, even a 1% improvement in cutting plan efficiency can be worth more per month than the entire cost of the optimiser software.
How Cutting Optimiser Software Connects to Your Systems Cutting optimiser software needs to receive order and inventory data, and return cut plans to wherever your team works. GoSmarter connects in three ways:
CSV import/export — upload your stock and orders as a spreadsheet, download the cut plan as CSV or PDF. No IT involvement. Works immediately. REST API — push order and inventory data programmatically from your ERP, WMS, or production system, and retrieve cut plans via API. Supports real-time integration with any system that has an API. Manual entry — for smaller operations, stock and orders can be entered directly in the GoSmarter interface. What Integration With Your ERP Actually Looks Like Most GoSmarter customers start with CSV import, prove the scrap savings, and then scope API integration as a second phase once the business case is clear. The typical ERP integration connects two data flows: inventory sync (your ERP’s stock positions flowing into GoSmarter before each planning run) and cut plan return (GoSmarter’s output flowing back into your ERP’s production scheduling module). Both flows use standard REST endpoints. GoSmarter’s integration strategy guide documents the API specification and common integration patterns for Infor, Epicor, Dynamics 365, and Sage.
How to Evaluate Cutting Optimiser Software Not all cutting optimiser software is the same. Before you commit to a tool, ask these questions:
Key Questions to Ask Any Cutting Optimiser Vendor Question Why It Matters Does it handle multi-grade, multi-dimension planning in one pass? Single-grade tools require multiple manual runs; that is extra work, not less Does it enforce grade compliance as a hard constraint, not a preference? Grade substitution is a compliance failure in certified steel work Does it track offcuts back into inventory with heat number and certificate? Without this, offcut value is lost and traceability gaps appear Can you override individual cuts without re-running from scratch? Real shop floors need this — orders change, machines go down What scrap reduction does it deliver in production, not demo conditions? Ask for verifiable proof points from real operations How long does implementation take? If the answer is “several months,” it is an ERP, not a cutting optimiser What is the pricing model? Per-user pricing penalises team growth; per-site pricing with unlimited users does not GoSmarter answers these questions directly on the Cutting Plans product page with verified data from the Midland Steel production trial.
Frequently Asked Questions What is a cutting optimiser and how does it work? A cutting optimiser is software that calculates the most efficient way to cut your long-product stock to fulfil your open orders. It takes your inventory (available bars, their lengths and grades) and your orders (required lengths, quantities, and specifications), runs a mathematical optimisation algorithm, and produces a cut plan showing exactly which bar to cut, into what lengths, in what sequence. The output minimises scrap and maximises cutting plan efficiency. What types of products can cutting optimiser software handle? Cutting optimiser software for linear materials handles all long products: rebar, structural beams (UB, UC, RSJ), hollow sections (SHS, RHS, CHS), angle iron, flat bar, round bar, tube, pipe, and wire rod. It is not designed for sheet metal or plate, which require two-dimensional nesting optimisation. How does linear cutting optimisation differ from manual cut list planning? Manual cut list planning relies on experience and intuition. The planner looks at the orders, picks bars from stock, and allocates cuts based on what seems sensible. For small volumes this works reasonably well. As the number of orders and bar types grows, the search space becomes too large for manual evaluation. A good algorithm evaluates millions of combinations and finds the near-optimal solution. The result is consistently lower scrap, typically two to four percentage points better than a skilled human planner. Is GoSmarter's Cutting Plans the best cutting optimiser for rebar? GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans is purpose-built for long product manufacturers, with the rebar environment as the primary design target. GoSmarter ran a production trial with Midland Steel across 193 jobs and 734 tonnes of rebar and long products. If you are fabricating rebar and generating more than 3% scrap, it is worth a trial. Can the cutting optimiser integrate with our existing ERP? Run GoSmarter standalone by uploading your orders and inventory data via CSV or alongside your existing systems. Native integrations are in development. For most businesses, the CSV import and export workflow is sufficient to start seeing results within a week. How does the steel cutting list generator handle offcuts? Offcuts above your configurable minimum usable length are flagged in the cut plan as trackable stock. GoSmarter records them in inventory with their linked heat number and certificate. When a future order can be fulfilled from an offcut, the optimiser automatically includes it in planning. Offcuts below the minimum threshold are counted as scrap. How long does it take to generate a cut plan? For a typical day’s orders (20 to 100 jobs across a few bar sizes), the optimiser generates a cut plan in under a minute. Larger planning windows with more jobs take longer but rarely more than a few minutes. The planning that used to take a morning now takes a coffee break. How does the cutting optimiser handle multi-grade, multi-dimension stock? GoSmarter Cutting Plans treats grade as a hard constraint, not a preference. A BS 4449 bar and an A500 bar of the same length are never mixed in the same cut plan, even when the dimensions match. The optimiser allocates stock grade by grade and generates separate cut plans per specification.
For multi-dimension requirements (multiple bar diameters or section sizes across the same job), each size is planned independently against the relevant stock. Orders requiring mixed grades and sizes across the same day are handled in a single planning run, with the algorithm generating the minimum-waste allocation across all constraints simultaneously.
Does GoSmarter's Cutting Optimiser work with saw lines, laser cutting, and plasma cutting machines? GoSmarter generates cut plans and cut lists: the instruction set that tells the operator which bar to pick up and how to cut it. The optimiser is machine-agnostic: whether you are running a circular saw line, a band saw, a plasma table, or a laser, the cut plan output is the same. The system does not connect directly to machine controllers today. If direct Control Numerical Control (CNC) or machine integration is important to your operation, add your vote on our ideas board — we review and prioritise features based on customer demand. Is GoSmarter Cutting Plans priced per user or per site? GoSmarter Cutting Plans is priced per site, not per user. One subscription covers your entire team at a site: saw operators, production planners, operations managers, and quality engineers can all access the system under one flat fee. There are no per-seat charges and the cost stays flat as your team grows.
GoSmarter’s Production tier — which includes AI cut plans tied to certified material — starts at £795/month (£635/month billed annually). Get 50% off your first month. Our implementation team works with you to run your first live cut plan before you commit. See the pricing page for full details.
What digital ROI can metals manufacturers realistically expect from AI cutting optimisation? Cutting plan ROI comes from three sources: direct scrap reduction, admin time recovered, and on-time delivery improvement.
Compliance by default: GoSmarter’s Production tier ties every cut plan to certified material. Grade traceability is enforced at every cut. When an auditor asks which heat went into which job, the answer is in the system — not reconstructed from memory.
Scrap reduction: GoSmarter Cutting Plans reduced scrap rates by 50% in a two-week production trial at Midland Steel across 734 tonnes of rebar. For an operation running 100 tonnes per week at 5% scrap, dropping to 2.5% recovers roughly £5,700 per month (at £220/tonne scrap recovery vs £600/tonne prime stock cost). Annual saving: around £68,000.
Admin time: The planning that used to take a morning becomes a five-minute review. A production planner spending 10 hours a week on manual cut planning recovers most of that time, freeing them for higher-value work.
On-time delivery: Better plans mean fewer mid-job material shortages. Fewer expedited buys. Better OTIF performance.
At 100 tonnes per week with a 3% yield gain, GoSmarter’s Production tier (£795/month) typically pays back in under two months. With 50% off your first month, payback starts from day one. Run the free Business Case Calculator to model your own numbers.
Is GoSmarter Cutting Plans affordable for smaller metals service centres, or only for large mills? GoSmarter is built for small and mid-size metals operations: service centres, stockholders, and fabricators with 10 to 250 employees. Large mills have dedicated IT teams and enterprise MES budgets. GoSmarter is for everyone else.
Pricing is per site with unlimited users: one subscription, your whole team, flat cost. GoSmarter’s Production tier starts at £795/month (£635/month billed annually). A smaller service centre cutting 20–30 tonnes per week can typically recover the cost from scrap reduction alone within the first quarter. Start with 50% off your first month — no credit card required.
Related Resources GoSmarter’s Production tier — features, pricing, and first-month offer Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation — the complete guide to reducing material waste Production Planning Solutions — how the Cutting Optimiser fits into your workflow Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study — 50% scrap reduction in production trials AI for Metals Manufacturing — how AI applies across the metals industry Smart Cuts, Less Scrap: 1D Cutting Stock Problem — the mathematics behind the optimiser What Is Cutting Optimisation? — a plain-English explainer Metals Manufacturing Glossary — plain-English definitions for yield rate, off-cuts, and more GoSmarter is made by Nightingale HQ, a UK-based AI company building practical tools for metals manufacturers since 2018.


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### AI for Metals Manufacturing: What It Does and Where GoSmarter Fits

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/ai-for-metals-manufacturing/
Description: Plain-English guide to AI in metals manufacturing — what it does, what it does not, and where GoSmarter fits in your workflow.

AI for metals manufacturing refers to software that automates the manual, error-prone tasks in steel and metals production — reading mill certificates (also called Material Test Reports or MTRs), generating cutting plans, and tracking material inventory. Unlike general-purpose AI tools, metals-specific AI is built around the data types, standards, and workflows unique to the industry: heat numbers, material grades, EN 10204 certificates, long-product cutting optimisation, and yield tracking.
“AI for manufacturing” means everything and nothing at the same time.
Ask five vendors and you will get five different definitions. One will talk about computer vision on the production line. Another will describe demand forecasting. A third will give you a slide deck about digital twins. None of them will mention the fact that your team still types heat numbers out of PDFs by hand.
This guide is about AI as it actually applies to metals manufacturing — to steel stockholders, service centres, rebar manufacturers, and fabricators. Not the theoretical future. The practical present. What AI can do for your operations right now, and where GoSmarter fits into that picture.
What AI Actually Means in a Metals Context In metals manufacturing, useful AI falls into three categories:
1. Reading unstructured data automatically The metals industry generates an enormous amount of data that is locked in unstructured formats — PDFs, scanned documents, images, emails. Mill certificates. Delivery notes. Quality inspection reports. Customer specifications.
Traditional software cannot read these. It can store them, but it cannot extract meaning from them. Every time your team wants to use the data in a PDF, someone has to read the PDF and type the relevant values into a system. This is the biggest single source of manual data entry in most metals businesses.
AI-powered document extraction changes this. Tools trained on metals-specific documents — mill certificates, in particular — can read the document and extract the relevant fields automatically: heat numbers, grades, chemical composition, mechanical properties.
GoSmarter application: MillCert Reader reads any mill certificate in any format and extracts chemical composition (including extended element ranges), mechanical properties, and quality test results — without manual re-keying. For certificates that arrive as photos or handwritten forms, manual entry captures the data too. Tracked amendments log every correction to AI-extracted values, and a formal approval workflow locks records once sign-off is complete. The result: 120+ hours saved per year per user, near-zero extraction errors, and a searchable database of certificate data instead of a folder of PDFs.
2. Solving constrained optimisation problems Many production planning problems are, at their core, mathematical optimisation problems. You have a set of orders with specific length and quantity requirements. You have a stock of raw material in standard lengths. You need to find the combination of cuts that fulfils all the orders with the minimum possible waste.
This is not a problem a human can solve optimally by hand. Not because humans are not clever, but because the number of possible combinations is too large to evaluate manually. A 50-order cut list with 20 available stock lengths involves a search space that takes milliseconds for an algorithm and days for a person — with no guarantee the person finds the best answer.
Optimisation algorithms — combined with AI to handle real-world constraints and edge cases — find the near-optimal solution automatically, every time.
GoSmarter application: Cutting Plans uses mathematical optimisation to generate cut lists for long products (rebar, sections, beams, tube, bar). Tested in production at Midland Steel: scrap rates reduced by 50%.
3. Surfacing the right information at the right moment A large part of the daily friction in metals manufacturing comes from information that exists somewhere in the business but is not accessible to the person who needs it, when they need it.
The quality engineer who needs to confirm whether the material in Bay 3 is certified to the customer’s required grade. The production manager who needs to know what lengths of S355J2 are available before confirming a new order. The operations team who needs to find the certificate for a delivery that went out three months ago.
AI-powered search, live inventory views, and automated linking between certificates and inventory records solve this problem. The information does not need to be found — it is already there, connected to the thing you are looking at.
GoSmarter application: Metals Manager links certificate data to every inventory item automatically. Search by grade, heat number, specification, or dimensions and find what you need in seconds. No hunting through folders or calling the warehouse.
What AI Cannot Do (Yet) in Metals Manufacturing Setting realistic expectations matters. AI in metals manufacturing today is strong in specific, well-defined tasks. It is not strong at open-ended reasoning or at tasks that require physical presence and judgment.
Physical quality inspection AI computer vision systems can detect surface defects in some materials under controlled conditions. But for most metals businesses — particularly in cut-and-bend and service centre operations — quality inspection still requires a trained human eye and physical measurement. AI augments this in some large-scale applications but does not replace it at the SME level.
Strategic pricing and estimating AI can surface the data you need to price effectively — live material costs, historical margins, competitor pricing where available. But the judgment call on a complex fabrication quote — accounting for relationships, risk, capacity constraints, and strategic priorities — still belongs to an experienced human.
ERP-level business logic AI tools like GoSmarter are not ERP replacements. Finance management, purchasing workflows, customer relationship management, and payroll sit outside the scope of what GoSmarter does. GoSmarter handles the specific production and compliance tasks that ERPs do poorly. Your ERP handles the rest.
Horizontal AI Platforms vs Metals-Specific AI Broad AI platforms (Azure AI, Google Cloud AI, Rossum, Nanonets, Amazon Textract) are built to handle any industry and any document type. They are powerful. But they are built for breadth, not depth. For metals manufacturing, that breadth creates a gap. It shows up every time you process a real-world certificate.
Here is how the approaches compare across the three AI applications that matter most for metals:
AI Application Horizontal Platform (Azure, Google, Rossum, Nanonets) GoSmarter Reading mill certificates Reads text. Needs template training per mill format. Cannot identify multi-heat certs. No approval workflow. Reads any mill format without training. Handles multi-heat. Formal review and approval workflow built in. Production optimisation Generic constraint-solver APIs. Require custom development to model a cut-list problem. Purpose-built 1D cutting stock optimiser. Tested at Midland Steel: 50% scrap reduction. Inventory and material search Document stores and search tools need custom metadata to know what a heat number is. Inventory built around metals concepts: grade, heat, certification status, dimensional spec. Review and approval workflow No metals knowledge. Extracted values written directly to your system with no gate. AI flags low-confidence extractions for human review. Tracked amendments. Formal approval locks records. EN 10204 audit trail No native support. Custom development required. Built in. Every action logged. Tracked amendments, approval locking, and DRAFT watermark on unapproved PDFs. Satisfies 3.1 and 3.2 requirements. Long-product handling Not applicable out of the box. Custom logic required. Bundle-level traceability, multi-heat splitting, CEQ extraction — standard features. Time to first result Weeks of development and configuration. Minutes from sign-up. Who maintains it Your developer team. GoSmarter. This is not a criticism of Azure or Google. Those platforms are extraordinary general-purpose tools. They are the right choice for a developer team building a custom solution from scratch. They are not the right choice for a production manager who needs mill cert automation working by Friday.
GoSmarter is what you get when you take the same underlying AI capabilities and build them into a product that already knows what a heat number is. It already knows what a valid CEQ range looks like. It already builds the audit trail that EN 10204 requires — without any configuration work on your part.
For a detailed look at the specific tools available, see Mill Certificate Automation Software: Which Tool Is Right for Your Business?.
AI Applications by Job Role in Metals Manufacturing Production Manager Key challenges: planning efficient cut lists, managing job changes in real time, keeping the floor informed without running back and forth.
AI applications:
Cutting optimisation — generate a near-optimal cut plan in minutes instead of hours Real-time replanning — when jobs change, update the plan immediately without rebuilding from scratch Live inventory visibility — know exactly what stock is available before committing to a cut schedule GoSmarter tools: Cutting Plans, Metals Manager
Quality Engineer Key challenges: verifying material grades against specifications, maintaining cert files, proving traceability during audits.
AI applications:
Automatic cert extraction — every incoming certificate’s data is extracted and stored without manual entry Certificate search — find any cert by heat number, grade, or specification in seconds Audit trail — a complete, permanent record of every cert received, every material allocation, and every despatch GoSmarter tools: MillCert Reader, Metals Manager
Operations Team Key challenges: keeping stock records accurate, handling goods-in efficiently, ensuring the right certificate goes with the right delivery.
AI applications:
Goods-in automation — upload the certificate, and GoSmarter links it to the incoming stock automatically Certificate-with-delivery — GoSmarter identifies which certificates cover which material in each despatch Multi-heat handling — deliveries containing multiple heats are handled correctly without manual splitting GoSmarter tools: MillCert Reader, Metals Manager
Sales and Estimating Key challenges: checking stock availability and certification status before confirming orders, pricing against current material costs.
AI applications:
Live stock with cert status — confirm available grades and their certification level before picking up the phone Specification matching — quickly check whether available stock meets a customer’s specific grade requirements Order-to-inventory linking — see what has been allocated versus what is genuinely available GoSmarter tools: Metals Manager
Finance and Sustainability Key challenges: understanding scrap costs, preparing for CBAM reporting, demonstrating sustainability credentials to customers.
AI applications:
Scrap rate tracking — GoSmarter records material consumed versus material wasted, giving you a live scrap rate you can act on Carbon equivalence data — CEQ values extracted from mill certificates are available for CBAM reporting Yield reporting — understand your material yield percentage by job, product type, or period GoSmarter tools: Cutting Plans, MillCert Reader
Real-World Examples from GoSmarter Customers Example 1: Steel stockholder, 40 employees Problem: the quality manager was spending four hours a week extracting data from mill certificates and filing them in a shared drive. The filing system was inconsistent (different people named files differently), and finding a specific cert took 20 to 30 minutes every time it was needed.
GoSmarter application: MillCert Reader. All incoming certificates uploaded, data extracted automatically, renamed files stored and searchable.
Result: four hours of weekly admin reduced to under 30 minutes. Certificate retrieval time: under 30 seconds.
Example 2: Rebar manufacturer, 85 employees Problem: scrap rates were averaging 3.5%, above the industry best practice target of 2.5%. Cut lists were built manually each morning, taking two hours of a production manager’s time and still leaving scrap on the floor.
GoSmarter application: Cutting Plans.
Result: two-week trial with Midland Steel (a similar rebar producer) demonstrated a 50% reduction in scrap during the trial period. The morning planning routine went from two hours to 15 minutes.
Example 3: Structural steel service centre, 22 employees Problem: no reliable way to know what stock was available and what it was certified to without calling the warehouse. Sales team was occasionally confirming orders for material that was either out of stock or not certified to the customer’s required grade.
GoSmarter application: Metals Manager with MillCert Reader integration.
Result: sales team checks GoSmarter before confirming orders. Stock picture is live. Certification status is visible at item level. Customer complaints about wrong material have stopped.
Getting Started with AI in Your Metals Business The best starting point is the workflow that costs you the most time right now.
If your team spends hours on mill certificate admin: start with MillCert Reader If your scrap rates are above 2.5% and your cut lists are built manually: start with Cutting Plans If you cannot tell what stock you have and what it is certified to without calling the warehouse: start with Metals Manager GoSmarter is free to trial. You do not need an IT department. You do not need a consultant. You do not need a six-month implementation project.
Start your free trial →
Frequently Asked Questions What is AI for metals manufacturing? In practical terms, AI for metals manufacturing means three things: (1) automated reading and extraction of data from unstructured documents like mill certificates, (2) mathematical optimisation for production planning problems like cut list generation, and (3) intelligent linking and surfacing of information — so the data your team needs is available instantly rather than buried in a filing system. Do I need a large dataset to use AI tools like GoSmarter? No. GoSmarter’s AI tools were trained on metals industry data — you do not need to supply your own training data to get value. Upload your first mill certificate and you get accurate extraction immediately. The Cutting Plans works from your current inventory and open orders — no historical data required. Can GoSmarter use our historical production data to improve planning? Yes. You can start without historical data, then improve planning as history builds. GoSmarter tracks past plans, scrap outcomes, and allocation patterns so planners can spot recurring bottlenecks and tune future runs using real site data rather than guesswork. How is GoSmarter different from a generic AI platform? Generic AI platforms (ChatGPT, co-pilot tools, general IDP platforms) can extract text from documents and answer questions, but they do not understand the metals domain. They will not correctly handle a multi-heat certificate. They will not know that “Rp0.2” is a yield strength value. GoSmarter was built specifically for metals manufacturing — the AI understands the data it is processing, not just the characters on the page. Will AI replace our production team? No. AI handles the tedious, rule-based work — data extraction, cut plan optimisation, inventory lookups. The judgment calls — overriding a cut plan based on experience, deciding how to handle an unusual order, managing customer relationships — remain with your team. GoSmarter frees your production team to spend their time on the work that actually requires their expertise. What ROI can we expect from GoSmarter? This varies by starting point. Typical results: MillCert Reader saves 120+ hours per year per user. Cutting Plans has reduced scrap rates by 50% in production trials. Metals Manager eliminates the time spent on manual stock counts and certificate hunting. For a team on the Workshop tier at £295/month, the payback is typically within the first two months. With 50% off your first month, payback starts from day one. Is GoSmarter suitable for small metals businesses? Yes. GoSmarter is designed specifically for metals SMEs — businesses with 10 to 250 employees that do not have an IT department. The tools are self-service, the onboarding is self-guided, and the pricing is accessible without an enterprise budget. How can AI reduce manual data entry errors that cause quality or delivery problems in metals? Manual data entry is the primary source of quality and traceability failures in metals operations. A transposed heat number, a misread tensile strength value, or a cert filed against the wrong delivery: any of these creates a gap in your material traceability chain that is invisible until a customer dispute or audit makes it visible. AI-powered document extraction, as used in GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader, eliminates this error source at its root. Instead of a person reading a certificate and typing the values into a system, the AI reads the certificate directly and populates every field automatically. Extraction errors on well-formatted documents are near zero and our rules engine provides humans with easy visibility as to where review might be needed. Beyond cert extraction, live inventory linking means that when material is allocated to a job, the allocation is recorded immediately, preventing the double-allocation errors that lead to delivery failures. The combination of automated extraction and live tracking removes the two biggest manual-entry failure modes in a metals operation. Related Resources Mill Certificate Automation Software: Which Tool Is Right for Your Business? — vendor-neutral buyer’s guide comparing GoSmarter, Azure, Rossum, Nanonets, ABBYY, and more Compliance Solutions — certificate management, traceability, and quality documentation Production Planning Solutions — AI-powered cutting optimisation and scheduling Metals Manager Solutions — real-time stock visibility linked to mill certificates GoSmarter for Metals Operations — the full toolkit overview Mill Certificate Automation — the most detailed explanation of what GoSmarter does with mill certs Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation — how Cutting Plans works in practice ROI of AI in Metals Manufacturing — concrete payback period calculations and benchmarks for metals AI tools Spreadsheet-to-System Planning — replacing manual planning with live systems Metals Manufacturing Glossary — plain-English definitions for key metals and AI terms Stop Running Your Factory Like It’s 1985 — the case for modernisation in plain English End-to-End Mill Cert Traceability: From Upload to Customer — the full workflow: heat number extraction, EN 10204 approval locking, stock reservation for coil, plate and long products, and branded order certificate packs AI Tools for Production Scheduling in Metals — production scheduling specifics GoSmarter is made by Nightingale HQ, a UK-based AI company building practical tools for metals manufacturers since 2018.


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### Cloud MES Software: What It Actually Costs and Whether It's Right for Your Factory

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/cloud-mes-comparison/
Description: Cloud MES software: what it is, how it compares to on-premise on real total cost of ownership, and how specialist metals AI tools like GoSmarter fit in.

Cloud Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software delivers shop-floor execution management via web browser. The vendor manages the servers; you pay a monthly subscription. No on-premise installation, no in-house IT maintenance. For most manufacturers, it costs significantly less upfront than on-premise. But total cost of ownership over five years is more nuanced than the brochure suggests.
You have been told you need an MES. You have sat through at least one demo where someone said “seamless integration” three times. You are now reading this instead of booking another one. Good call.
This guide explains what cloud MES software is, what the main deployment options look like, how to compare solutions on total cost of ownership, and what questions you should be asking vendors before you sign anything.
What Is Cloud MES Software? Cloud MES software is a manufacturing execution system delivered as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product. Instead of installing the software on your own servers, you access it through a web browser. The vendor manages the infrastructure, updates, and security. You pay a monthly or annual subscription.
The alternative is on-premise MES, where the software is installed and maintained on servers you own and manage. You pay upfront for licences and hardware, then maintain everything yourself (or pay a support contract).
A third option is the hybrid model. Latency-sensitive machine integration runs on-premise. Cloud-based dashboards, analytics, and remote access sit on top.
What is a Manufacturing Execution System (MES)? A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) sits between your ERP and your shop floor. The ERP handles orders, finance, and planning. The MES handles what’s actually happening on the line — right now, not yesterday. It tracks work orders, records quality data, and connects machines, operators, and materials into a single live picture.
Without it, you are piecing together what happened after the fact. With it, you can see — and respond to — what is happening as it happens.
Cloud MES vs On-Premise MES: Key Differences Criterion Cloud MES On-Premise MES Upfront cost Low — subscription starts quickly High — licences + hardware + implementation Ongoing cost Predictable monthly/annual fee Variable — maintenance, support, upgrades Implementation time Weeks to 3 months (typical) 6–18 months (common) IT requirements Minimal — vendor manages infrastructure Significant — your team manages servers Customisation Limited to vendor-supported config Deep customisation possible Data location Vendor’s servers (usually multi-region) Your servers, your site Internet dependency Required for full functionality Operates without internet Remote access Built-in Requires VPN or additional config Scalability Add users/sites easily Requires hardware investment Updates Automatic, vendor-managed Manual, scheduled by your IT team Integration with machines Varies — some cloud MES use edge devices Typically tighter, lower latency What Criteria Should Differentiate Cloud vs On-Premise for Your Decision? This is the question plant managers should be asking: not “which is better” but “which is right for this operation.”
Choose cloud MES if: You want to get live fast. Cloud deployments are measured in weeks, not quarters. If you are running blind on paper or spreadsheets and need visibility now, cloud is the faster path. You have limited in-house IT. If your IT resource is one person who also keeps the printers running, you do not want to be managing an on-premise server estate. Cloud moves that burden to the vendor. You operate multiple sites. Cloud makes multi-site visibility trivial. Everyone sees the same data in the same system without VPN headaches. You want predictable costs. Subscription pricing turns MES into an operating expense you can budget for. No surprise hardware failures to replace. Your machines are modern enough to connect. Cloud MES typically connects via REST APIs or MQTT from edge devices. If your equipment can send a signal, it can usually connect. Choose on-premise MES if: You have strict data sovereignty requirements. Certain sectors — defence supply chain, government contractors — have requirements that data cannot leave your facility. On-premise satisfies this without workarounds. You need deep machine integration at low latency. If you have SCADA systems, PLCs, or CNC machines that need sub-second response times, on-premise avoids any internet latency in the control loop. You need extensive customisation. If your process is genuinely unusual and you need the software to bend to it, not the other way around, on-premise gives you more room to work. You have existing IT infrastructure and resource. If you have a competent IT team and servers already, on-premise may be cheaper long-term once you’ve absorbed the initial investment. Total Cost of Ownership: Cloud vs On-Premise MES TCO is where the “cloud is cheaper” assumption often breaks down — and where the “on-premise is cheaper long-term” assumption also breaks down. It depends entirely on your scale and situation.
Cloud MES TCO model Cost component Typical range Implementation / onboarding £5,000–£50,000 (smaller for SaaS-first vendors) Annual subscription £10,000–£120,000/year depending on users and modules Integration development £5,000–£30,000 (API connections to ERP, machines) Training £2,000–£10,000 Internal IT overhead Low — vendor manages infrastructure Over five years, a mid-market cloud MES for a single manufacturing site typically costs £80,000–£400,000 all-in.
On-Premise MES TCO model Cost component Typical range Software licences £50,000–£500,000+ Hardware (servers, networking) £20,000–£100,000 Implementation £50,000–£300,000 Annual maintenance / support 15–20% of licence cost per year IT staff cost for management Often absorbed into existing headcount Upgrade projects Every 3–5 years, significant cost Over five years, a mid-market on-premise MES for a single site typically costs £200,000–£1,000,000+ all-in.
The honest summary: Cloud MES is almost always cheaper at the start and at small to medium scale. On-premise can be cheaper at very large scale once licences are amortised and internal IT is already resourced. For most manufacturers with 1–5 sites and under 500 employees, cloud wins on TCO.
Top Commercial Cloud MES Solutions The MES market is crowded. Here is a plain-English overview of the categories, without naming every vendor and pretending they all do the same thing:
Tier 1: Full-suite industrial MES (SAP ME, Siemens Opcenter, Rockwell FactoryTalk) These are the heavy hitters. Enterprise-grade, highly configurable, designed for complex multi-site operations. Typically sold through system integrators. Implementation is measured in months to years. TCO is high. Suited to large manufacturers with dedicated IT and programme resource.
Tier 2: Mid-market cloud MES (Plex, DELMIAworks, MRPeasy, Katana) Cloud-native or cloud-friendly platforms targeting mid-market manufacturers. Faster to deploy than Tier 1. More opinionated about process (you adapt to the software more than the other way around). Better pricing transparency. Suited to manufacturers with 50–500 employees wanting modern visibility without a multi-year implementation project.
Tier 3: Lightweight production tracking (Tulip, Aveva, Infor) These platforms focus on specific problems: operator-facing work instruction management, machine OEE tracking, or specific vertical niches. Easier to start with, but may require integrating multiple tools to get full MES coverage.
Specialist tools for metals and long products Standard MES platforms are designed for discrete and process manufacturing. Long product metals — rebar, structural sections, beams, tube — have specific needs that most generic MES platforms handle poorly:
Cut planning and optimisation — The cutting stock problem is not in most MES products Heat traceability — Linking material properties from mill certificates through to finished cuts Bundle and bar tracking — Managing partial bundles, mixed heats, and offcut returns GoSmarter is built specifically for this. It is not a full MES, but it addresses the production planning, inventory traceability, and cut optimisation problems that matter most for metals operations — and it connects to your existing ERP rather than replacing it.
Questions to Ask Any MES Vendor Before you book a demo, get clear answers on these:
What does the implementation actually involve? Get a project plan, not a slide. How many of your people, for how many days? What does integration with our ERP cost? It is never free. Get a quoted number. What is the SLA for downtime? Cloud MES going down means your production visibility goes dark. What is the vendor’s uptime commitment and what happens when they miss it? What data do you hold and where? For cloud, understand where your production data is stored and what the vendor’s data retention and access policies are. What happens if we want to leave? Can you export your data in a usable format? What are the notice periods? Who are your reference customers in our sector? Not just logos — actual contacts you can speak to about their implementation experience. What does Year 3 look like? Get the full 3-year price including any planned licence increases, module costs, and renewal terms. What Most MES Vendors Won’t Tell You Implementation risk is real. MES projects fail at a surprisingly high rate. Not because the software doesn’t work. Because the data isn’t in the right format, the integration takes three times longer than quoted, and nobody planned for the change management. Budget time and people, not just money.
Your ERP might already do some of this. Before committing to a new MES, audit what your current ERP actually does versus what your team uses. Many manufacturers are running full MES implementations when what they actually needed was better configuration of existing tools and a simpler dashboard.
“Real-time” means different things to different vendors. Some cloud MES platforms update every 15 minutes from a batch sync. Some are genuinely streaming machine data continuously. Ask specifically what the data latency is for each module you care about.
Red Flags to Watch in Any MES Demo Vendors are paid to make their software look good. Here are the phrases that should make you ask harder questions:
“Fully configurable” — This means you can configure it within the limits of what the vendor built. It does not mean you can make it do something it wasn’t designed for. Ask them to show you a configuration that is specific to your process. If they pivot to a generic demo, that tells you something.
“Seamless integration” — Integration is never seamless. Data formats differ, ERP versions differ, API documentation is always missing something. Ask them to show you the integration architecture for your specific ERP version, and ask who does the work and what it costs.
“AI-powered” — Almost every MES vendor now claims AI. Ask what specifically the AI does, what data it trains on, and what happens when it gets it wrong. “AI-powered scheduling” that recommends a production sequence is useful. “AI-powered” as a badge on a dashboard widget is not.
“We have X customers in manufacturing” — Manufacturing covers everything from artisan cheese to aerospace. Ask how many customers they have in your sector, and ask for reference contacts you can actually speak to.
“Go live in weeks” — For a basic configuration of a simple process, maybe. For a full implementation with ERP integration, work order management, and quality recording, get this commitment in writing with penalty clauses. Otherwise it’s a sales claim, not a project plan.
What a Realistic Cloud MES Go-Live Looks Like If you sign a contract today, here is what a realistic single-site cloud MES implementation looks like for a mid-size manufacturer:
Week Activity 1–2 Project kickoff, access setup, discovery workshop with vendor’s implementation team 3–5 Data mapping — your items, BOMs, work centres, routings — cleaned and formatted for import 6–8 ERP integration build and test — vendor builds the connection; your IT team validates data flow 9–10 User acceptance testing — your team runs test scenarios; issues logged and resolved 11–12 Training — floor operators, supervisors, production planners 13 Go-live on one line or one shift (pilot) 14–16 Pilot review, adjustments, rollout to remaining lines That is four months for a disciplined, well-resourced project. If your data is messy, the ERP integration is complex, or your vendor is stretched, add two months.
On-premise takes longer at every stage — procurement and setup of hardware adds 4–6 weeks before software configuration even starts.
Worked TCO Example: Cloud vs On-Premise for a Single-Site Manufacturer Let’s put actual numbers on this. A fictional but realistic scenario: 180 employees, one UK manufacturing site, existing Sage 200 ERP, 35 production operators, two shifts.
Cloud MES — 5-year TCO Item Cost Onboarding and implementation £18,000 ERP integration (Sage 200 connector) £12,000 Annual subscription (35 operators, production + quality modules) £24,000/year Training (initial + annual refresher) £3,000 Total over 5 years £163,000 Annual run rate after Year 1: approximately £26,000 (subscription + refresher training).
On-Premise MES — 5-year TCO Item Cost Software licences £95,000 Server hardware (2× servers, UPS, networking) £35,000 Implementation and configuration £75,000 ERP integration £20,000 Year 1 support contract (15% of licence) £14,250 Years 2–5 support (15% of licence per year) £57,000 Major upgrade (typically needed at Year 3) £25,000 Training £6,000 Total over 5 years £327,250 The gap: £164,250 over five years — for the same core functionality.
On-premise advocates will point out that after Year 5, the on-premise TCO advantage improves as the licence is fully amortised and you’re just paying maintenance. That’s true. But you’ve also spent five years managing servers, scheduling updates, and absorbing the risk of hardware failure. For most manufacturers at this scale, that’s not a trade worth making.
FAQs What is the difference between MES and ERP? ERP manages orders, finances, and planning — the business side. MES manages production execution — what is happening on the floor right now. They need to talk to each other but do different jobs. Is cloud MES secure? Enterprise cloud MES platforms invest heavily in security — typically more than the average manufacturer’s own IT department. They hold ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certifications. The bigger risk with cloud is data sovereignty (where your data is stored), not security per se. Can cloud MES work with old machines? Yes, through edge devices. An edge device sits on your network, reads signals from your machine (via OPC-UA, Modbus, or direct digital I/O), and sends data to the cloud MES. It does not matter how old the machine is — if it has any output you can read, it can connect. How long does cloud MES implementation take? For a single-site mid-market manufacturer, 6–12 weeks is achievable with a cloud-native vendor if you’ve cleaned the data and locked down the integration scope upfront. Allow 3–6 months if you are integrating with a complex ERP or customising heavily. What is the minimum size for MES to make sense? If you have more than one shift, more than 20 operators, and more than £5m in annual revenue, you have enough complexity to benefit from MES visibility. Below that, simpler tools (digital production boards, inventory tracking) may give you 80% of the benefit at 10% of the cost. How do AI scheduling tools handle setup times, changeovers, and material moves in metals manufacturing? Full Manufacturing Execution System (MES) scheduling tools like Siemens Opcenter, AVEVA MES, and Plex model setup times, changeover sequences, and machine availability as first-class scheduling constraints. They know how long it takes to change a tool, switch material grades, or move material between work centres. That is their core scheduling capability.
GoSmarter does not do MES-style scheduling. It does not connect to machines, track operator times, or model changeover sequences. What it does is optimise the cutting plan (how to allocate bar stock across open orders to minimise scrap) and link that plan to validated mill cert data so every cut is traceable to its origin. That is a different layer of the production problem from machine scheduling.
If your primary challenge is machine scheduling and OEE across a complex multi-process line, a full MES is the right tool. If your primary challenge is cutting scrap on your saw lines and eliminating manual mill cert entry, GoSmarter is the more cost-effective starting point. Many metals operations run both: a full MES for shop-floor execution and GoSmarter for cutting optimisation and cert traceability. The two products solve different problems and complement each other.
What is the difference between a full MES and a lighter AI production assistant for metals? A full Manufacturing Execution System (MES) manages the entire production floor: work orders, machine scheduling, operator instructions, quality checks, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) reporting, and ERP integration. It covers everything. It typically takes 6–18 months to implement, requires dedicated project resource, and costs six figures upfront.
A lighter AI production assistant, like GoSmarter, targets the specific workflows that cause the most pain in metals operations without replacing your existing systems. It solves defined problems: reading mill certificates automatically, generating optimised cutting plans, tracking inventory with cert traceability. It deploys in days, costs a fraction of a full MES, and plugs into your existing ERP rather than replacing it.
The right choice depends on what you need. If you need shop-floor execution management across a complex multi-process facility, a full MES is the right long-term investment. If you need to eliminate manual mill cert entry and reduce cutting scrap right now (without a multi-month implementation project) a specialist AI tool delivers faster, more measurable results.
When should a metals shop choose a lighter AI tool rather than investing in a full MES? Choose a lighter AI tool first if:
Your most painful problems are specific and well-defined: mill cert data entry, scrap from manual cutting plans, or no inventory traceability. You do not have an IT team or an implementation budget for a major project. You want measurable ROI in weeks, not quarters. You already run an ERP that handles your core business but has gaps in metals-specific workflows. Invest in a full MES when:
You need real-time machine integration across multiple production lines. You are managing complex multi-site operations. You have exhausted what specialist tools can do and need an integrated platform for the full shop-floor execution layer. Many metals businesses start with specialist AI tools, then move to a fuller Manufacturing Execution System (MES). The smaller tools build the data hygiene and process discipline that makes a large MES project more likely to succeed.
How does GoSmarter compare to Katana or Fiix for inventory visibility and planning in a make-to-order metals environment? Katana and Fiix solve different problems from GoSmarter. Katana is a manufacturing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system focused on production and inventory workflows across general manufacturing. Fiix is maintenance management software focused on maintenance planning and asset uptime. Neither is built around metals-specific workflows like mill certificate traceability or long-product cut optimisation.
In a make-to-order metals operation, GoSmarter’s strength is material-level execution: live stock linked to heat and cert data, and cut plans generated from current orders and available bars. If your primary pain is machine maintenance, Fiix is the better fit. If your primary pain is broad ERP process control, Katana may fit. If your primary pain is metals planning accuracy, cert traceability, and cutting waste, GoSmarter is the specialist tool.
For a plant already using Tata Steel Procoms or a similar mill ordering portal, is there a reason to add GoSmarter? Yes. Tools like Tata Steel Procoms are designed to manage procurement and ordering within a single mill’s supply chain. They do that job well. What they do not cover is handling certificate data from other suppliers, normalising cert data across multiple mill formats, optimising your internal cutting plans, or giving you live inventory traceability that spans your full stock regardless of origin. GoSmarter is not a replacement for your mill portal. It sits alongside it, handling the workflows the portal does not: reading certs from all your suppliers (not just one mill), optimising cut lists, and giving your production team a live material record. Running both is not duplication. It fills the gap between procurement and production. For a COO trying to modernise a metals plant, would you recommend starting with GoSmarter before heavier systems like Siemens or AVEVA? In most cases, yes, and here is why. Systems like Siemens Opcenter and AVEVA MES cover everything: machine scheduling, work orders, quality recording, live OEE. They are also expensive, slow to implement, and require significant organisational change to realise value. Implementing one before your data is clean and your processes are understood is the most common way to waste six figures and 18 months. GoSmarter is the sensible starting point for a COO who wants measurable, fast return before committing to a larger investment. It gets you live in weeks. It resolves specific data problems like manual cert entry and manual cut planning that make a full MES harder to implement later. And it gives you a realistic picture of what your operation actually does, which makes the business case for a larger system much more honest. The sequence that consistently works: GoSmarter first, prove the value, clean the data, then build the case for a larger system from operational confidence rather than vendor promises. Should Metals Manufacturers Start with Cloud MES Software or a Specialist AI Tool? Full cloud Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software makes sense when you need real-time machine integration across multiple production lines, multi-site shop-floor execution management, and a platform that replaces your entire production control layer. If you are a large, multi-process manufacturer with an IT team and an implementation budget, cloud MES software is the right long-term infrastructure investment.
Steel service centres, rebar manufacturers, and fabricators share the same core pain points: mill certificate management, manual cut planning, and inventory without proper traceability. For all three, a specialist AI tool typically delivers better ROI in less time.
GoSmarter is not a full cloud MES. It is a metals-specific AI platform that addresses the two problems generic MES handles poorly in metals: long-product cutting optimisation and mill certificate traceability. It deploys in days, not months. No implementation consultant. No dedicated IT project.
If your business is still running cut plans in spreadsheets, managing mill certs in a shared folder, and guessing what’s in the yard. Those problems do not require a six-figure MES project to fix. Book a demo → to see what GoSmarter solves in your operation.
Go deeper GoSmarter’s Production tier — AI cut plans tied to certified material, full end-to-end traceability
Shop Floor Planning Software for Metals — what shop floor planning looks like without the MES overhead
Production Planning Solutions — how GoSmarter fits into metals production workflows
Cloud-Based vs On-Premise Manufacturing Software: A Comparison — broader comparison beyond MES
GoSmarter for Metals Operations — how GoSmarter fits into your existing tech stack
Real-Time Manufacturing Analytics — what real-time visibility actually looks like in practice


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### From Excel and Email to GoSmarter in 30 Days

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/getting-started-gosmarter-metals/
Description: A practical guide for metals manufacturers: go from spreadsheets to GoSmarter, step by step. No IT project required. Live in days.

GoSmarter teams are typically processing their first batch of mill certificates within hours of signing up. Most operations run their first optimised cut plan within two days of uploading their inventory. There is no training course, no IT project, and nothing to install. GoSmarter runs in your browser. Shop-floor teams typically describe the learning curve as: upload, review, confirm.
If you are reading this guide, your operation probably runs on a combination of Excel files, email threads, and institutional knowledge stored in one person’s head. You know it is not sustainable. You have been meaning to fix it for years. And you are sceptical. Every time someone sells you “the system that will fix everything,” you end up with more admin, not less.
This guide is not a sales pitch. It is a practical walkthrough of what the first 30 days on GoSmarter actually looks like. Written for metals operations that have never implemented software before and do not have an IT team to call on.
No consultant. No six-month project. No training course. Just a working system by the end of the month.
Who This Guide Is For This guide is for metals manufacturers who:
Track inventory, orders, and cut plans in spreadsheets Manage mill certificates by printing them and filing them in folders, or emailing them to customers manually when they ask Have tried ERP and found it either too expensive, too complex, or both Are running a team of fewer than 100 people without a dedicated IT function Are tired of the same three problems: wrong data, missing certs, and time wasted rebuilding plans that should update themselves Service centre, rebar manufacturer, stockholder, fabricator: still fighting spreadsheets every morning? You are exactly who this is for.
What You Will Be Running by Day 30 By the end of the month, your team will have:
Mill certificates processed automatically: PDFs uploaded, data extracted, files renamed and searchable without anyone typing a thing A live cut list generator: optimal cutting plans produced in minutes instead of hours Live inventory linked to cert data: every item in stock traced back to its certificate from the moment it arrives An ERP export or API feed (if you want one): GoSmarter data flows into your existing system rather than creating a parallel data entry job You do not need to do all of this in week one. Most customers start with one product. Start with whichever pain point is costing the most time, then add the rest when ready.
Week 1: Get the Quick Win The fastest way to see value is to start with the problem that is costing you the most time today.
If your biggest pain is mill certificates Upload your first batch of PDFs to MillCert Reader.
Day 1–2:
Sign up. Get 50% off your first month. No credit card required. Nothing to install; it runs in your browser. Drag and drop a folder of certificates. Scanned paper, digital PDFs from the mill, anything you have. The AI reads them within seconds and extracts heat numbers, grades, dimensions, and test results. Check the output. Compare a few extractions against the originals. Adjust the confidence threshold if needed. Most teams are satisfied within the first batch. Day 3–5: 4. Upload your historical archive, or as much of it as you can find. GoSmarter builds a searchable index automatically. You can now find any cert by heat number, grade, mill, or date in seconds. 5. If you use Metals Manager, certificates link to stock items automatically as new deliveries arrive. Goods-in becomes a drag-and-drop, not a filing session.
By end of week one, your quality team stops hunting through folders. Your production manager stops chasing suppliers for certs that were definitely sent six months ago.
If your biggest pain is cut list planning Import your inventory into Cutting Plans (formerly Cutting Optimiser).
Day 1–2:
Sign up. Free trial, no time limit, no credit card. Browser-based. Export your current stock from your spreadsheet as a CSV and upload it. Most teams have their first inventory loaded within an hour. If your column headings are non-standard, the onboarding guide covers common variations. Add your open orders: import from CSV or type them in if you have a short job list. Day 3–5: 4. Run your first cut plan. GoSmarter’s algorithm weighs every open order, every stock length, every grade and constraint. It produces an optimal cutting list in minutes. 5. Compare it against what you would have planned manually. The scrap savings are usually obvious immediately. In Midland Steel’s first trial run (193 jobs, 734 tonnes of rebar), the system hit a 2.5% scrap rate. Their previous average was over 5%. 6. Export to PDF for the floor, or export to CSV to feed into your ERP.
By end of week one, morning planning takes minutes instead of hours.
Weeks 2–3: Stabilise and Expand The second week is about running GoSmarter in parallel with your existing process, not replacing it yet. That matters: it lets your team build confidence in the system’s output before they stop relying on the spreadsheet.
By the end of week two, most customers have stopped updating their planning spreadsheet. The system is faster and more accurate, and double-entering data gets old quickly.
Week three is where you add the second product if you started with just one. If you started with MillCert Reader, add Cutting Plans. If you started with Cutting Plans, add MillCert Reader and link cert data to your inventory.
By week three, your goods-in process changes. Material arrives, you upload the certificate, and stock and cert data link from day one. No separate filing. No separate data entry. No “where’s the cert for heat number 4729?” conversations ever again.
Common Concerns, Addressed Honestly “Our data is a mess. We can’t migrate it.” You do not need to migrate everything before you start. GoSmarter works from your current stock position and your open orders. Start with what you have today. Enter current stock, import active jobs, and build from there. You do not need five years of history to get value from the system in week one.
For historical certificates, upload what you have when you have time. GoSmarter does not care how old the PDFs are.
“We’ve tried software before and it ended up being more work.” That is usually because the software was designed for a generic business, not for metals manufacturing. Every import format, every field name, every workflow in GoSmarter is built around the way metals operations actually work. Not the way a software consultant thinks they should work.
There is no “configuration project.” There is no data mapping exercise. You upload a spreadsheet, tell GoSmarter which columns are which, and the system does the rest.
“Our team won’t adopt it.” Adoption happens when the software makes people’s jobs easier, not harder. If your production manager spends two hours every morning building a cut plan, GoSmarter does it in five minutes. Nobody needs persuading after that.
The one thing that does kill adoption is forcing people to enter the same data in two places. That is why the first thing to do is stop maintaining the spreadsheet once GoSmarter is giving you confident output. Running both in parallel for two weeks is fine. Running both indefinitely is not.
“We have a quality manager who will want evidence before trusting the cert data.” This is a reasonable concern. The first time someone on your team trusts an AI extraction over their own eyes, they will push back. That is fine. The way through it is transparency: GoSmarter shows confidence scores on every field it extracts. GoSmarter flags low-confidence fields for review. Your quality manager can spot-check the output against the original PDF at any time. After a few hundred certificates, the pattern is obvious. The AI is right. The manual process was the one introducing errors.
What to Keep vs What to Retire A common anxiety is that GoSmarter will replace something important. It will not. Here is what stays and what goes:
Keep Your ERP: GoSmarter is not trying to replace your ERP. Finance, purchasing, and sales order management are not what GoSmarter does. Your ERP continues to do what it does; GoSmarter adds the production and cert management capabilities your ERP does poorly. Your customer relationships: nothing changes about how you interact with customers. Certificate delivery to customers is faster (and more reliable), but the relationship is yours. Your production expertise: GoSmarter generates optimised cut plans, but your production manager still reviews and overrides them. The system is a tool, not a replacement for judgement. Retire The cert folder (physical or digital): GoSmarter is your archive. Everything is searchable. No more hunting through folders or emailing suppliers for replacements. The master planning spreadsheet: once GoSmarter is your live system, maintaining a parallel spreadsheet is wasted effort. Most customers stop updating it naturally around week two. The manual cut list: if you are hand-calculating cuts or building lists in Excel, this goes. Not gradually. Abruptly, once you have run your first GoSmarter plan and seen the scrap difference. The paper cert log: the register you keep to track which certs have arrived and which are still outstanding. GoSmarter tracks this automatically. ERP Integration: Infor, SAP, and Everything Else GoSmarter sits alongside your ERP. It does not compete with it. The integration options are:
CSV export (works with everything) Every export from GoSmarter (cut plans, stock reports, cert data) can be downloaded as a CSV. Every ERP can import CSV. Push GoSmarter data straight in without any technical work. This is how most customers start.
REST API (for closer integration) GoSmarter offers a REST API for customers who want to automate the data flow. Common use cases:
Infor CloudSuite Industrial / SyteLine: push cut plan outputs into production orders automatically; pull open sales orders from Infor into GoSmarter for planning SAP Business One or SAP S/4HANA: sync stock receipts between GoSmarter and SAP; export certificate data to SAP Quality Management Other ERPs (SYSPRO, Epicor, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics): the API is standard REST/JSON; any ERP with an API or middleware layer (such as Zapier or Make) can connect You do not need the API to get started. The CSV workflow covers 80% of integration needs. If you want automated two-way sync, the API is there when you are ready.
What you do not need to do You do not need to replace your ERP. You do not need to run a parallel implementation project. You do not need to involve your ERP vendor. GoSmarter adds capability on top of what you already have.
Your 30-Day Success Checklist Use this as your running reference. Tick items off as you go.
Week 1: First win
Sign up with 50% off your first month (no credit card required) Upload your first batch of mill certificates or import your first inventory CSV Run your first AI cert extraction or cut plan Validate the output against your existing process Share access with one other team member Week 2: Run in parallel
Process all incoming deliveries through GoSmarter instead of your previous manual method Run every cut plan through GoSmarter alongside your existing process Review discrepancies. Where do they come from? Stop updating the planning spreadsheet (or decide explicitly to keep it another week) Week 3: Expand
Add the second GoSmarter product if you started with one Link cert data to inventory (if using Metals Manager) Set up your first CSV export to your ERP Train the rest of your team. It should take less than an hour. Week 4: Consolidate
Retire the cert folder (physical and digital) Retire the manual cut list process Confirm your ERP data feed is working reliably Book a check-in with GoSmarter support if anything is not working as expected Run a before-and-after comparison: time spent on planning, scrap rate, cert retrieval time At day 30, you should be able to answer yes to three questions:
Is GoSmarter your primary source of truth for production data? Has your morning planning time decreased? Has anyone asked you for a cert that you could not find within 30 seconds? If the answers are yes, yes, and no: you are live.
Frequently Asked Questions Do we need to migrate all our historical data before we start? No. Start with your current stock position and your open orders. You do not need historical data to get value in week one. Upload historical certificates when you have time. The archive builds progressively and every batch you upload makes the system more useful. How long does it take to train our team? Most teams are up and running within a day. There is no course, no certification, no manual to read. The platform is browser-based. Most teams pick it up in a day without reading anything. GoSmarter’s onboarding documentation covers every step, and support is available if anything is unclear. What happens if we decide GoSmarter isn't right for us? Your data is yours. You can export everything (stock records, order history, certificate data) at any time. There is no lock-in. If you decide to leave, you leave with your data. We already have an MES. Does GoSmarter still add value? Usually yes. Traditional MES platforms handle scheduling and shop-floor data collection well. Most fall apart on mill certificate automation and cutting optimisation for long products. GoSmarter adds those capabilities on top of your existing MES without replacing it. Is there a minimum contract length? GoSmarter offers both monthly rolling and annual contracts. Monthly rolling gives you the flexibility to cancel if it is not working. Most customers move to annual once they have seen the value. The price is lower too. What if our team refuses to stop using the spreadsheet? This is more common than you would think. The answer is not to force it. Run both systems in parallel for two weeks. Then count how many times the spreadsheet was the authoritative source versus GoSmarter. The answer usually speaks for itself. Related Resources GoSmarter for Metals Operations — the full toolkit overview Spreadsheet-to-System Planning for Metals Manufacturers — why spreadsheet-based planning breaks down and what replaces it Mill Certificate Automation — automating the cert side of your goods-in process GoSmarter’s Workshop tier — AI cert automation, pricing, and first-month offer GoSmarter’s Production tier — AI-optimised cut lists for long products, pricing, and first-month offer Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study — a real implementation story, from spreadsheets to live connected systems No-Code Workflows for Metals SMEs — how GoSmarter works without IT involvement Integrated Cert Traceability — linking certificate data to stock, orders, and despatch GoSmarter is made by Nightingale HQ, a UK-based AI company building practical tools for metals manufacturers since 2018.


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### GoSmarter for Metals Operations: The AI Toolkit Built for the Shop Floor

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/gosmarter-for-metals-operations/
Description: GoSmarter delivers AI tools for metals manufacturers: mill-cert automation, cutting optimisation, inventory traceability, and production planning. No IT needed.

GoSmarter is an AI-powered compliance and traceability platform for metals manufacturers. It automates mill certificate processing, enforces traceability from cert to cut, and makes you audit-ready by default. No IT department needed. Most teams are live within a week.
Most “AI for manufacturing” platforms were built by people who have never touched a heat number in their lives. They demo beautifully in boardrooms and cause chaos on the shop floor.
GoSmarter is different. It was built for metals manufacturers, by people who understood that your biggest daily frustration is not a lack of data. It is data trapped in PDFs, spreadsheets, and bespoke systems that do not talk to each other.
This hub brings together every major use case GoSmarter covers. Pick the one that hurts most right now. Start there.
What GoSmarter Is GoSmarter is the end-to-end traceability and compliance platform for metals manufacturers. It is made by Nightingale HQ, a UK-based AI company founded in 2018.
GoSmarter is one platform with features that unlock by tier. You are not buying separate products — you are building compliance and traceability capability as you grow:
Starter tier — every order, cert, and material movement tracked from day one Workshop tier — AI reads certs, quality rules fire automatically, audit trail maintained Production tier — AI cut plans tied to certified material, full end-to-end traceability, sales insights You do not need to replace your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. You do not need a six-month implementation project. Most customers are up and running within a week.
The Use Cases That Matter Mill Certificate Automation Manual mill cert processing is the biggest single time-sink in metals admin. Your team re-types heat numbers, chases PDFs, and files documents in ways that make retrieval a lottery.
GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader ends that. It reads any PDF or scanned certificate — from any supplier, in any format — and extracts the data automatically. Heat numbers. Grades. Chemical composition. Mechanical properties. All of it, in seconds.
Proof it works: One production manager saved over 120 hours a year. A task that used to take all morning now takes minutes.
→ Deep dive: Mill Certificate Automation for Metals
Integrated Cert Traceability & Auditability Knowing where a certificate is filed is not the same as having a traceable chain of custody. Regulators, auditors, and customers increasingly want proof that you can trace every piece of material from incoming delivery to finished product — with the certificate data to back it up.
GoSmarter links every mill cert to the relevant inventory record, order, and job. The audit trail is automatic. No manual cross-referencing. No frantic searching before a site visit.
→ Deep dive: Integrated Cert Traceability & Auditability
Spreadsheet-to-System Planning for Metals Spreadsheets are not production planning tools. They are data graveyards masquerading as live systems. The moment two people open the same file, you have a conflict. The moment someone leaves, you have a gap.
GoSmarter replaces your Excel-based planning workflows with a live, connected system that your production managers can actually use — without retraining, without IT, and without a consultant in sight.
→ Deep dive: Spreadsheet-to-System Planning for Metals
No-Code Workflows for Metals SMEs Enterprise software was not built for a 30-person service centre. It was built for companies with IT departments, implementation budgets, and six months to spare on a rollout.
GoSmarter is built for the rest of you. Every tool is point-and-click. If you can upload a spreadsheet, you can use GoSmarter. No coding. No configuration. No waiting.
→ Deep dive: No-Code Workflows for Metals SMEs
Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation Every offcut in the skip is money you cannot recover. Every tonne of scrap is raw material you paid for but will not sell. And under Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) rules coming into force, excess scrap also inflates your reported carbon costs.
GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans uses mathematical optimisation to calculate the most efficient way to cut your stock to meet your orders. Tested in real-world production at Midland Steel: scrap rates cut by 50%.
→ Deep dive: Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation
AI for Metals Manufacturing AI is not magic. In metals manufacturing, it is a set of specific, practical capabilities: reading unstructured documents, optimising constrained problems, spotting patterns in production data, and surfacing the right information at the right moment.
This hub explains what AI actually does in mills, service centres, and fabricators. It covers where GoSmarter fits into your workflows.
→ Deep dive: AI for Metals Manufacturing
GoSmarter vs the Alternatives You have options. You could:
Hire someone to do the admin manually (expensive, error-prone, and not scalable) Buy a generic ERP module and spend six months configuring it (probably does not understand what a 3.1 cert is) Use a generic OCR tool to process your PDFs (might work for simple documents, falls apart on multi-heat certificates from international mills) Use GoSmarter (designed for metals, live in a week, proven results) If you want a direct comparison on the mill cert side specifically: GoSmarter vs Generic OCR/IDP Tools for Mill Certificates.
What Generic ERP Modules Get Wrong in Metals Generic ERP modules are built for transaction processing: purchase orders, sales invoices, stock movements. They are not built for the specific data structures in metals manufacturing. A generic inventory module does not understand that two coils of the same width and gauge are not interchangeable if their heat numbers differ. A generic document module does not understand EN 10204 certificate types, or how to link a 3.1 test report to every order that consumed material from that heat. GoSmarter is built for these specifics from the ground up.
Proof Points Across the Platform Use Case GoSmarter Tool Proven Result Mill cert data extraction Workshop tier 120+ hours saved per year Cutting plan optimisation Production tier 50% scrap rate reduction Inventory traceability Starter tier Zero manual cross-referencing Compliance audit trails MillCert Reader + Inventory Full EN 10204 traceability Who Uses GoSmarter GoSmarter is used by steel stockholders, service centres, rebar manufacturers, and fabricators — typically businesses with 10 to 250 employees that do not have an IT department but do have real operational problems to solve.
By job role:
Production managers — use Cutting Plans to build cut lists without the spreadsheet circus Quality engineers — use the MillCert Reader to verify material grades against customer specs in seconds Operations teams — use Metals Manager to see live stock with certificate links Sales and estimating — use Metals Manager to check availability and certificate status before confirming orders Finance and sustainability — use the platform’s scrap and yield data to understand material costs and CBAM exposure GoSmarter for Steel Stockholders and Service Centres Steel stockholders hold material by grade, size, and heat number against certificates from multiple suppliers. The pain points are consistent:
Manual cert processing at goods-in Traceability gaps when material moves between jobs Cut planning on a spreadsheet that never reflects actual yard stock GoSmarter addresses all three in a single platform that connects cert data, live inventory, and cutting optimisation.
GoSmarter for Rebar Fabricators Rebar fabricators have the additional complexity of BS 4449 grade compliance across a mixed stock with multiple diameters and delivery lengths. Planning cut lists manually against a changing order book consistently produces 5–8% scrap. GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans reduces that to under 2.5% in production conditions, while MillCert Reader eliminates the cert-handling admin that blocks goods-in and certificate despatch.
Why These Use Cases, and Not Others GoSmarter did not start by asking “what can AI do?” It started by spending time in metals businesses — watching where time was being wasted and where mistakes were being made.
Three categories of pain kept coming up, regardless of business size or product type.
Unstructured data that had to be re-entered by hand. Mill certificates, delivery notes, quality inspection records — all of them arrive as PDFs or paper documents, and all of them require someone to read them and type the relevant values into another system. This is the most obvious and fixable of the three pain points.
Cutting plans that were built on judgment rather than optimisation. Production managers are skilled and experienced. But no human, regardless of skill level, can evaluate thousands of possible cut combinations in their head and find the minimum-waste solution. An algorithm can, in seconds.
Inventory that nobody fully trusted. The stock spreadsheet is always slightly wrong. The ERP module is always slightly out of date. The result is that nobody makes confident decisions based on what the system says — they call the warehouse, they count manually, they add a buffer to every estimate.
GoSmarter addresses all three. Not with a generic AI platform that you spend months configuring. With specific tools built for these specific problems.
What GoSmarter Deliberately Does Not Do GoSmarter does not try to replace your ERP, your CRM, or your full MES. It does not offer general-purpose workflow automation, financial reporting, or customer management. The deliberate focus on metals-specific operational problems (cert processing, cutting optimisation, and inventory traceability) is what makes it possible to deploy in days rather than months. Scope creep is how implementation projects fail.
How GoSmarter Compares to Doing Nothing, or to a Generic Tool Doing nothing means continuing to pay for the admin. The cost shows up in wasted time, avoidable errors, compliance risk, and scrap material.
Using a generic AI tool or a generic OCR platform means building your own metals-specific logic on top of a system that does not understand heat numbers, multi-heat certificates, or EN 10204.
GoSmarter is the third option: a purpose-built toolkit that understands the metals industry, works from day one, and is priced for an SME rather than a FTSE 100 company.
For the detailed comparison on the mill cert side specifically: GoSmarter vs Generic OCR/IDP Tools for Mill Certificates.
Is GoSmarter Right for Your Business? The short answer: if your metals operation does any of the following, GoSmarter will save you money.
Someone on your team manually types data from mill certificates into a spreadsheet or ERP Your planners build cut lists by hand in Excel or on a whiteboard You have had an audit where you could not find the right certificate fast enough You are cutting 50 or more tonnes a week and generating more than 3% scrap You do not need to be a large mill. Most GoSmarter customers are mid-size: service centres, stockholders, and fabricators with 10 to 250 staff. The tools are priced and designed for this scale. Pricing is per site, not per user. One subscription covers your entire team with unlimited users, and the cost stays flat as you hire. A single production manager saving 120 hours a year typically pays for the MillCert Reader subscription several times over.
You do not need to replace your ERP. GoSmarter is an overlay — it sits on top of whatever systems you already use. You can start with just one product, prove the value on one workflow, and expand at your own pace.
You do not need an IT project. Most teams are live in a day or two. There is nothing to install, no configuration, no migration.
If you are evaluating GoSmarter alongside heavyweight enterprise platforms like Siemens Opcenter or AVEVA Manufacturing Execution System (MES), the comparison is straightforward. GoSmarter deploys in days and costs a fraction of the price. It is purpose-built for the specific workflows that cause the most pain in metals operations. It does not replace a full MES. It fills the gaps that MES implementations always leave, particularly around mill certificate handling and cutting optimisation for long products.
→ See real results at Midland Steel — a mid-size rebar supplier that cut scrap rates by 50% in production trials.
Is GoSmarter a replacement for our ERP? No. GoSmarter sits alongside your existing ERP, adding AI capabilities on top of what you already have. You do not need to rip anything out. Most customers use GoSmarter to handle the specific tasks their ERP does badly or not at all, particularly mill certificate processing and cutting optimisation. How long does it take to get started? Most customers are up and running within a week. There is no complex implementation, no consultants, and no change management programme. You log in, upload your first certificate or spreadsheet, and start getting value immediately. Do we need an IT department to run GoSmarter? No. GoSmarter is designed to be used by production managers, operations teams, and quality engineers, not IT staff. Every tool is point-and-click. If your team can use a browser, they can use GoSmarter. What types of metals businesses use GoSmarter? Steel stockholders, service centres, rebar manufacturers, structural steel fabricators, and metals distributors. The common thread is that they all deal with mill certificates, cutting operations, or inventory tracking. All of them want to stop doing those things manually. Does GoSmarter work with international mill certificates? Yes. GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader handles certificates from mills worldwide: different formats, different languages, different standards. If a human can read it, the AI can read it. What standards does GoSmarter support for compliance? GoSmarter supports EN 10204 (the primary European standard for mill test certificates, covering Types 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, and 3.2), ASTM standards, and BS specifications. The platform captures the data needed to demonstrate compliance with these standards during customer audits and regulatory inspections. How safe is our data with GoSmarter? What about General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), intellectual property, and vendor lock-in? GoSmarter is operated by Nightingale HQ, a UK-registered company. Data is hosted on Microsoft Azure in UK-based data centres that are certified to ISO 27001. All customer data stays within these UK regions. The only exception is if you explicitly agree otherwise in a signed Data Processing Agreement (DPA). When we receive a new mill certificate format, we train our AI on it so extraction is faster and more accurate from that point on. We do not use your personal or commercial data to train AI models. Your mill certificate data, production records, and inventory information are yours. Export everything at any time via CSV or the REST API. There is no vendor lock-in: cancel any time and take your data with you. If you have specific data processing requirements, our team can provide a DPA on request. Is GoSmarter priced per user or per site? GoSmarter is priced per site, not per user. One subscription covers your entire team at a site: unlimited users, no per-seat fees, no licence that gets more expensive every time you bring on a new operator. Most SaaS and ERP vendors charge per user per month; a team of ten quickly means four figures in licence costs alone before any value is delivered. GoSmarter does not work that way. See the pricing page for current plan rates, bundle options, and free trial details. How quickly can non-technical shop-floor staff get up to speed? Same day for most tasks. GoSmarter is designed to be used without training. Uploading a mill certificate, running a cut plan, and checking stock status are all single-screen actions. Operators and planners typically need less than 30 minutes to feel comfortable. There is no memorising of menu structures or report configurations. If your team can use a smartphone or a browser, they are ready to go. For a metals fabricator still using Excel and email, how hard is the switch? Very straightforward. You do not need to abandon Excel on day one. GoSmarter imports CSV files directly from Excel. You can keep your existing spreadsheets and start running cut plans or uploading certs without changing anything else. Many customers run GoSmarter alongside Excel for a few weeks to build confidence, then gradually shift more workflows across. There is no forced migration and no cut-over date. Is GoSmarter worth it for a mid-size steel service centre, or is it only cost-effective for large mills? GoSmarter is designed specifically for mid-size operations: service centres, stockholders, and fabricators with 10 to 250 staff. Large mills have dedicated IT teams and the budget for enterprise MES implementations. GoSmarter is for everyone else.
The pricing is per site, not per user. Unlimited users on one subscription. Take a team of ten on a typical per-user SaaS tool at £100 per user per month. That is £1,000 a month in licences before anyone has changed a single workflow. GoSmarter’s Starter tier covers that same team for £150/month. Workshop (with AI cert automation) for £295/month. And the cost stays flat as your team grows.
A single production manager saving 120 hours a year on mill certificate processing covers the Workshop tier subscription several times over. For the Production tier, a 3% yield improvement on 100 tonnes a week is worth tens of thousands of pounds annually. Payback in under two months at that rate. Run the Business Case Calculator to see the numbers for your operation before you commit.
How do AI tools for metals compare to optimising cutting plans with in-house spreadsheets? A well-built spreadsheet can handle a handful of jobs across two or three bar sizes. The moment your order mix grows, the combinations become too many for any human, or any spreadsheet, to evaluate exhaustively. A dedicated cutting optimiser evaluates millions of possible cut sequences simultaneously and finds the minimum-waste solution every time. In practice, customers switching from spreadsheet-based planning to GoSmarter Cutting Plans see scrap rates drop to 2.5% or below. Spreadsheet planning typically runs at 5–8% scrap. That gap is material cost you are currently giving away. Spreadsheets also do not track remnants, flag grade mismatches, or update automatically when a rush job comes in. GoSmarter does all three. How do I assess whether an AI vendor truly understands metals workflows versus generic manufacturing? Ask four specific questions before you commit:
1. Do they understand heat numbers and EN 10204 traceability? A generic AI vendor will describe “document processing” or “data extraction.” A metals specialist will describe the difference between a 3.1 and 3.2 test certificate, why heat numbers matter for structural compliance, and how to link a certificate to a specific delivery. If they cannot answer without looking it up, they have not solved this problem before.
2. Can they handle the cutting stock problem for long products? Optimising rebar and section cuts across an open order book is a mathematically distinct problem from plate nesting or generic scheduling. A vendor who talks about “AI scheduling” without distinguishing between 1D bar cutting and 2D plate nesting has not built this capability for the metals context specifically.
3. Who are their reference customers, and can you speak to them? A metals-specific vendor should have named operations — rebar manufacturers, service centres, stockholders — who will confirm results. Case studies with specific numbers (tonnes per week, scrap rate before and after, hours saved) from named businesses carry weight. Generic “clients in manufacturing” testimonials do not.
4. How long have they been solving metals problems? Nightingale HQ, the makers of GoSmarter, have been building software since 2018, with a focus on metals manufacturing tools since 2020. The data model, the AI training, and the workflows were built for heat numbers, EN 10204 certificates, and long-product cutting. Not retrofitted from a generic platform.
A vendor who passes all four tests understands metals. A vendor who hedges on any of them is solving a generic problem and hoping it fits your operation.
Start Here You do not need to implement everything at once. Most customers start with the problem that is hurting them most right now.
If your team spends hours every week on mill certificates → start with the Workshop tier.
If your scrap rates are eating your margins → start with the Production tier.
If you cannot tell someone exactly what stock you have and which certs are linked to it → start with the Starter tier.
Or book a demo and we will tell you which one to start with.
Related Resources Compliance Solutions — certificate management, traceability, and audit documentation Production Planning Solutions — cutting optimisation and scheduling for the shop floor Inventory Management Solutions — real-time stock visibility with certificate traceability Operations Management Solutions — connecting the workflows that keep operations running Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study — GoSmarter in a real metals operation Integrated Planning–Materials Alignment — how live stock and live planning run from the same data Modular AI Adoption for Metals — start with one module, prove ROI, grow from there Mill Certificate Automation — deep dive into cert automation Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation — how Cutting Plans reduces material waste ROI of AI in Metals Manufacturing — payback period calculations and benchmarks for every GoSmarter tool 

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### Integrated Cert Traceability & Auditability for Metals Manufacturers

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/integrated-cert-traceability/
Description: Immutable audit trail for metals — mill certs, inventory, and orders linked end-to-end. Satisfies ISO 9001 Clause 8.5.2, IATF 16949, and AS9100.

GoSmarter’s integrated cert traceability gives metals manufacturers a complete, searchable audit trail linking every mill certificate to every inventory item, order, and customer delivery — automatically, without manual record-keeping.
GoSmarter’s audit trail covers every certificate interaction, inventory adjustment, and order change across your entire operation. Not just document management. Every change is logged with before and after values, user identity, and a permanent server-side timestamp. Deleted items are tracked and recoverable. That covers ISO 9001 Clause 8.5.2, International Automotive Task Force (IATF) 16949, and AS9100. Read the full announcement → — and why audit trails matter in metals manufacturing →
“Where is the cert for this heat?” is a question that should never take more than five seconds to answer. In most metals businesses, it takes five minutes — or five hours.
Traceability is not just a compliance requirement. It is the difference between knowing exactly what you have shipped to every customer and hoping that the right document ended up in the right envelope. When a customer raises a quality issue, or when a regulator asks to see your records, a traceable chain of custody is the difference between a quick resolution and a costly investigation.
GoSmarter builds that chain of custody automatically, from the moment a mill certificate arrives to the moment material leaves your site. Get started with 50% off your first month — no credit card required.
What Material Traceability Actually Means In metals manufacturing, traceability means being able to answer three questions for any piece of material:
Where did this material come from? — Which supplier, which heat, which certificate, which delivery? What happened to it while it was with us? — Was it processed, cut, tested, stored? Where? Where did it go? — Which order, which customer, which job? A full chain of custody answers all three questions for every piece of material that passes through your business. Most businesses can answer most of these questions most of the time. But “most” is not good enough when an auditor is asking or when a liability dispute is under way.
Why EN 10204 Makes Traceability Non-Negotiable EN 10204 is the European standard that defines the types of material test certificates for metallic products. Under EN 10204:
Type 3.1 and 3.2 certificates require that the certificate is linked to a specific batch of material — not a product type in general, but the specific heat or lot that was delivered The certificate must accompany the material through the supply chain Customers requiring 3.1 or 3.2 certification have a contractual right to trace the material they received back to the specific certificate that covers it This means your traceability system must maintain the link between the physical material and the certificate — even after that material has been cut, processed, or split across multiple orders.
Where Manual Traceability Breaks Down The filing problem Most businesses file mill certificates in one of two places: a physical folder, or a shared drive. Both create the same problem: the certificate exists, but the link between the certificate and the inventory is in someone’s head, not in a system.
When that person is on holiday, or leaves, or is simply busy, the link breaks.
The cutting problem When you cut a bundle of rebar to fulfil an order, you typically do not send the whole bundle. You send some bars from the bundle. The remaining bars go back into stock.
The original certificate covered the whole bundle. Now you need to demonstrate traceability for the bars you sent and for the bars you kept. Manual systems handle this by photocopying the cert, annotating it, and filing both copies in different places. This works until someone needs to retrieve one of those copies under pressure.
The multi-supplier problem A single customer order might be fulfilled from stock that arrived from three different suppliers over two different deliveries, covered by five different certificates. Manually tracking which certificate covers which bars in that order is a real-world exercise in frustration.
The audit problem A customer audit asks: “Show me the traceability records for the material you supplied on order 12345.” Manually reconstructing that chain — delivery record, goods-in log, certificate file, despatch note — from multiple disconnected systems takes hours and still leaves gaps.
How GoSmarter Solves the Traceability Problem GoSmarter is not a document management system with a certificate folder. It is an integrated platform where certificate data, inventory records, and order information are connected from the start.
Automatic cert-to-inventory linking When a mill certificate is uploaded to GoSmarter (via the MillCert Reader), the extracted data — heat number, grade, chemical composition, mechanical properties — is automatically linked to the corresponding inventory record.
You do not do this manually. GoSmarter matches the heat number on the certificate to the heat number on the incoming delivery. The link is made. From that point on, every item in inventory that comes from that heat carries the certificate data with it.
Cert data follows the material When you cut material, GoSmarter tracks the cut. When you allocate material to an order, the certificate data travels with the allocation. When you despatch, GoSmarter identifies which certificate covers which material in the shipment and makes it available to include with the delivery documentation.
At every step, the chain of custody is maintained automatically. You do not need to remember which cert covers which bars. The system knows.
Complete audit trail in seconds Every certificate interaction in GoSmarter is logged:
When the certificate was uploaded and by whom What data was extracted Which inventory records it was linked to Which orders drew from the linked inventory Which despatch records included the certificate When a customer audit request comes in, you pull up the order, click through to the certificate, and show the complete trail. What used to take hours takes seconds.
Traceability by Job Role Quality engineers You need to confirm that specific material meets specific requirements before it goes into production. GoSmarter lets you search inventory by heat number, grade, chemical property, or mechanical property. You find the right material and confirm its certification in seconds — not by hunting through a filing cabinet.
Production managers When a job requires material to a specific specification, you need to know immediately whether you have compliant stock available. GoSmarter’s inventory view shows you what you have, what it is certified to, and where it is — without calling the warehouse.
Operations teams When a customer calls asking for a copy of the certificate for material they received six months ago, you need to find that certificate immediately. GoSmarter’s search covers every certificate you have ever uploaded, linked to the order it was despatched with. Finding it takes seconds.
Sales and estimating Before you confirm an order, you need to know whether you have stock that meets the customer’s specification. GoSmarter’s inventory management shows live stock with certificate data — so you can confirm availability and certification status before picking up the phone to the customer.
Compliance Scenarios GoSmarter Handles Scenario 1: Customer quality audit A Tier 1 construction contractor audits your quality records for a structural steel project supplied over the past twelve months. They want to see certificates for every heat of material supplied, linked to the despatch records.
With GoSmarter: search by customer or project, pull up every despatch from that period, click through to the certificates for each heat, and export a complete traceability report. Total time: under 10 minutes.
Without GoSmarter: search through physical folders and shared drives for certificates filed by date or supplier. Cross-reference against delivery notes and despatch records manually. Hope that nothing is missing. Total time: half a day, minimum.
Scenario 2: Recall or quality investigation A customer reports that material from a recent delivery does not meet the mechanical properties on the certificate. You need to identify: which heat was it? Were other bars from the same heat supplied to other customers? Do they need to be recalled?
With GoSmarter: search by heat number. See every order that drew from that heat. See which customers received material from it. Export a list of affected deliveries. Total time: minutes.
Without GoSmarter: reconstruct the chain manually from delivery records, cutting sheets, and despatch notes. Total time: hours or days. And there is no guarantee you find everything.
Scenario 3: CBAM carbon reporting Under the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, imported steel carries a carbon price based on its embedded emissions. Carbon equivalence (CEQ) — extracted from mill certificates — feeds into your CBAM reporting.
With GoSmarter: CEQ data is extracted from every certificate automatically and stored against the relevant heat. When you need to produce your CBAM report, the data is ready. Total time: export and compile.
Without GoSmarter: manually find and re-read every certificate for imported material to extract CEQ values. Total time: significant, and growing as CBAM reporting requirements increase.
Frequently Asked Questions What does 'traceability' mean under EN 10204? EN 10204 requires that material test certificates can be linked to the specific batch of material they cover — not just the product type. This means your system must maintain the connection between the physical material (identified by heat number or lot number) and the certificate that certifies its properties. That connection must survive cutting, processing, and splitting across multiple orders. Can GoSmarter handle material that has been cut from a larger piece? Yes. When you cut material in GoSmarter, the certificate data follows the cut pieces. If you cut a bundle of rebar into shorter lengths for multiple orders, each set of bars is tracked separately but still linked to the originating heat and certificate. What if a delivery contains material from multiple heats? GoSmarter handles multi-heat deliveries correctly. Each heat is linked to its own certificate data. When material from different heats is mixed in a delivery or in stock, each item retains its own traceability record. How long are traceability records kept? GoSmarter retains all certificate data and traceability records for as long as you have an active account. There is no automatic deletion. For businesses with long-term traceability obligations (common in aerospace, defence, and nuclear supply chains), this provides a searchable historical record without manual archiving. Does GoSmarter create audit reports I can share with customers? Yes. You can export traceability reports for individual orders or for all orders over a specific period. Reports include the certificate data, the heat-to-material link, and the despatch record — everything a customer auditor needs to see. What software helps automate compliance documentation packs for metals shipments? GoSmarter automates this by linking certificate data to each allocated heat and order line before despatch. When you prepare a shipment, the system can pull the right cert set and traceability evidence in one pack, so your team is not assembling compliance documents manually under time pressure. Is GoSmarter's traceability system compliant with ISO 9001? Yes. GoSmarter keeps a permanent, append-only log covering every certificate interaction, inventory adjustment, and order change. Each entry records before and after values, user identity, and a server-side timestamp. Deleted items are tracked and recoverable. That is your direct evidence for ISO 9001 Clause 8.5.2, IATF 16949, and AS9100. See the full audit trail announcement and why audit trails matter in metals manufacturing. Related Resources Audit Trails: Why They Matter in Metals Manufacturing — how GoSmarter’s immutable audit trail satisfies ISO 9001 Clause 8.5.2, IATF 16949, and AS9100 Mill Certificate Automation for Metals Manufacturers — how GoSmarter reads and extracts data from any mill cert automatically GoSmarter vs Generic OCR/IDP Tools for Mill Certificates — why metals-specific tooling outperforms generic IDP platforms Compliance Solutions — GoSmarter’s full compliance management capabilities GoSmarter’s Workshop tier — AI cert automation, pricing, and first-month offer GoSmarter for Metals Operations — the full toolkit overview Metals Manufacturing Glossary — Plain-English definitions for every term in this guide GoSmarter is made by Nightingale HQ, a UK-based AI company building practical tools for metals manufacturers since 2018.


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### Integrated Planning–Materials Alignment for Metals Manufacturers

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/integrated-planning-materials-alignment/
Description: Integrated planning and materials alignment for metals: every cut plan and order runs against live, verified stock. Stop planning against guesses.

Integrated planning–materials alignment is the practice of connecting a metals manufacturer’s cut-plan schedule directly to its live stock position, so that every job is committed only against material that is actually available, correctly graded, and traceable.
Most metals manufacturers discover this gap the hard way. The planning problem: cut lists are built on yesterday’s stock figures. Jobs are committed before anyone checks what is actually in the yard. Orders change halfway through a shift and the plan never gets updated.
The materials problem: nobody trusts the stock spreadsheet. Material gets double-allocated. Bars go missing between the office record and the physical count. Certs are filed in a shared drive that nobody can search.
Integrated planning–materials alignment closes the gap between these two problems. When every production decision runs against the same live, verified material data, the planning problem and the materials problem both go away at once.
What Integrated Planning–Materials Alignment Actually Means The old model: plan first, check material later In most metals operations, production planning and material management are separate jobs that never quite synchronise.
Planning runs off a job list in a spreadsheet or a basic enterprise resource planning (ERP) module. Material availability is tracked separately: either in a different spreadsheet, a different system, or in the head of the person who was last on the warehouse floor. The planner produces a cut list based on what they think is available. Someone goes to check. The material is either not there, not certified to spec, or already reserved for another job.
This happens every day. It causes:
Partially completed jobs waiting for material Emergency purchases at short notice, eroding margins Over-ordering to avoid shortages, tying up working capital Scrap from cut programmes that were planned without knowing which off-cuts were already in stock Missed deliveries when allocation errors surface too late to fix The aligned model: plan and material as one system Integrated planning–materials alignment means the planning system and the material record are the same system, updated in real time.
When a planner opens the job list, they see not just what needs making — they see exactly what material is available, what is allocated, what is certified, and what off-cuts from previous jobs can fill today’s requirements. The cut plan is generated from live data, not a snapshot from this morning.
This is not a vision. It is a working operational model used by metals businesses today. The technology required is not complex. What has changed is that it is now affordable and deployable without a year-long ERP implementation project.
Why Misalignment Costs More Than You Think The scrap problem Cutting plans built without accurate stock data miss the off-cuts. If the system does not know that a 4.3m remnant from last Tuesday’s rebar job is sitting in Bay 3, the algorithm cannot use it. Instead, it allocates a fresh 6m bar, generating a new off-cut. The remnant stays unused until the next stock count, when it probably gets scrapped.
At scale, this is a significant loss. Metals businesses that move from disconnected to integrated planning typically see scrap reductions of 20–50% on long-product cutting. At £600 per tonne for mild steel rebar, reducing scrap by 3% on a 100-tonne-a-week operation saves £93,600 a year.
That is not a technology project. That is a margin recovery exercise.
The over-ordering problem When planners do not trust the stock system, they order extra. Not because they are reckless. They have been caught short before and cannot afford to miss a delivery date. So they build a buffer. The buffer ties up working capital that could be deployed elsewhere.
Integrated planning–materials alignment eliminates the guess. When the system is accurate, planners stop over-ordering because they can see what they actually have. For operations buying £2–5m of metal per year, even a 10% reduction in safety stock frees £200–500k of working capital.
The allocation problem Without real-time allocation tracking, the same material gets promised to two jobs. This surfaces at the worst possible moment — when the job is being cut and the bars are not there. By then, the fix is either an emergency purchase or a late delivery.
In an aligned system, allocation is tracked as it happens. When Job A reserves 12 bars of S355J2, those bars are invisible to every other job. The system prevents the double-allocation before it can cause a problem.
How Integrated Planning–Materials Alignment Works in Practice Step 1: A single, live material record Everything starts with an accurate picture of what you have. This means:
Every delivery recorded on arrival, with grade, size, heat number, and cert status Every allocation tracked as it is made, so reserved material is clearly unavailable Every cut recorded so off-cuts and remnants are visible as future stock Certificate data linked to the physical material, not filed separately GoSmarter Metals Manager provides this. The system maintains a live stock picture updated as material moves through the operation — arriving, allocated, cut, and despatched. It is not a static spreadsheet. It is a real-time record.
Step 2: Planning runs against live stock With an accurate material record, cut plans stop being guesses.
When a planner opens GoSmarter Cutting Plans, the job list is already there. The stock is already there. The system knows what off-cuts exist from previous jobs. It knows which bars are already allocated. It runs the optimisation across everything that is genuinely available — and produces a cut plan that reflects reality.
The result is a plan you can hand to the saw operator with confidence. The bars on the list are in the yard. They are certified to spec. They are not promised to another job. You know the scrap figure before the first cut is made.
Step 3: Certificate data travels with the material Integrated planning is not just about physical stock. Every item of material has a certificate — and that certificate needs to follow the material through the operation.
When GoSmarter reads a mill certificate via MillCert Reader, the data — heat number, grade, chemical composition, mechanical properties — is stored and linked to the physical stock record in Metals Manager. When that material is allocated to a job and cut, the cert link travels with it. When the material is despatched, the cert can be pulled and sent to the customer in seconds.
This matters for compliance. It also matters for quality decisions at the planning stage. A planner can see, without leaving the planning view, whether the material meets the spec required for a particular job. No phone call to the quality desk. No hunting through the shared drive for a PDF.
Step 4: Live order commitments drive the plan An aligned system does not just know what is in stock — it knows what is already committed. Open orders, partial deliveries, and promised dates are all visible alongside the material picture.
When the plan runs, it knows: what needs making, when it is needed, and what is available to make it with. Scheduling decisions improve. Allocation priorities become clear. The jobs that cannot be completed — because the material is not there or not certified — are visible in the system before they fail on the floor.
The Role of Each GoSmarter Module MillCert Reader: the data inlet Accurate material alignment starts with accurate material data. MillCert Reader automates the extraction of mill certificate data — from any format, scanned paper or digital PDF — so that every delivery enters the system with its certification information intact.
Without this, the cert data lives in a PDF on a shared drive, disconnected from the stock record. With it, every item of stock carries its cert data as a permanent, searchable attribute.
See MillCert Reader →
Metals Manager: the live material record Metals Manager is the operational hub. It tracks stock from arrival to despatch, maintaining allocation status, cert links, grade, and size data in real time.
It is the source of truth that makes planning alignment possible. Without an accurate stock record, there is no foundation for aligned planning.
See Metals Manager →
Cutting Plans: the planning engine Cutting Plans generates optimised cut programmes from live stock data. Because it draws on the same material record that Metals Manager maintains, the plans it produces are grounded in reality — not an approximation of reality from a snapshot taken this morning.
See Cutting Plans →
Who Benefits and How Production managers For production managers, alignment eliminates the daily fire-fighting caused by material that was not where the plan said it would be. The morning planning session — which used to involve cross-referencing three systems and a phone call to the warehouse — becomes a five-minute review of a plan that already incorporates live stock.
Replanning when a job changes takes seconds. The system recalculates the full programme immediately, incorporating the change without disrupting the rest of the schedule.
Quality and compliance teams For quality engineers, alignment means they can answer a customer’s traceability question in seconds rather than hours. The cert data for any item of material is searchable and accessible without hunting through a shared drive or emailing the goods-in team.
When an auditor asks to verify the certification chain for a specific heat number, the full record — from delivery note to cut and despatch — is available in GoSmarter.
Operations directors and MDs For operations directors, alignment surfaces the metrics that matter: actual scrap rates, real inventory utilisation, on-time delivery performance. These are not reports generated by someone compiling data from three sources. They are live figures from the system that runs the operation.
Working capital tied up in over-ordered stock becomes visible. Decisions about what to buy — and how much — are grounded in accurate consumption data rather than gut feel.
Getting to Alignment: A Practical Path Start with the material record You do not have to implement everything at once. The natural starting point is the material record — getting an accurate, live picture of what is in the yard.
Most GoSmarter customers start here, with Metals Manager and MillCert Reader running together. Stock is imported via CSV. Certs are uploaded in bulk. Within a week, the system holds a more accurate picture of available material than any spreadsheet.
Add planning when the record is trustworthy Once the material record is accurate, planning alignment follows quickly. Cutting Plans is designed to be live within the same week — often within the same day.
The planning system draws on the same data that the material record maintains. There is no integration project, no data transformation, no mapping exercise. The modules share the same underlying data model.
Validate and tune In the first few weeks, most teams find discrepancies between what the system says and what is physically in the yard. These are not system errors — they are inventory errors that existed before GoSmarter. The system makes them visible. Correcting them is the process of getting to a genuinely accurate material record.
By the end of the first month, most operations have a material record accurate enough to run production planning with confidence.
Frequently Asked Questions We have an ERP. Doesn't that already do this? Most ERP systems hold a stock record, but it is rarely current or accurate enough for real-time planning alignment. ERP inventory modules are updated by batch processes, manual entries, or after the fact — not in real time as material moves. GoSmarter maintains a live record that reflects the state of the yard now, not at end-of-day or end-of-week. Many GoSmarter customers use both: the ERP for financials and procurement; GoSmarter for production-floor material management and cutting plans. How long does it take to get to a reliable material record? Most teams have a working material record within a week. Full alignment — where the system is accurate enough to run production planning from — typically takes two to four weeks, depending on the size of the operation and how current the existing stock data is. The implementation team works with you through this process; you are not left to figure it out alone. Can GoSmarter connect to our existing systems? GoSmarter can connect to existing systems via CSV import/export or the REST API. There are no dedicated connectors or pre-built integration packs for specific ERP platforms — the API is the integration mechanism. Many customers run GoSmarter standalone for production-floor operations and export data to their ERP via CSV for financial processing. See the integration strategy guide for common patterns. How can AI help align sales promises with actual production capacity? GoSmarter keeps sales, planning, and material availability on the same live record. Before sales confirms a date, the team can see what stock is genuinely available, what is already allocated, and what can be cut in sequence. That stops over-promising and reduces last-minute rework on the shop floor. What tools help align purchasing, inventory, and cutting plans in a metals environment? The most effective setup is a connected stack, not three disconnected tools: a live inventory record, certificate-aware material tracking, and a cut planning engine that runs against current stock. In GoSmarter, Metals Manager handles live stock and allocation, MillCert Reader keeps certificate data tied to each heat, and Cutting Plans generates the cut program from that same data. Purchasing decisions then run from real availability and real consumption, not spreadsheet assumptions. That is what alignment looks like in practice. What if our material data is a mess? It usually is. Most operations importing stock data for the first time find gaps, inconsistencies, and duplicates. GoSmarter’s implementation team is experienced in cleaning and importing material data. The upload process includes validation that surfaces the issues before they reach the live system. Getting to a clean data set is part of the onboarding process, not a prerequisite for it. Does this work for flat products as well as long products? Metals Manager and MillCert Reader work across all metals product types — flat, long, tube, and section. Cutting Plans is optimised for linear cutting of long products (rebar, bar, structural sections, tube, hollow sections). Plate and sheet nesting optimisation is on the product roadmap; contact us if this is a priority for your operation. Related Resources GoSmarter for Metals Operations — the full platform overview Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation — reducing long-product scrap with AI-powered cutting Integrated Cert Traceability & Auditability — building the full cert-to-despatch audit trail Spreadsheet-to-System Planning for Metals — replacing disconnected spreadsheet planning Modular AI Adoption for Metals — how to start with one module and grow from there ROI of AI in Metals Manufacturing — calculating the business case GoSmarter Pricing — tier-based plans, 50% off first month, no lock-in Your S&OP Meeting Is Built on the Wrong Numbers — how real-time inventory and cert-linked stock data de-risk monthly Sales and Operations Planning reviews GoSmarter App → — start your free trial today GoSmarter is made by Nightingale HQ, a UK-based AI company building practical tools for metals manufacturers since 2018.


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### Metals Manufacturing Glossary: Plain-English Definitions for the Shop Floor

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/metals-manufacturing-glossary/
Description: Every term your team throws around — mill certificates, heat numbers, EN 10204, yield rate, cutting optimisation — defined in plain English. No MBA required.

Your team uses these terms every day. Customers ask for them on purchase orders. Auditors check for them. And somewhere, someone is searching through a filing cabinet because no one wrote them down properly.
This glossary cuts through it. Plain English. No MBA. No consultant-speak.
Whether you’re new to the metals trade or just want a no-nonsense reference to share with your team, this is it.
Mill Certificate / Test Certificate / Material Certificate A mill certificate (also called a test certificate or material certificate) is the document that proves a batch of metal is what it says it is.
It comes from the steel mill or manufacturer. It shows the chemical composition, the mechanical properties (tensile strength, yield strength, elongation), and the heat number. Think of it as the metal’s birth certificate.
Why does it matter? Because your customers need to know the steel they’re buying meets the spec they ordered. In construction, aerospace, oil and gas, and automotive supply chains, handing over metal without a valid certificate isn’t just bad practice — it can be a breach of contract or a safety liability.
What happens when certificates go missing? You’re stuck. You can’t ship. You chase the supplier. You dig through emails and filing cabinets. In the worst case, you fail an audit or lose a customer.
GoSmarter MillCert Reader eliminates the filing-cabinet problem. It reads certificates automatically — whatever format they arrive in — and stores the data against the right stock. No more manual entry. No more lost paperwork.
→ Read more about Mill Test Certificates
Mill Test Certificate (MTC) A Mill Test Certificate (MTC) — also called a test certificate, inspection certificate, or material certificate — is the formal document that proves a batch of steel meets its specified composition and mechanical properties.
The MTC records the heat number, chemical analysis (carbon, manganese, silicon, sulphur, phosphorus, and any alloy content), and mechanical test results (tensile strength, yield strength, elongation). It is the traceability record that links a physical batch of steel to its origin at the mill.
Every Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) heat generates an MTC. At a mid-size EAF mill, that means hundreds of certificates per week. Managing them manually is a recognised operational burden: lost documents, manual re-entry into systems, and delays when a cert cannot be found for an audit.
→ See also Mill Certificate / Test Certificate / Material Certificate for a full breakdown of the EN 10204 certificate types (2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2) → Mill Certificate Automation — automate MTC processing from end to end
Heat Code / Heat Number / Batch Number A heat code is the unique identifier assigned by a steel mill to a single melt of steel. Every piece of metal cut from that melt shares the same heat number.
Think of it like a batch code on a food product — but with significantly higher stakes if you lose track of it.
When you receive steel, the heat number links the physical bar, plate, or coil to its certificate. That link is the foundation of traceability. Lose it, and you’ve lost the chain of evidence that proves the metal is safe to use for its intended purpose.
In practice: heat numbers get lost when someone writes them on a sticky note, the sticky note falls off, and suddenly no one knows which stack of steel came from which cert. It sounds trivial. It costs hours of rework and sometimes means condemning perfectly good material.
Automated systems like GoSmarter track heat numbers from goods-in through to despatch. The link never breaks.
→ Read more about Heat Numbers in Steel
EN 10204 EN 10204 is the European standard that defines the different types of material test certificates. When a customer asks for “3.1 certs,” this is what they mean.
There are four types:
2.1 — Declaration of Compliance The simplest type. The manufacturer states the material meets the required specification. No test results are included. Low-value, non-critical applications only.
2.2 — Test Report Test results are included, but they’re based on non-specific inspection. The tests weren’t necessarily done on your batch — they were done on similar products from the same production run. Fine for some applications. Not acceptable for others.
3.1 — Inspection Certificate (Manufacturer) This is the most common type in general steel distribution. The manufacturer’s own authorised inspection representative validates and signs off the test results for your specific batch. The heat number ties the certificate to the material.
Most structural steel, engineering steel, and general fabrication work requires 3.1 as a minimum.
3.2 — Inspection Certificate (Independent) Same as 3.1, but a third-party independent inspector co-signs the certificate alongside the manufacturer’s representative. Required in highly regulated industries — nuclear, pressure vessels, offshore, some defence applications.
The practical upshot: Always check what your customer’s purchase order specifies. Supplying a 2.2 when they’ve asked for a 3.1 is a non-conformance. Getting it wrong wastes everyone’s time.
→ Read more about EN 10204 and the four certificate types
ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) ASTM — now ASTM International — develops the technical standards that define materials, products, and test methods. An ASTM designation tells you what a material is: its chemical composition, mechanical properties, and the tests it must pass.
Common examples in metals: ASTM A36 (structural steel), ASTM A516 (pressure vessel plate), ASTM A312 (stainless steel pipe). When you see an ASTM grade on a mill certificate, it sets the specification the material must meet. The European equivalents sit on the same axis — EN 10025 for structural steel, EN 10028 for pressure vessel plate.
→ See also ASME for the difference between defining a material and defining how it is used.
ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) ASME develops the codes that govern how equipment is designed, fabricated, inspected, and operated safely. Where ASTM defines the material, ASME defines how that material is used.
The best-known is the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC). You will also meet the B31 piping codes and B16 flange standards. Materials adopted into the BPVC carry an “SA” prefix — so ASME SA516 is the code-adopted version of ASTM A516, and the two are often dual-certified on the same plate.
→ Read more about EN 10204 vs ASTM and ASME
Steel Grade A steel grade is a standardised way of describing a metal’s composition and mechanical properties. When you order S355J2+N, you’re not just ordering “steel” — you’re ordering a material that meets a precise international specification.
Breaking down a common structural grade:
S — Structural steel (as opposed to P for pressure vessel, L for low temperature, etc.) 355 — Minimum yield strength in megapascals (MPa) J2 — Impact toughness category (J2 = 27 joules absorbed at −20°C) +N — Delivery condition (N = normalised rolling) Common grades you’ll see in UK and EU distribution:
S275JR — General structural steel. The workhorse. Lower strength, easier to weld. S355J2 — Higher strength structural steel. Widely used in construction and fabrication. S355J2+N — Same as above, normalised. Better consistency through the thickness. 1.0503 — The EN numeric designation for C45, a medium-carbon engineering steel. Grades matter because substituting the wrong grade — even if the steel “looks the same” — can mean a structure or component fails to meet design intent. It’s not pedantry. It’s engineering.
Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) An Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) is a steelmaking vessel that melts metal using high-voltage electric arcs rather than burning coke or coal. It runs on recycled scrap metal as its primary feedstock.
The arc itself operates at temperatures above 1,600°C. Each production cycle — called a heat — takes between 40 and 90 minutes. EAFs draw substantial amounts of electricity over that period. Energy typically accounts for 20–30% of total production cost.
EAFs produce fundamentally different economics to blast furnace steelmaking. They require less capital to build, can start and stop more easily in response to power prices, and produce significantly lower carbon emissions per tonne of steel. The tradeoff: they are heavily exposed to electricity price volatility, and the quality of output depends on the quality of scrap inputs.
Italy leads Europe on EAF adoption. Roughly 90% of Italian steel is made in EAFs, against an EU average of around 44%. That is the product of decades of investment in scrap-based mini-mill steelmaking — driven by economics long before decarbonisation became policy.
Every EAF heat generates a Mill Test Certificate (MTC) recording chemical composition and mechanical properties. Managing these certificates at scale is one of the main operational challenges of EAF steelmaking.
→ State of EAFs in Italy — Italy’s EAF landscape and investment pipeline → Mill Certificate Automation — how to handle EAF mill certs at scale
Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) is iron ore that has been chemically reduced to metallic iron without being fully melted. The process uses a reducing gas — typically natural gas, or in future, green hydrogen — to strip oxygen from iron ore pellets. The result is a solid sponge iron product, not liquid steel.
DRI is used as a clean, low-residual feedstock in Electric Arc Furnaces, particularly when scrap quality is inconsistent or when carbon emissions targets require tighter control over chemistry. Unlike scrap, DRI starts from virgin iron, giving steelmakers precise control over composition.
The DRI-EAF route is central to the green steel transition in Europe. It produces substantially lower carbon emissions than conventional blast furnace steelmaking. When the process runs on green hydrogen rather than natural gas, it can approach near-zero carbon emissions per tonne.
Metinvest’s €2.5 billion investment at Piombino, Italy is a DRI-EAF project. It is one of the largest green steel investments in southern Europe.
→ State of EAFs in Italy — Italy’s DRI-EAF investment pipeline → CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) — how carbon costs affect steelmakers choosing between routes
Cutting Optimisation / Yield Optimisation Cutting optimisation is the process of working out the most efficient way to cut standard-length stock (say, 6m bars) into the lengths your customers have ordered — with as little waste as possible.
It sounds straightforward. It isn’t. When you have dozens of different order lines, each requiring different lengths, different quantities, and different grades, the number of possible combinations is enormous. Doing it in your head — or even on a spreadsheet — means you’ll always leave material on the table.
The maths problem is called the cutting stock problem. It’s a well-known optimisation challenge. For long products including rebar, beams, and tubes, this is specifically linear cutting optimisation, because you’re working along a single dimension (length). The goal is to minimise total material consumed and produce a steel cutting list your saw operators can follow bar by bar.
GoSmarter Cutting Plans solved this for Midland Steel Supplies, reducing their scrap by 50%. That’s not a rounding error — that’s real money back in margin.
Poor cutting decisions don’t just create scrap. They create more buying. If you’re wasting 8% of every bar, you’re buying 8% more material than you actually need. At current steel prices, that adds up fast.
→ Read more: Cutting Optimiser — The Complete Guide → Read more about Cutting Optimisation
Yield Rate / Material Yield Yield rate (or material yield) is the percentage of input material that ends up in saleable output.
The formula:
Yield Rate = (Output Weight ÷ Input Weight) × 100%
If you buy 1,000 kg of steel and sell 880 kg of finished cut product, your yield rate is 88%. The other 12% is scrap, off-cuts, process loss, or end-of-bar drops.
Industry benchmarks vary by product type. For cut-to-length steel distribution, yields between 85% and 92% are common. The best-run operations push higher.
Why does 1% matter? On a £2 million annual material spend, a 1% improvement in yield is worth £20,000. That’s not theoretical — it’s cash that either goes in your pocket or gets thrown in the skip.
Tracking yield rate properly requires knowing exactly how much went in, exactly how much came out, and where the difference went. Most operations don’t have this visibility. GoSmarter gives it to you automatically.
→ Read more about Yield Rate in Steel Manufacturing
Off-Cut / Scrap / Remnant These three terms get used interchangeably on the shop floor. They shouldn’t be.
Off-cut — Material left over after cutting that is long enough to be used again. It goes back into stock with a known length and the same heat number as the parent bar. It’s still traceable. It still has value. Remnant — Similar to an off-cut. Often used for shorter pieces that sit in a designated remnant area. May still be saleable or usable for smaller orders. Scrap — Material that cannot be reused as stock. End-of-bar drops too short for any order, defective material, miscuts. It goes in the skip or to the scrap merchant. It has some value (scrap price), but far less than the original material. The distinction matters for stock management. An off-cut with a heat number still in the system is an asset. Scrap is a cost. Treating off-cuts as scrap — because it’s easier than booking them back into stock — is one of the most common and most expensive bad habits in steel distribution.
Traceability Traceability is the ability to follow a piece of material from the moment it arrives at your premises to the moment it leaves — and prove it at any point along the way.
It means knowing: which certificate this bar came in on, which heat number it carries, where it’s been processed, which sales order it’s going out on, and which customer it’s being delivered to.
Why is traceability required? Three main reasons:
Quality standards — ISO 9001 requires documented evidence that product conformance can be verified. IATF 16949 (automotive supply chain) is even more demanding. Construction regulations — Steel used in structural applications must be traceable to its test certificate. Building regulations and structural engineers require it. Customer contracts — Many large buyers specify full traceability as a contractual requirement. If you can’t demonstrate it, you don’t get paid. GoSmarter Metals Manager maintains full traceability automatically. Every movement — goods-in, processing, cut, despatch — is logged and linked to the certificate. You don’t need to remember to write it down. The system does it.
→ Read more about Steel Traceability
Long Products vs Flat Products Long products and flat products are the two main families of steel product. They have different shapes, different processing routes, and different challenges.
Long Products Bars, rods, sections, beams, rebar, hollow sections, and tube. They come in standard lengths — typically 6m, 12m, or random mill lengths. They’re cut to customer-specified lengths. The key challenge is cutting optimisation and off-cut management.
Flat Products Plate, sheet, and coil. They’re processed differently — plasma cutting, laser cutting, guillotining, slitting. Yield calculations are two-dimensional (you’re working with area, not just length). Nesting (the 2D equivalent of cutting optimisation) is its own specialist problem.
Most steel service centres deal in one family or the other. Some deal in both. The operational challenges are different enough that software built for one rarely works well for the other.
GoSmarter’s tools are built specifically for long products — the cut-to-length, bar and section world.
→ Read more about Long Products in Steel
Rebar (Reinforcing Bar) Rebar (short for reinforcing bar) is the ribbed steel bar used inside concrete structures. The ribs help the bar bond to the concrete. Without rebar, concrete buildings and bridges would crack and fail under load.
In the UK, rebar is typically specified to BS 4449 (British Standard) or EN 10080 (European Standard). Common grades: B500A (for mesh), B500B (for cut and bent bar).
Traceability is critical for rebar. When a building inspector signs off a structure, they need documented evidence that the steel in the concrete meets the specification. Once the concrete is poured, you can’t go back and check. The paperwork is the only proof.
Cut-and-bend is a common rebar processing operation: the bar is cut to length and bent to the shapes specified on a bending schedule (the drawing that tells you where each bar goes in the structure). Each bent bar needs to be traceable to its certificate.
→ Read more about Rebar and Traceability Requirements
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the core business system that runs key processes such as stock, procurement, sales, finance, and production records in one place.
Most metals businesses use an ERP as their source of record, then add specialist tools for planning, optimisation, and compliance. GoSmarter is built to sit alongside your ERP, not force a full rip-and-replace project.
In practice, ERP integration quality decides how fast you get value. If order and stock data flows cleanly, planning becomes faster and less error-prone. If it does not, teams fall back to spreadsheets.
No-Code / Low-Code No-code means software that you configure through a point-and-click interface — not by writing programming code.
In a manufacturing context, it means your operations team can set up workflows, reports, and automations without calling IT or hiring a developer. If you can fill in a spreadsheet, you can configure a no-code tool.
Low-code is similar but allows some scripting for more complex requirements.
Why does this matter? Because most manufacturing software either requires expensive implementation projects or locks you into the vendor’s default setup. No-code tools give you control without the overhead.
GoSmarter is no-code. You don’t need an IT department to get started. You don’t need a six-month implementation. You configure it to match how your business works — not the other way around.
Return on Investment (ROI) Return on Investment (ROI) is the value you get back compared with what you spent.
For a metals implementation, ROI is usually measured with four levers:
Labour hours saved Scrap reduction Rework reduction Faster compliance and certificate retrieval If savings from those levers are greater than the software and rollout cost, the project is delivering positive ROI.
Request for Quote (RFQ) A Request for Quote (RFQ) is what a customer sends when they want a price and lead time for a part, an assembly, or a batch of material. It usually arrives as an email, a PDF drawing, or a spreadsheet, sometimes all three at once.
Turning an RFQ into a quote sounds simple. In practice, someone has to read the specification, check stock and machine capacity, work out material costs, and get a number back before the customer moves on to a competitor.
The bottleneck is rarely the calculation. It’s the admin: chasing missing details, re-typing specs from a PDF into a quoting spreadsheet, and juggling dozens of RFQs sitting in an inbox at different stages. The longer that takes, the more quotes you lose to whoever answers first.
AI tools that read RFQ documents and pre-fill the quoting process cut that admin down to minutes rather than hours, without changing what your estimators actually decide.
→ Stop Drowning in Paperwork: Why Your Inbox is Killing Your Production Speed
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. It’s a wireless scanning technology that reads data from a tag or label without needing a direct line of sight. Unlike a barcode, which needs to be pointed at a scanner, an RFID tag can be read from a distance — even through packaging or around a corner.
In a metals warehouse, RFID tags are attached to individual bars, bundles, or pallets of steel. As stock moves — from goods-in, to the cutting bay, to despatch — readers automatically log each movement. No manual scanning. No paperwork. No “I thought someone else booked it in.”
You get a real-time update: stock moved, order allocated, delivery confirmed. Nobody touches a keyboard.
Why RFID for metal? Standard paper labels fall off greasy steel bars. Standard barcodes get obscured by mill scale and oil. Industrial RFID tags are designed for harsh environments — they survive dust, heat, and physical handling on a shop floor.
RFID is one step up from barcodes. Barcodes require a direct scan, one item at a time. RFID can read multiple tagged items simultaneously and works even when tags are partially obscured or the item is moving.
In practice, most metals businesses start with barcodes and move to RFID once they’ve got the basics right. The bigger efficiency gain in metals distribution usually comes from digitising certificates first. That’s where the hidden hours are lost.
→ Read more about RFID in Metals Manufacturing
FIFO (First In, First Out) FIFO stands for First In, First Out. It’s a stock rotation rule: the oldest material gets used (or sold) before newer material of the same type.
Why does it matter in a metal shop? Because steel can corrode. Certifications can expire for certain regulated applications. And from an accounting perspective, matching the cost of goods sold to the oldest stock first gives more accurate profit reporting.
In practice, FIFO sounds obvious but is regularly ignored on busy shop floors. When a forklift driver needs 6m of S355 bar, they take whatever’s closest — not necessarily the oldest. Over time, some material sits untouched for months or years, deteriorating in quality and tying up cash.
A real-time inventory system enforces FIFO automatically. When stock is picked, the system directs staff to the oldest batch with the right grade and length. No guesswork. No forgotten stock. No write-offs at year-end.
Kerf Kerf is the width of material removed by a cutting tool.
When you cut a bar or plate, the blade, saw, plasma, or laser doesn’t cut for free — it consumes material. A typical cold saw blade might remove 3–4 mm of material per cut. A plasma cutter running flat-out might remove 6–8 mm or more.
That might sound trivial. On a single cut, it is. But run 200 cuts a day at 4 mm each and that’s 800 mm of wasted bar — nearly a full metre, every day, that you’re buying but not selling. Across hundreds of cuts per day, kerf adds up fast.
Good cutting optimisation software accounts for kerf loss when calculating how many pieces fit in a bar. Bad software (or a spreadsheet) ignores it — and then you’re short on the last piece, causing a re-order that shouldn’t have been needed.
GoSmarter Cutting Plans accounts for kerf in every optimisation run. The result: accurate yield predictions and fewer “we ran out” moments.
→ Read more about Cutting Optimisation
S&OP (Sales and Operations Planning) S&OP stands for Sales and Operations Planning. It’s the process of aligning what your sales team promises customers with what your operations team can actually produce and deliver.
A well-run S&OP process stops you from over-promising, over-buying, or under-stocking. It connects demand signals (orders, forecasts) with supply capacity (machines, materials, labour) on a rolling monthly or weekly cycle.
In metals distribution, S&OP gets complicated fast: long lead times on steel, unpredictable order patterns, and the need to manage stock across multiple grades and lengths. Most companies run S&OP on spreadsheets or as an informal weekly meeting — and then wonder why they’re always firefighting.
Real-time inventory visibility is the foundation of a good S&OP process. If you don’t know what you actually have (not just what the ERP says), your plans will always be built on guesswork.
ERP vs Specialist Tools An ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system — SAP, Sage, Epicor, Dynamics — is designed to manage the whole business: finance, procurement, HR, sales, inventory, production. They’re powerful. They’re also built to handle almost every industry.
That’s the problem.
ERPs handle steel distribution like they handle every other commodity. They don’t understand heat numbers, EN 10204 types, 3.1 certificate attachment, cut-to-length yield tracking, or off-cut management. You can make them work, but you’ll spend months and tens of thousands on customisation.
Specialist tools — like GoSmarter — are built for one thing and built properly. They handle the metals-specific workflows out of the box. And they’re designed to work alongside your ERP, not replace it.
You keep your ERP for finance and procurement. You use GoSmarter for the bit your ERP can’t do: reading mill certificates, optimising cuts, and tracking traceability from goods-in to despatch.
The best tech stacks in steel distribution in 2025 look like this: ERP for the back-office, specialist tools for the shop floor.
→ Read more about ERP in Metals Manufacturing
MES (Manufacturing Execution System) MES stands for Manufacturing Execution System. It is the software layer between your ERP and your shop floor. It manages what is happening in production right now, not what was planned.
An ERP manages orders, finances, and procurement. An MES manages the live execution: work orders, machine instructions, operator tasks, quality checks, and real-time production data. The ERP tells you what to make. The MES tracks what is being made, as it happens.
A full MES typically includes:
Work order scheduling and dispatch Operator-facing work instructions Machine connectivity and data collection (via OPC-UA, Modbus, or similar) Real-time OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) tracking Quality data recording and non-conformance management Traceability from raw material to finished product Full MES implementations from vendors like Siemens Opcenter, AVEVA, or Plex typically cost six figures to deploy and take 6–18 months to go live.
GoSmarter is not a full MES. It is a specialist AI toolkit addressing the problems that matter most for long-product metals operations: mill certificate reading, cutting plan optimisation, and inventory traceability. For most metals service centres and stockholders, a specialist tool delivers measurable results faster and at a fraction of the cost of a full MES implementation.
→ Cloud MES Comparison: What It Actually Costs → Why Some Metals Manufacturers Don’t Choose GoSmarter
MCP (Model Context Protocol) MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. It is an open standard that lets AI assistants connect to your software and work with its data directly.
Think of it as a universal plug for AI. Any assistant that supports MCP can connect to any system that provides an MCP server. No custom integration project, no middleware to buy.
Why does it matter in metals? Your stock, certs and orders stop being locked inside one screen. An AI assistant can look up a heat number, check what’s free to sell, or pull cert data while you’re quoting a job. The person asking doesn’t need to know which system holds the answer.
GoSmarter provides an MCP server alongside its open REST API. Your team can point an AI assistant at live stock, certificates and orders from day one. IT gets the documentation up front, so the review is quick.
→ Integration strategy: API and MCP options → Security and compliance one-pager
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. It’s the technology that reads text from an image or PDF and turns it into structured, searchable data.
In a metals context, OCR is what enables a system to read a scanned mill certificate. It pulls out the heat number, grade, chemical composition, and mechanical properties without anyone typing a thing.
Generic OCR tools struggle with mill certificates. They’re designed for invoices and forms with predictable layouts. Mill certs come in hundreds of different formats, use industry-specific notation (like “Rp0.2” for proof strength), and often cover multiple heats on a single page. Generic OCR makes a mess of them.
GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader uses AI-powered OCR built specifically for metals. It handles every certificate format it encounters, separates data from multi-heat documents, and validates extracted values against expected ranges for the grade and standard. The result is extracted data you can trust. No more hours spent checking it.
→ Read more about Mill Certificate Automation → MillCert Reader — AI-powered OCR built for mill certificates
Carbon Equivalence (CEQ) Carbon Equivalence (often written as CE or CEQ) is a calculated value that indicates how weldable a steel is.
The formula combines carbon content with contributions from other alloying elements (manganese, chromium, molybdenum, vanadium, nickel, copper), each of which affects weldability. A lower CEQ means the steel is easier to weld without risk of cracking.
Why does it matter? Welders and fabricators use CEQ to determine whether pre-heating is required before welding. Structural engineers specify a maximum CEQ on drawings and purchase orders. If the CEQ of your material exceeds the specified limit, you have a non-conformance. Even if every other mechanical property is in spec.
CEQ is printed on most structural steel mill certificates. GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader extracts and stores it automatically, so your team can answer “what’s the CE on batch 4711?” in seconds rather than digging through filing cabinets.
New in 2026: The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) requires importers to declare the embedded carbon content of steel and other materials. CEQ is one of the data points that feeds into CBAM reporting. Manual systems can’t keep up. Automated certificate reading makes CBAM compliance a side-effect of normal operations, not a separate project.
→ Read more about Carbon Equivalence in Steel
CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) CBAM stands for Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. It’s an EU regulation that puts a carbon price on imports of steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, and electricity from countries outside the EU that don’t have equivalent carbon pricing.
In plain English: if you import steel into the EU, you may need to pay for the carbon emissions embedded in making it. EU manufacturers already pay that cost under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS).
CBAM came into force progressively from October 2023, with full financial obligations phasing in from 2026. It requires importers to declare the embedded carbon of their imports, verified against actual production data where possible.
What does this mean for metals businesses?
You need to know the carbon data for your material. That means having access to mill certificate data, including CEQ and production process information, at an order level. If you’re still running manual certificate processes, CBAM compliance is going to be painful.
Automated certificate systems like GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader extract and store this data as a by-product of normal operations. When CBAM reporting time comes, the data is already there.
→ EU CBAM Official Page → Read more about Carbon Equivalence
LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) LCA stands for Life Cycle Assessment. It measures the environmental impact of a product from raw material extraction through manufacturing, transport, use, and end-of-life.
In metals manufacturing, an LCA shows where carbon emissions and waste actually come from. It highlights whether the biggest impact sits in steel grade choice, transport distance, energy mix, coating process, or scrap rates.
Why does this matter? Because regulations like CBAM and customer procurement standards now demand proof, not guesses. If you cannot trace inputs to outputs, your LCA falls apart under audit.
Modern LCA tools link directly to production data, mill certificates, and verified emissions databases. That gives you audit-ready numbers and faster reporting without endless spreadsheet work.
→ Read more about LCA tools for metals manufacturers
ISO 9001 ISO 9001 is the international standard for Quality Management Systems (QMS). It sets out what a proper QMS looks like, and an independent auditor checks you’re actually following it.
For metals manufacturers and distributors, ISO 9001 certification means you’ve demonstrated to an independent auditor that your processes — from goods-in through to despatch — are documented, controlled, and subject to continual improvement.
What does it require in practice? Among other things:
Documented procedures — you have to write down how you do things, not just know it in your head Traceability — you must be able to trace every product to its source documentation (which, for steel, means certificates and heat numbers) Non-conformance management — when something goes wrong, you record it, investigate it, and fix the root cause Calibration records — measuring equipment must be calibrated and the records kept Manual systems make ISO 9001 compliance hard. When your traceability depends on someone writing a heat number on a bin card correctly, your QMS is only as strong as the weakest handwriting.
GoSmarter creates an immutable audit trail. It logs every goods-in event, every cut, and every despatch, and links each one to the certificate. When an auditor asks for the traceability record for a specific order, you pull it up in seconds.
→ Read more about Steel Traceability
QMS (Quality Management System) QMS stands for Quality Management System. It is the set of documented policies, procedures, and controls that define how your organisation manages quality — from supplier qualification through to goods-out inspection.
In metals manufacturing and distribution, a QMS typically covers:
Incoming material inspection — checking that material received matches the purchase specification and that mill certificates are present, complete, and within grade Non-conformance management — recording, investigating, and resolving quality failures before they reach the customer Traceability — linking every product or component back to its source documentation (heat number, certificate, supplier) Calibration — keeping measuring equipment within specification and maintaining the records to prove it Corrective and preventive actions (CAPAs) — structured responses to quality problems that address root causes, not symptoms Most metals businesses adopt a QMS to meet ISO 9001 requirements, satisfy customer audit requests, or fulfil sector-specific standards (BS EN, aerospace, automotive, defence, and similar).
The weakest point in most manual QMS implementations is traceability. If your process depends on someone accurately copying a heat number from a certificate into a spreadsheet, a single transcription error breaks the chain. GoSmarter automates that step: it extracts the heat number and certificate data directly from the PDF and links it to the stock record, making the traceability trail complete and auditable without manual entry.
→ Read more about ISO 9001 in metals manufacturing → Read more about Steel Traceability
NCR (Non-Conformance Report) NCR stands for Non-Conformance Report. It’s the document you raise the moment material, a product, or a process fails to meet the specification it was supposed to meet: wrong grade, out-of-tolerance dimensions, a failed test result, a customer complaint.
An NCR typically records:
What failed — the specific defect, out-of-spec measurement, or customer complaint Where it was found — goods-in, in-process, final inspection, or after despatch The affected batch or order — linked back to the heat number and certificate wherever possible The investigation — root cause, containment action, and corrective action Sign-off — who reviewed and closed the NCR, and when NCRs matter for two reasons. First, they stop a known defect reaching a customer twice. Second, they’re what an ISO 9001 or sector-specific auditor asks to see first, because a healthy NCR log proves your Quality Management System (QMS) actually catches problems rather than burying them in an inbox.
The weak point in most manual NCR processes isn’t raising the report. It’s spotting the pattern across dozens of NCRs raised by different people, on different shifts, over several months. A single NCR is easy to file and forget. A cluster of NCRs pointing at the same supplier, the same grade, or the same machine is the signal worth acting on, and that’s exactly what gets missed when NCRs live in separate spreadsheets or paper files.
→ Read more about ISO 9001 in metals manufacturing
OTIF (On-Time In Full) OTIF stands for On-Time In Full. It measures whether you delivered the right product, in the right quantity, at the right time. Both parts have to be right. Deliver late? OTIF fails. Deliver short? OTIF fails. Deliver a different grade? OTIF fails.
It’s one of the primary key performance indicators (KPIs) used to measure supply chain performance in metals distribution and manufacturing. Finance Directors, Operations Directors, and customer procurement teams track it closely. Poor OTIF scores mean penalty clauses, lost contracts, and difficult conversations.
What drives poor OTIF in metals? The usual suspects:
Material shortages because cut plans were wrong and you ran out of the right grade or length Delays caused by chasing missing or incorrect mill certificates Wrong material allocated to jobs because stock records were inaccurate Rush jobs cannibalising stock planned for other orders GoSmarter’s tools attack the root causes directly. Better cut plans mean the right material is cut for the right jobs — fewer shortages, fewer emergency reorders. Accurate cert data means goods-in isn’t held up by certificate problems. Linked stock records mean allocations are based on reality, not guesswork.
Better processes don’t just reduce scrap. They improve the on-time delivery numbers your customers measure you by.
Lean 4.0 Lean 4.0 is lean manufacturing applied alongside Industry 4.0 technologies — AI, IoT sensors, cloud platforms, and real-time data analytics.
Traditional lean (from Toyota’s production system) eliminates waste through disciplined processes and visual management. Its limitation: it relies on human observation and manual data collection. You can only see what you’re standing in front of.
Lean 4.0 doesn’t replace lean thinking. It removes the bottleneck that always limited it — the speed at which humans can collect, process, and act on data. IoT sensors watch every machine continuously. AI spots anomalies before they become failures. Dashboards replace clipboards.
For metals manufacturers, Lean 4.0 means real-time visibility into OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), scrap rates, and downtime — without someone walking the floor with a notebook.
→ Learn how AI powers Lean 4.0 for metals manufacturers
OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) OEE stands for Overall Equipment Effectiveness. It’s the single most widely used metric for measuring how well a machine or production line is performing.
OEE is calculated from three factors:
Availability — what percentage of planned production time was the machine actually running? Performance — when running, was it running at the intended speed? Quality — of what it produced, how much was first-pass good output? OEE = Availability × Performance × Quality
A world-class OEE score is typically cited as 85%. Most manufacturers score between 40% and 70% when they measure it honestly. The gap between those numbers is hidden capacity you’re not using.
For metals manufacturers, unplanned downtime on a saw, press, or press-brake is expensive. Every unplanned stop is lost throughput. Tracking OEE exposes where the losses are — so you fix the right problems, not just the loudest ones.
GoSmarter helps metals manufacturers track OEE alongside mill certificate data and scrap rates, giving a complete picture of production performance in one place.
Gemba and Digital Gemba Gemba is a Japanese term meaning “the real place” — the shop floor where value is created. In lean manufacturing, a Gemba walk means going to where the work happens to observe, ask questions, and understand what’s actually going on, rather than relying on second-hand reports.
The Gemba walk is one of the core practices of lean management. Problems are easier to see and solve when you’re standing in front of them.
Digital Gemba is the modern equivalent: IoT sensors and real-time dashboards give continuous visibility into what’s happening across every machine and workstation. You get the same quality of observation as a physical Gemba walk — without being limited by what one person can physically see at one time.
For managers running multiple shifts or multiple sites, Digital Gemba isn’t just more efficient. It’s the only way to get consistent visibility.
IoT and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) IoT (Internet of Things) is the collective term for physical devices — sensors, machines, controllers — connected to a network and able to send and receive data.
IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) is IoT applied specifically in manufacturing and industrial settings. An IIoT sensor on a press might report cycle time, temperature, vibration, and power draw. That data flows to a dashboard or AI system that can spot patterns a human would miss.
In lean manufacturing, IIoT sensors are what make Digital Gemba possible. They create the continuous data stream that enables:
Real-time OEE tracking Predictive maintenance — alerting before failure, not after Automatic anomaly detection Accurate downtime root cause analysis For metals manufacturers, common IIoT applications include vibration sensors on saws and presses, temperature monitoring on heat treatment, and production counters on cut-to-length lines.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. In a manufacturing context, it refers to software systems that learn from data to perform tasks that would otherwise require human judgement: reading documents, identifying patterns, optimising plans.
For metals manufacturers, the most practical AI applications are:
Document reading: AI extracts structured data from unstructured PDFs such as mill certificates, without needing every document to conform to a fixed template Optimisation: AI finds better solutions to complex allocation problems (like how to cut bar stock across many orders to minimise scrap) faster and more completely than manual planning Anomaly detection: AI flags values outside expected ranges, such as a tensile strength below grade specification, before the material is accepted into stock GoSmarter is purpose-built AI for metals manufacturers. It applies these capabilities to the specific workflows where they deliver the clearest return: cert extraction, cutting plan optimisation, and inventory traceability.
→ AI for Metals Manufacturing → GoSmarter for Metals Operations
5S Methodology 5S is a lean workplace organisation method. The five steps — translated from Japanese — each start with S:
Sort — remove anything that doesn’t belong Straighten (Set in Order) — a place for everything, everything in its place Shine (Sweep) — keep it clean enough that problems are visible Standardise — document the right way so everyone does it the same Sustain — build the habits so it doesn’t slip back 5S sounds almost trivially simple. In practice, it’s the foundation that makes everything else in lean possible. A disorganised, cluttered shop floor hides problems. A clean, standardised one makes them impossible to ignore.
In metals manufacturing, 5S directly impacts how quickly stock can be located, how reliably heat numbers and certificates stay attached to the right material, and how visible quality issues are at each processing stage.
The 8 Wastes of Lean (DOWNTIME) Lean manufacturing identifies eight types of waste — non-value-adding activities that consume time, resources, or materials without producing anything useful. They’re remembered using the acronym DOWNTIME:
Defects — producing material or parts that don’t meet spec and need rework or scrapping Overproduction — making more than ordered, or earlier than needed Waiting — people or machines sitting idle between process steps Non-utilised talent — skills and knowledge not being used (often the most overlooked waste) Transportation — unnecessary movement of materials around the facility Inventory — excess stock that ties up cash and hides problems Motion — unnecessary movement of people (reaching, walking, searching) Excess Processing — doing more work than the customer or process requires For metals manufacturers, the most common wastes are Defects (scrap from poor cutting), Waiting (machines idle while jobs are manually scheduled), Inventory (excess stock from poor demand forecasting), and Non-utilised talent (engineers doing data entry instead of engineering).
Data-driven tools attack several of these simultaneously: real-time monitoring reduces Waiting, predictive maintenance reduces unplanned Defects, and automated scheduling reduces Overproduction and Inventory.
Predictive Maintenance Predictive maintenance uses data to anticipate equipment failures before they happen — so you can schedule maintenance at a convenient time, not respond to an emergency breakdown.
Contrast with the three main approaches:
Reactive maintenance — fix it when it breaks. Cheap to plan, expensive in practice. Preventive maintenance — service on a fixed schedule (every 3 months, every 1,000 cycles). Better than reactive, but often over-maintains healthy equipment and misses failures between service dates. Predictive maintenance — monitor the actual condition of the equipment and intervene only when the data says it’s needed. Common data sources: vibration sensors detect bearing wear, temperature sensors flag cooling issues, current monitoring spots motor problems, acoustic sensors pick up changes in sound that precede failures.
For metals manufacturers, unplanned downtime on a key piece of equipment — a saw, a press, a heat treatment furnace — stops the whole production flow and pushes deliveries past their due dates. Predictive maintenance turns those surprises into scheduled events.
EAF (Electric Arc Furnace) EAF stands for Electric Arc Furnace. It is a steelmaking vessel that melts scrap steel (and sometimes direct reduced iron) using the heat from an electric arc struck between graphite electrodes and the charge.
EAF steelmaking is fundamentally different from the blast furnace route. Where a blast furnace reduces iron ore to iron using coke and hot air — a process that takes several days and generates enormous carbon emissions — an EAF can melt a charge of scrap and produce liquid steel in as little as 40 minutes.
That speed advantage is one of the reasons EAF-based “mini-mills” — led by producers like Nucor and Steel Dynamics in the United States — have grown rapidly since the 1970s. Their short production cycles, lower capital intensity, and ability to run on renewable electricity make them structurally more adaptable than integrated blast furnace plants.
From an AI and instrumentation perspective, EAF operations are easier to equip with real-time controls than blast furnaces. The shorter cycle times mean AI systems can observe more process cycles per day and learn faster. Electrode position, power input, temperature, and slag chemistry can all be monitored and adjusted by AI control agents — which is why AI maturity in the mini-mill sector tends to be higher than at traditional integrated steelworks.
Environmental note: Because EAFs run on electricity rather than fossil fuels, they can approach near-zero carbon intensity if powered by renewable energy. This is a key advantage as carbon pricing and CBAM pressures increase.
→ AI in Steel Manufacturing: From Advisors to Autonomous Plants — four levels of AI maturity in steel manufacturing, including EAF examples
Tariff-Rate Quota (TRQ) A Tariff-Rate Quota (TRQ) lets a fixed volume of a product enter a market at a low or zero duty rate. Anything shipped above that volume pays a higher, “out-of-quota” tariff instead of being blocked outright.
The EU’s steel safeguard regime works this way: steel within your country’s quota clears at normal terms, and steel above it faces a 50% duty. TRQs are usually split by product category, and in trade-heavy sectors like steel, by country of origin too. That’s exactly what Annex I of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1457 does. It carves the EU’s total tariff-free steel volume into country-specific slices, so knowing the overall industry quota tells you nothing about your own supplier’s position.
→ Read more about the EU’s steel quota by country
Free Trade Agreement (FTA) A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is a treaty between two or more countries that removes or reduces tariffs and other trade barriers between them.
Countries with an FTA with the EU often get separate, more favourable treatment inside EU trade defence measures. Under the EU’s steel safeguard regime, Annex I of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1457 reserves roughly half of each product category’s quota for countries treated as having an existing or forthcoming FTA with the EU, each with its own dedicated country line. The rest is open to all trading partners on a Most Favoured Nation (MFN) basis. If your supplier’s country has an FTA with the EU, check which quota line actually applies before you assume standard terms cover you.
Melt and Pour Melt and pour is the point where steel first turns from liquid to solid, as slab, billet, or ingot. Under new EU origin rules, melt-and-pour location decides a steel product’s country of origin, not wherever it was last processed or finished.
This closes a loophole where steel made in one country could be lightly reworked in another and then shipped under a friendlier declared origin. From 1 October 2026, EU importers must provide verifiable evidence of melt-and-pour location, typically through a Mill Test Certificate (MTC). Weak or missing melt-and-pour evidence isn’t just a compliance headache. From 2027 onward, the European Commission plans to use melt-and-pour data to help redraw country-specific quota allocations. Sloppy records today can shrink your options tomorrow.
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are businesses below a given size threshold (usually based on headcount and turnover). In practice, SMEs are the firms with the least spare capacity for extra admin work, so regulatory changes hit them first.
A large steelmaker can add a compliance analyst to absorb new paperwork. A ten-person stockholder can’t, so the same rule change costs it more time per employee.
→ Read more about the EU steel quota compliance load on SMEs
FAQ What's the difference between a 2.2 and a 3.1 certificate? A 2.2 test report includes test results from the production run, but those tests weren’t necessarily done on your specific batch. A 3.1 inspection certificate is validated by the manufacturer’s authorised representative for your specific heat number. If your customer’s purchase order specifies 3.1, a 2.2 is not acceptable. Check the PO before you book the goods in. Can I reuse an off-cut from one order for another? Yes — as long as you maintain traceability. The off-cut must retain its heat number and link to the original certificate. If the new order requires the same grade or better, and the cert supports it, you can allocate the off-cut. GoSmarter Metals Manager does this automatically, booking off-cuts back into stock with full traceability intact. Do I need a separate system if I already have an ERP? Probably, yes — if you’re in steel distribution. ERPs aren’t built for cut-to-length processing, mill certificate management, or metals-specific traceability. GoSmarter integrates alongside your ERP. You keep your ERP for finance and procurement; GoSmarter handles the shop floor operations your ERP can’t. What does EN 10204 3.2 certification actually mean in practice? It means a third-party inspector — independent from the manufacturer — has co-signed the material test certificate alongside the manufacturer’s own representative. It’s a higher level of assurance, required in regulated industries like nuclear, pressure vessels, and some offshore applications. It costs more and takes longer to source. Only specify it if your customer or regulator requires it. Go Deeper These terms are just the starting point. If you want to go further, here’s where to look:
GoSmarter Glossary — The full GoSmarter platform glossary, covering AI, cloud platforms, data engineering concepts, and GoSmarter-specific terminology alongside metals manufacturing terms. Browse all glossary entries by category — Every glossary page, organised by topic. What is Metals Inventory Management? — Why generic inventory tools fail for steel. MillCert Reader — The GoSmarter tool that reads mill certificates automatically. Whatever format they arrive in, it handles it. Cutting Plans — The tool that calculates optimal cut plans and cuts your scrap in half. Metals Manager — Live stock tracking with full certificate traceability, from goods-in to despatch. Mill Certificate Automation: The Complete Guide — A deep dive into how to automate the certificate nightmare from end to end. Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation — How to stop throwing money in the skip. Data-Driven Lean Manufacturing: Benefits and Tools — How AI and IoT turn lean principles into real-time, measurable improvements on the shop floor. 

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### Mill Certificate Automation for Metals Manufacturers: The Complete Guide

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/mill-cert-automation/
Description: Stop typing mill cert data by hand. MillCert Reader extracts heat numbers, grades, and properties from any PDF in seconds. 120+ hours saved per year.

Your team is spending hours every week typing data from mill certificates into spreadsheets, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, or shared drives. Heat numbers. Material grades. Chemical composition. Mechanical properties. The same data, typed again and again, by a human being who should be doing something more valuable.
This is mill certificate management in most metals businesses in 2026. It is slow, error-prone, and completely unnecessary.
GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader is a purpose-built AI tool that reads any mill certificate (scanned paper or digital PDF, from any mill, in any format) and extracts every data point automatically. No manual entry. No errors. No hunting through folders at 4pm on a Friday.
This guide explains how mill certificate automation works, what makes metals-specific tooling different from generic OCR, and what GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader actually does for production teams.
What Is a Mill Certificate? A mill certificate (also called a mill test report, MTC, or test certificate) is a quality document issued by a steel mill or metals producer that certifies the chemical and mechanical properties of a specific batch of material.
Under EN 10204, the European standard that governs material test certificates, there are four certificate types:
Type 2.1 — A declaration of compliance with the order specification. No test results included. Type 2.2 — A declaration of compliance with test results from non-specific inspection. Internal data. Type 3.1 — Test results from specific inspection, validated by an authorised representative of the manufacturer. Type 3.2 — Test results validated by both the manufacturer and an independent third party. Most supply chains into construction, energy, aerospace, and automotive require 3.1 certificates as a minimum. Defence and nuclear typically require 3.2.
What a Mill Certificate Contains A standard MTC includes:
Heat number — the unique identifier for the production batch (often called a cast number or charge number) Material grade — the specification the material was produced to (e.g. S355J2, Grade 60, A36) Chemical composition — percentages of carbon, manganese, phosphorus, sulphur, silicon, and other elements Mechanical properties — tensile strength, yield strength, elongation, impact values (where applicable) Dimensions and weight — the physical specification of the material supplied Heat treatment — any annealing, normalising, or quenching and tempering applied Testing methods — references to the standards used (e.g. BS EN ISO 6892-1 for tensile testing) Inspector signature and stamp — required to validate the certificate as genuine Why Manual Mill Certificate Management Breaks Down Manual MTC management creates problems at every stage of the supply chain.
At goods-in When materials arrive, someone has to match the physical delivery to the certificate. They cross-check the heat number on the material against the heat number on the cert. Then they file the cert, usually in a physical folder or a shared drive, with a filename like “cert1.pdf” or “mill_cert_aug.pdf” that will mean nothing to anyone in six months.
That filing step is the first failure point. The cert gets filed, but the data inside it (the heat number, the grade, the mechanical properties) stays locked in the document. It is not searchable. It is not linked to anything. It is a dead end.
At production When a job requires material to a specific grade or specification, someone has to go back and verify that the material earmarked for that job actually meets the requirement. That means finding the right certificate, reading it, and checking the values manually.
In a busy shop, this takes time. Time that is often not available. So corners get cut, assumptions get made, and occasionally the wrong material goes into the wrong job.
At despatch Customer orders increasingly require certificates on delivery. The customer wants proof that the material you sent them meets the specification they ordered. Finding the right certificate, making sure it covers exactly the material you have supplied (and not more, not less), and sending it with the delivery is another manual step. Often done under pressure at the end of the day, with someone on the phone asking where their order is.
At audit When a customer or regulator audits your quality records, they want to trace specific pieces of material back through your supply chain. Which heat number? Which certificate? Which batch did it come from? Manual filing systems fail these audits regularly. Files are missing. Data is inconsistent. The chain of custody has gaps.
How GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader Solves This GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader is AI software built specifically for metals manufacturers. It reads mill certificates in any format and extracts the data automatically.
What It Does Upload — you upload a PDF or scanned image of a mill certificate (or a batch of them) Extract — the AI reads the document and pulls out every relevant data field: heat number, grade, chemical composition, mechanical properties, dimensions, test methods, and the inspector’s reference Validate — extracted values are checked against expected ranges for the stated grade and standard Store — the data is stored in your GoSmarter account, linked to the certificate image, ready to search and retrieve instantly Link — certificate data flows directly into your inventory records, so every piece of stock carries its cert data with it The whole process takes seconds per certificate. For a team processing 50 certificates a week, that is the difference between hours of data entry and a five-minute upload.
What Makes It Different From Generic OCR Generic optical character recognition (OCR) tools can read text from PDFs. But metals mill certificates are not simple text documents. They are:
Structured in hundreds of different formats (every mill has its own template) Sometimes scanned at low resolution, often at angles Occasionally in German, French, Spanish, or other European languages Filled with domain-specific terminology (heat numbers, grade designations, chemical symbols) that generic tools misread or misclassify Frequently containing multi-heat data: a single certificate covering multiple heats with different properties GoSmarter’s AI was trained specifically on metals mill certificates. It understands the difference between a heat number and a batch number. It knows that “Rp0.2” is a yield strength value, not a product code. It handles multi-heat certificates correctly, extracting separate data rows for each heat rather than blending the data together.
For a full comparison: GoSmarter vs Generic OCR/IDP Tools for Mill Certificates.
How GoSmarter Compares to Other Mill Certificate Tools Several tools can extract text from a mill certificate PDF. The meaningful differences show up on the edge cases that come up every week in real metals operations.
Capability OCR / Document AI (Amazon Textract, Google Document AI) Enterprise IDP (Rossum, Nanonets, ABBYY) GoSmarter MillCert Reader Reads standard clean PDFs ✅ ✅ ✅ Reads scanned paper certificates ✅ (quality-dependent) ✅ (with training) ✅ Handles any mill format without template training ❌ ❌ (per-mill training required) ✅ Correctly processes multi-heat certificates ❌ ❌ (custom logic required) ✅ Understands metals domain terminology (Rp0.2, CEQ, grade designations) ❌ ❌ ✅ Validates values against grade and standard specifications ❌ ❌ ✅ Reads certificates in German, French, Spanish, etc. Partial Partial ✅ Builds EN 10204-compliant audit trail ❌ ❌ ✅ Links certificate data to inventory automatically ❌ (custom integration required) ❌ (custom integration required) ✅ Handles long-product specifics (bundles, shape codes, CEQ) ❌ ❌ ✅ Time to first result Custom development: weeks Template training: weeks Upload and go: minutes Ongoing maintenance burden High (format changes break pipelines) High (templates need retraining) Low (AI handles variation) Why enterprise IDP platforms fall short for mill certificates: tools like Rossum, Nanonets, and ABBYY FlexiCapture are designed to read large volumes of a small number of document types — invoices, purchase orders, claim forms. You label 50 examples of Invoice Format A. The system learns Invoice Format A. Mill certificates do not work like this. Every steel mill has its own format, and formats change. A Rossum or Nanonets deployment for mill certs requires labelling hundreds of examples from every supplier you work with. Then maintaining those templates indefinitely. GoSmarter uses a combination of a growing number of fine-tuned models for suppliers and a specialist agent to extract newly seen certificates.
Why Azure AI Document Intelligence and Google Document AI fall short: Microsoft’s Azure Form Recognizer (now Azure AI Document Intelligence) and Google Document AI are cloud APIs that support custom model training. A development team can build a mill certificate extraction model on either platform. The gaps specific to metals manufacturing are the same as for IDP platforms. Neither handles multi-heat certificates without custom parsing logic. Neither validates against grade specifications. Neither builds an EN 10204 audit trail. Budget four to twelve weeks of development work, plus ongoing maintenance. If your business does not have a developer team, neither platform is a realistic self-service option.
For a full breakdown of these comparisons, see Mill Certificate Automation Software: Which Tool Is Right for Your Business?.
Long-Product Specifics If your business handles long products (rebar, sections, beams, tube, bar, wire rod), you face certificate challenges that flat product businesses do not.
Bundle-level vs bar-level traceability Long products are typically sold in bundles. A bundle might contain 20 bars of the same heat and grade, but when you cut that bundle to fulfil multiple orders, you need to track which bars went where and ensure the right certs follow them.
GoSmarter links certificate data to individual inventory items, not just to an incoming delivery. When you cut a bundle, the cert data follows the material. When you despatch bars from a job, the right certificate section is available to send with them.
Multiple heats per delivery A single delivery of rebar often contains material from more than one heat. The supplier provides one document, but that document covers material with different chemical compositions and mechanical properties from different production runs.
Generic OCR tools typically extract a single set of values per certificate. GoSmarter extracts multi-heat data correctly: separate rows for each heat, each with its own complete data set, ready to be matched to the right bars.
Carbon equivalence and CBAM For rebar in particular, carbon equivalence (CEQ) is a key value. It determines weldability, affects cutting and bending characteristics, and feeds into carbon reporting under the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).
GoSmarter extracts CEQ data from every certificate and stores it against the relevant heat. This gives you the data you need for CBAM reporting without any additional manual effort.
The Audit Trail Every interaction with a certificate in GoSmarter is logged. Who uploaded it. When. What data was extracted. Which inventory records it was linked to. Which orders it was associated with. Which despatches included it.
This is a permanent record that nobody can edit or delete. It covers:
Customer quality audits — you can show exactly which material went into which order and what the certificate said about it Regulatory inspections — you can demonstrate traceability from incoming material to finished product Internal quality reviews — you can identify where issues arose in the supply chain without manually reconstructing the paper trail ISO 9001 and EN 10204 compliance — the audit trail is automatically structured to meet the documentation requirements of these standards Quantified Proof Points These are not estimates. They are results from actual GoSmarter customers.
120+ hours saved per year per user
One production manager at a UK steel stockholder saved more than 120 hours annually (approximately three full working weeks) by switching from manual cert data entry to GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader. The time was reclaimed from a single task: extracting data from certificates and entering it into their system.
Bulk PDF renaming in seconds
Before GoSmarter, the same team spent significant time manually renaming certificate PDFs to include the heat number and grade, so the right cert could be sent with the right order. GoSmarter does this automatically on upload. The renamed files are available immediately.
Error rate: near zero on extraction
Manual data entry introduces transcription errors: a transposed digit in a heat number, a wrong grade recorded. With GoSmarter, extracted data is validated against expected ranges for the stated grade and standard. Discrepancies are flagged before they cause problems downstream.
One customer, a UK steel stockholder, put it this way: “Our AI tool saves hours every month by automatically pulling key data from mill certificates. It can rename documents in seconds which is a task that is usually painfully manual.” That matches the time savings above: 120+ hours a year, reclaimed from a single task.
Step-by-Step: How to Automate Your Mill Certificate Workflow Step 1: Assess your current process Map every manual touchpoint in your current mill cert workflow. Where does data get re-entered? Where do documents get filed in ways that make retrieval difficult? Where do delays occur before a customer audit?
Quantify the time cost. If your team spends three hours a week on mill cert admin, that is 150 hours a year, nearly four full working weeks. That is your business case for automation.
Step 2: Start with MillCert Reader Upload your first certificate. GoSmarter extracts the data. Review the output. For most standard certificates from major mills, the extraction accuracy is very high out of the box. No configuration required.
If you have unusual certificate formats from specific suppliers, GoSmarter works with those templates over time. The AI learns from the documents it processes.
Step 3: Link to your inventory When GoSmarter reads a certificate, the extracted data can be linked to your incoming stock in Metals Manager. Every item in inventory carries its certificate data with it. When you search for S355 material with specific mechanical properties, you find it in seconds.
Step 4: Configure your despatch workflow Set up GoSmarter to automatically associate the right certificate sections with outgoing orders. When you confirm a despatch, the system identifies which material is going and which certificate covers it. No manual hunting required.
Step 5: Build your audit trail From day one, every certificate interaction is logged. By the time your next customer audit comes around, you will have a complete, searchable record of every certificate received, every piece of material it covers, and every order it was associated with.
Common Questions About Mill Certificate Automation What types of mill certificates does GoSmarter support? GoSmarter handles certificates from all major steel mills worldwide: scanned paper documents, digital PDFs, and everything in between. Different mill formats, different languages, different standards. If a human can read it, the AI can read it. This includes certificates to EN 10204 Types 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, and 3.2, as well as ASTM, BS, and international mill-specific formats. Does it handle multi-heat certificates? Yes. Multi-heat certificates (where a single document covers multiple heats with different properties) are one of the specific challenges that generic OCR tools handle badly. GoSmarter extracts separate data rows for each heat, so each heat’s chemical and mechanical data is stored and searchable independently. How does GoSmarter handle certificates in other languages? GoSmarter supports mill certificates in English, German, French, Spanish, and other European languages. Mills in Germany, France, Spain, and Eastern Europe use their own certificate templates. GoSmarter reads these correctly and maps the data to standard English field names. What data does GoSmarter extract from a certificate? Heat numbers, cast numbers, material grade and specification, chemical composition (C, Mn, P, S, Si, and all alloying elements), mechanical properties (yield strength, tensile strength, elongation, impact values), dimensions, heat treatment, testing methods, certificate type, issue date, and inspector reference. Carbon equivalence (CEQ) is also extracted where present. Does GoSmarter integrate with our ERP? GoSmarter is designed to work alongside your ERP, not replace it. Data can be exported in CSV or PDF format to feed into any system. For tighter integration, GoSmarter offers API connections that allow data to flow directly into your ERP without manual export steps. Is the audit trail compliant with EN 10204? Yes. GoSmarter’s audit trail captures the information required to demonstrate compliance with EN 10204, including which material was covered by which certificate, the certificate type, and the chain of custody from incoming delivery to finished product. The trail is immutable: records cannot be altered after the fact. How much does it cost? GoSmarter offers 50% off your first month. Paid plans for compliance automation start at £295/month (Workshop tier). See the pricing page for current options, including AI credit packs. How is GoSmarter different from a generic intelligent document processing platform? Generic intelligent document processing platforms are built to handle any kind of document. They can extract text from a mill cert, but they do not understand the domain. They will not correctly identify a multi-heat certificate. They will not know that “Rp0.2” is a yield strength value. They will not flag when an extracted chemical composition value is out of range for the stated grade. GoSmarter was trained on metals mill certificates specifically. It understands the data it is extracting, not just the text. How can we standardise mill cert data arriving from different mills and formats globally? GoSmarter’s AI is trained on certificate templates from mills across Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East. These include major producers in Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Turkey, China, and South Korea. You do not configure supplier formats manually. Upload any certificate and the extraction runs automatically, producing a consistent, structured output regardless of which mill issued the original document. Every certificate produces the same fields in the same structure: heat number, grade, chemical composition, mechanical properties, dimensions, and test references. That consistency is what lets you compare incoming material across suppliers and feed reliable data into your ERP or quality management system. Which software makes it easy to link mill certs to customer orders for audit trails? GoSmarter automatically links every mill certificate to the inventory item it covers, and from there to every production order, job, and customer despatch that used that material. The chain is built as you work. No manual cross-referencing required. When a customer or auditor asks for the cert for a specific delivery, you retrieve the complete record (certificate image, extracted data, and the full chain of custody) by searching on order number, heat number, material grade, or despatch date. The audit trail is immutable: records cannot be altered after creation, which satisfies EN 10204 and ISO 9001 documentation requirements without any additional effort. Related Resources Audit Trails: Why They Matter in Metals Manufacturing — how GoSmarter’s permanent audit trail covers MTRs, inventory, and orders end-to-end, and which standards it satisfies Mill Certificate Automation Software: Which Tool Is Right for Your Business? — vendor-neutral buyer’s guide comparing GoSmarter, Rossum, Nanonets, Azure Form Recognizer, ABBYY, and more Compliance Solutions — GoSmarter’s full compliance management capabilities, including traceability and quality documentation Integrated Cert Traceability & Auditability — building a complete chain of custody from delivery to despatch GoSmarter vs Generic OCR/IDP Tools for Mill Certificates — a detailed comparison Mill Test Certificate Management: Common Questions Answered — a plain-English guide to EN 10204 and MTC management How to Automate Mill Certificate Management in 5 Steps — a step-by-step implementation guide Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study — how a leading rebar supplier automated certificate handling end-to-end ROI of AI in Metals Manufacturing — payback period calculations for mill cert automation, including the full worked example GoSmarter’s Workshop tier — AI cert automation, pricing, and first-month offer GoSmarter is made by Nightingale HQ, a UK-based AI company building practical tools for metals manufacturers since 2018.


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### Mill Certificate Automation Software: Which Tool Is Right for Your Business?

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/mill-cert-software-comparison/
Description: Eight tools claim to read mill certificates automatically. Here's what each actually handles, and which is right for your metals manufacturing operation.

Most software that claims to read mill certificates automatically can extract text from a PDF. Far fewer can validate those values against the stated grade. Fewer still handle a certificate covering four different heats. And almost none build a chain of custody that satisfies EN 10204, the European standard governing material test certificates.
This guide covers every serious option in the market today. Whether you are a steel stockholder looking for a self-service tool, a rebar manufacturer dealing with multi-heat bundles, or an enterprise that wants certificate reading integrated into an existing platform, this page maps the options honestly.
Metals manufacturers using purpose-built cert automation save 120 or more hours per year on manual certificate handling. The wrong tool requires weeks of configuration and still fails on the edge cases that come up every week.
Here is what the market actually looks like.
What this guide covers:
The five categories of mill certificate software and where each fits Eight named tools compared on the capabilities that matter to metals manufacturers A scenario map showing which tool is right for your situation The edge cases and failure modes that expose generic tools on real-world certs How metals businesses typically deploy cert automation from day one to full integration The Five Categories of Mill Certificate Software Not all cert automation is the same. The market falls into five distinct categories, each with different strengths, limitations, and setup requirements.
Generic OCR Tools Optical Character Recognition (OCR) converts image files and scanned PDFs into machine-readable text. Generic OCR tools are fast, cheap, and widely available. Amazon Textract is the best-known cloud example.
What they do well: raw text extraction from clean documents. What they do not do: interpret the text. An OCR tool will extract “Rp0.2 = 387 MPa” accurately, but it will not know that Rp0.2 is a yield strength value, that 387 MPa is within range for S355 steel, or that this value belongs in a specific field in your inventory system.
For mill certificates, generic OCR is the foundation of a custom development project, not an off-the-shelf answer.
Enterprise IDP Platforms Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) platforms add a classification and field-extraction layer above raw OCR. They learn to identify specific fields in specific document templates, extract structured data, and route it to downstream systems. ABBYY FlexiCapture, Kofax/Tungsten Automation, and Rossum are the major players.
The limitation for mill certificates: IDP platforms learn by example. You provide labelled training data for each document format. The platform learns to read that format. Mill certificates arrive from hundreds of different mills, each with their own layout. Building and maintaining a template library for every supplier is a continuous commitment. Every time a mill changes their certificate design, the template breaks.
IDP platforms work well for businesses with dedicated IT resource, high document volumes across multiple document types, and the budget to train and maintain templates over time.
General-Purpose Document AI General-purpose document AI tools — including Microsoft Azure AI Document Intelligence (formerly Azure Form Recognizer), Google Document AI, and Nanonets — sit between generic OCR and metals-specific tooling. They use machine learning to understand document structure without pure template training, and many offer pre-built models for common document types such as invoices and receipts.
For mill certificates, these tools require custom model development. None of the major vendors ships a pre-built mill certificate extraction model. You will need a developer team to build one, plus ongoing maintenance effort as mill formats change.
ERP Modules and Add-Ins Most enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors — SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, SYSPRO, and others — offer document capture or quality management modules. These are rarely certificate-reading tools in their own right. They typically rely on OCR or IDP under the hood, packaged inside the ERP ecosystem.
The advantage: cert data lands directly in the system your team already uses. The disadvantage: the extraction engine is generic. It was not built for mill certificates, and the failure modes are identical to the stand-alone generic tools — with an added layer of ERP complexity on top.
Metals-Specific AI Tools The smallest and most specialised category consists of tools built specifically for the metals industry. GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader is the primary example in this space. These tools were trained on real-world mill certificates from mills worldwide and encode metals-domain knowledge: grade validation, multi-heat handling, EN 10204 audit trail logic, and long-product specifics including rebar bundles, shape codes, and bar-level traceability.
They do not require template training, because they already understand the range of formats used by mills worldwide. For most businesses, the time to first useful extraction is measured in minutes.
Mill Certificate Software Compared: Eight Tools, Eight Verdicts The columns below focus on the capabilities that matter specifically to metals manufacturers:
Multi-heat support — correctly extracts separate data records for each heat in a multi-heat certificate, rather than blending or truncating the values No template training needed — works from the first upload without labelling examples per mill format Metals validation — checks extracted values against expected ranges for the stated grade and standard EN 10204 audit trail — builds a chain of custody that satisfies the traceability requirements of EN 10204 3.1 and 3.2 Long-product support — handles rebar, sections, and tube specifics including bundles, shape codes, and bar-level traceability Time to first result — realistic time from sign-up to a correct, production-ready first extraction A note on the ❌ marks: they do not mean a tool cannot read a mill certificate. Every tool in this table can extract text from a PDF. The ❌ marks mean the capability is not available out of the box for mill certificate use. Most gaps can be closed with custom development. The question is how long that takes and who maintains it.
⚠️ = partial capability or requires additional configuration to work correctly
Tool Category Multi-heat support No template training Metals validation EN 10204 audit trail Long-product support Time to first result Best for Amazon Textract Generic OCR ❌ ✅ (raw text only) ❌ ❌ ❌ Minutes Developers building a custom extraction pipeline from scratch Google Document AI Document AI ❌ ⚠️ Custom model required ❌ ❌ ❌ Days to weeks Google Cloud teams with developer resource Azure AI Document Intelligence Document AI ❌ ⚠️ Custom model required ❌ ❌ ❌ Days to weeks Microsoft Azure customers with developer resource Nanonets Document AI ❌ ⚠️ Some training needed ❌ ❌ ❌ Hours to days SMBs wanting low-code document extraction without a dedicated developer Rossum Enterprise IDP ❌ ⚠️ Strong on invoices; mill certs need training ❌ ❌ ❌ Days Businesses processing mill certs alongside high-volume invoices and purchase orders ABBYY FlexiCapture Enterprise IDP ❌ ❌ Template-based ❌ ❌ ❌ Weeks Large enterprises with mixed document types and dedicated IT teams Kofax/Tungsten Automation Enterprise IDP ❌ ❌ Template-based ❌ ❌ ❌ Weeks to months Enterprises with an existing Kofax/Tungsten deployment wanting to extend to certs GoSmarter MillCert Reader Metals-specific AI ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ Minutes Metals manufacturers needing production-ready cert automation without developer resource Which Tool Is Right for Your Situation? The right answer depends on your starting point. Here is a direct scenario map.
Your situation Best fit Why Steel stockholder, no IT team, want results this week GoSmarter MillCert Reader No configuration. Upload and go. 120+ hours saved per year from day one Rebar manufacturer, multi-heat bundles, need bar-level traceability GoSmarter MillCert Reader The only option that handles multi-heat extraction and long-product specifics correctly out of the box Structural steel service centre with heavy EN 10204 audit requirements GoSmarter MillCert Reader Built-in audit trail. Satisfies customer quality audits without additional configuration Already on SAP or Dynamics, want cert data flowing into your ERP GoSmarter plus ERP integration via API GoSmarter extracts and validates; cert data flows to your ERP via CSV or API without manual transfer Enterprise, high volume, processing mill certs alongside invoices and purchase orders Rossum or ABBYY for non-cert documents; GoSmarter for mill certs Use a general IDP platform for the document types it handles well; GoSmarter for cert-specific extraction logic Developer team on Google Cloud, building a custom pipeline Google Document AI with a custom model Most flexible option for a bespoke build. Budget four to twelve weeks before production-ready Developer team on Amazon Web Services (AWS), want raw text extraction as a foundation Amazon Textract Cheapest entry point for a fully custom build. No domain intelligence out of the box Already running Kofax or Tungsten Automation across the business Existing deployment for other documents; GoSmarter for cert extraction Preserve your Kofax investment for the document types it handles; GoSmarter fills the gap on cert-specific logic If your business processes more than 20 mill certificates a week and does not have a developer team, the choice is straightforward. Every generic tool in the table requires custom development before it handles mill certificates correctly. GoSmarter does not.
If you have developer resource and want to own the extraction pipeline entirely, Google Document AI or Amazon Textract are reasonable foundations. Budget for six to twelve weeks of initial build time and factor in ongoing maintenance as mill formats change.
Edge Cases and Failure Modes in Mill Cert Software Generic tools perform acceptably on clean, single-heat certificates from major Western European mills. The failure modes appear on the documents that are actually common in a busy metals operation.
Multi-Heat Certificates A certificate covering three or four heats is standard in rebar deliveries and heavy plate from large mills. Generic OCR and IDP tools extract one record per document. They either blend values from multiple heats together, capture only the first heat’s data, or fail to parse the table structure at all.
The result in your inventory: one material record where there should be three or four. Values are incorrect. There is no way to trace which bars came from which heat. When a customer asks to see the cert for a specific heat six months later, you cannot answer the question.
Foreign-Language Certificates Certificates from German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Eastern European mills arrive in the local language. Column headers such as “Schmelznummer” (heat number), “Streckgrenze” (yield strength), and “Bruchdehnung” (elongation) need to be correctly identified and mapped to standard output field names. Generic tools handle this variably. Without specific language training, the field mapping breaks and values end up in the wrong places.
Low-Resolution Scans Paper certificates scanned at 150 dpi or below lose definition on fine text. Heat numbers with visually similar characters (0 vs O, 1 vs I, 8 vs B) are the most common misread. A single heat number transcription error at goods-in creates a traceability gap that can take hours to reconstruct during a customer audit — and is often not caught until the audit is already under way.
Non-Standard Certificate Formats Some mills — smaller regional producers and Eastern European suppliers in particular — use certificate layouts that deviate significantly from the standard EN 10204 structure. Generic IDP tools trained on conventional formats fail on these without additional labelling. The further a certificate deviates from training examples, the less reliable the extraction. And the less reliable the extraction, the less visible that unreliability is in the output.
Carbon Equivalence and CBAM Data Carbon Equivalence (CEQ) is a derived value calculated from the chemical composition of the steel. It appears as a printed figure on many certificates, but on some it must be calculated from the raw chemical data provided. Generic tools extract the printed figure when it is present but do not calculate it from composition data when it is absent.
For businesses affected by the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), CEQ feeds directly into carbon reporting for imported steel. Missing or incorrect CEQ data creates compliance exposure that grows as CBAM reporting obligations increase. Businesses that rely on generic extraction tools are building this data gap into their CBAM workflow from the start.
Certificates with Amendments and Handwritten Corrections Some certificates arrive with handwritten corrections over printed values, rubber stamps obscuring text, or addenda attached as separate pages. Generic tools process each page independently and apply no amendment logic. The result can be two conflicting records for the same heat in your system, with no flag indicating which value is current.
Deployment Patterns for Mill Cert Automation Regardless of which tool you choose, most metals businesses follow a similar rollout path. Here is how it typically works for GoSmarter customers.
Stage 1: New Certificates, Immediate Value Start with incoming certificates only. Every certificate that arrives from a supplier goes into GoSmarter on receipt, before it is filed anywhere else. Data is extracted, validated against the grade specification, and linked to the goods-in record automatically.
No backlog work. No ERP integration required at this stage. Within a week, you have a working extraction workflow and a growing searchable database of certificate data. This is where the time saving — 120 or more hours per year — starts accumulating from day one.
Stage 2: Digitise the Backlog Once the new-certificate workflow is established, turn to the backlog. Most metals businesses have years of certificates sitting in physical folders or in a shared drive with filenames like “cert1.pdf” that mean nothing to anyone. Upload them in batches. GoSmarter processes a batch of 200 certificates in minutes.
This is the step that transforms your audit position. Instead of hunting through folders when a customer requests traceability records from two years ago, you search GoSmarter and retrieve the answer in seconds.
Stage 3: Connect to Your ERP or QMS With extraction running reliably, connect GoSmarter to your existing ERP or quality management system (QMS). GoSmarter exports cert data via CSV or an integration endpoint. Data flows into inventory records, purchase orders, or quality files without manual export steps.
At this stage, cert automation becomes invisible infrastructure. The data is in the right place automatically, without anyone needing to move it by hand.
Stage 4: Customer-Facing Audit Trail The final stage is using GoSmarter’s audit trail as a customer-facing quality record. When a customer requests traceability evidence for a specific order, you export the relevant records directly from GoSmarter. When a regulator asks to see your EN 10204 compliance documentation, the complete, immutable trail is ready without reconstruction.
Cert management stops being a reactive, stressful task. It becomes a quiet, automatic part of your quality system.
Frequently Asked Questions What is the difference between OCR and IDP for mill certificates? Optical Character Recognition (OCR) converts scanned images and PDFs into raw text. Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) adds a classification and field-extraction layer on top, so the system identifies specific fields from a document rather than just dumping raw text. For mill certificates, neither approach works correctly without metals-domain knowledge. OCR gives you text. IDP gives you structured fields, but only after template training per mill format. Neither validates extracted values against grade specifications, and neither handles multi-heat documents correctly without custom development on top. Can tools like Azure AI Document Intelligence or Google Document AI read mill certificates? Yes, with development work. Both support custom model training, so a developer team can build a mill certificate extraction model using either platform. The gaps specific to metals manufacturing are: neither handles multi-heat certificates correctly without custom parsing logic, neither validates extracted values against grade and standard specifications, and neither builds an EN 10204 audit trail. Budget four to twelve weeks of development before the result is production-ready, plus ongoing maintenance as mill formats change. If your business does not have a developer team, neither tool is a realistic option. What does 'no template training needed' actually mean in practice? Most IDP platforms learn to read a specific document format by training on labelled examples of that format. For mill certificates, this typically means labelling 20 to 50 example certificates from each mill you work with. Deal with 30 different suppliers and that is a significant upfront task. When a mill changes its certificate layout, the template breaks and needs retraining. “No template training needed” means the tool reads any mill format correctly from the first upload, without labelling or configuration. GoSmarter achieves this because it was trained on a large corpus of real-world mill certificates from mills worldwide before you ever logged in. Which tools correctly handle EN 10204 Type 3.1 and 3.2 certificates? EN 10204 is the European standard that defines types of material test certificates for metallic products. Type 3.1 certificates are validated by the manufacturer’s authorised representative. Type 3.2 certificates require validation by both the manufacturer and an independent inspection body. Any document reading tool can extract text from a 3.1 or 3.2 certificate — the format difference is not the challenge. The EN 10204 requirement that matters for software is the audit trail: can the system demonstrate that a specific certificate covers a specific batch of material, that the extracted data has not been altered, and that the chain of custody from delivery to despatch is intact? Only GoSmarter builds that trail automatically, without additional configuration. What goes wrong with generic tools on multi-heat certificates? A multi-heat certificate contains data for more than one heat on a single document, typically as a table with one row per heat. Generic OCR tools extract all the text but do not interpret the table as multiple separate data records. Most IDP platforms extract a single record per document by default. The result is either blended data — values incorrectly merged or averaged across heats — or incomplete data, where only the first heat is captured. In your inventory, this means one material record where there should be three or four, with incorrect values, and no traceability to individual heats. GoSmarter recognises multi-heat certificates and creates a separate data record for each heat, each with its own complete chemical composition and mechanical properties. How does CBAM affect the choice of cert software? The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) requires importers of steel and other carbon-intensive materials to report the embedded carbon content of goods crossing the EU border. Carbon Equivalence (CEQ) data — extracted from mill certificates — feeds directly into CBAM calculations for steel products. Generic tools that do not extract or calculate CEQ leave that data gap for your team to fill manually, certificate by certificate. GoSmarter extracts CEQ automatically from every certificate and stores it against the relevant heat. Your CBAM reporting data accumulates as a by-product of normal cert processing, rather than as a separate manual task that grows with every import. Is GoSmarter compatible with businesses that already have an ERP system? Yes, and the two are complementary rather than competing. GoSmarter handles extraction, validation, and audit trail for mill certificates. Your ERP handles production scheduling, sales orders, and financial data. The two connect via CSV export or API, so cert data flows into your existing inventory records without manual transfer steps. Most ERP systems do not have native mill certificate reading capability. They rely on the same generic OCR or IDP tools described in this guide, with the same limitations. GoSmarter gives you better extraction than any ERP-native module, plus the metals-specific validation and audit trail logic that no generic tool provides. Related Resources Mill Certificate Automation for Metals Manufacturers — the complete guide to how GoSmarter reads and extracts mill certificate data automatically GoSmarter vs Generic OCR/IDP Tools for Mill Certificates — a detailed technical comparison of the tools covered in this guide GoSmarter’s Workshop tier — AI cert automation, pricing, and first-month offer Integrated Cert Traceability and Auditability — building a full EN 10204 chain of custody from delivery to despatch AI for Metals Manufacturing — how AI applies across the full metals workflow, not just cert reading Midland Steel Case Study — how a rebar supplier automated certificate handling end-to-end GoSmarter is made by Nightingale HQ, a UK-based AI company building practical tools for metals manufacturers since 2018.


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### No-Code Metals SME Software: AI Without the IT Department

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/no-code-workflows-metals-smes/
Description: Enterprise-grade AI tools for metals SMEs — no IT department, no implementation project. Point-and-click. GoSmarter: live in a week.

Enterprise software was built for enterprises. It assumes you have an IT department to run the implementation. A change management team to handle the rollout. A six-figure budget to spend before you see a single day of value.
Most metals manufacturers are not enterprises. They are 20 to 200 person operations where the “IT department” is whoever happens to be good with computers. The person who built the spreadsheet. The sales manager who set up the shared drive. The production manager who figures things out by reading the manual — when there is one.
GoSmarter is metals SME software built for those businesses. Every tool is point-and-click. Every workflow runs in a browser. Getting started takes days, not months. And no one needs to write a line of code.
Why “No-Code” Matters for Metals SMEs The enterprise software trap Legacy ERP vendors and enterprise platform providers have a business model that depends on complexity. The more complex the implementation, the more consulting days they sell. The more consulting days they sell, the more dependent you become on them to maintain it.
For a metals SME, this model is a trap:
You spend six months configuring a system before it does anything useful You spend another three months training people who leave anyway You end up with a system that does most of what you need, but requires a consultant to change anything Your team works around it with (you guessed it) spreadsheets No-code workflows break this model. You configure them yourself, in the application, using the same interfaces your team uses every day. When something needs to change, you change it. No ticket to IT. No waiting for a consultant.
What no-code means in practice for GoSmarter In GoSmarter, “no-code” is not a marketing term for “slightly less code than before.” It means:
Upload a mill certificate and get the data out — no template configuration, no field mapping, no OCR training pipeline to manage Import a stock spreadsheet and have it reflected in your live inventory — no database schema to design, no API to build Generate an optimised cut plan by pressing a button — no algorithm to write, no parameters to tune beyond what any production manager would understand Export data in formats your team already uses — CSV, PDF, Excel — without a systems integrator in the room The tools are sophisticated under the hood. For the people using them, they work like a well-designed web app. Because that is what they are.
The Three Core No-Code Workflows in GoSmarter Workflow 1: Certificate-In, Data-Out The old way: a mill certificate arrives. Someone downloads it from the supplier portal, renames it (if they remember), opens your stock system or spreadsheet, and manually types the heat number, grade, and properties into the right fields. This takes 5 to 15 minutes per certificate, multiplied by every certificate you receive.
The GoSmarter way: upload the certificate (or drag a folder of them). GoSmarter reads every data field automatically — heat numbers, material grades, chemical composition, mechanical properties — and stores it in your account, linked to the certificate image. The renamed PDF is ready to send. The data is searchable. The whole process takes seconds.
No template configuration. No field mapping. No OCR training. You upload the certificate; you get the data.
See the MillCert Reader →
Workflow 2: Inventory-In, Decisions-Out The old way: your stock records live in a spreadsheet or in an ERP module that your team does not fully trust. When someone asks “what S355J2 do we have available for this order?”, someone has to go to the warehouse, count it, come back, and update the sheet — which is probably already wrong.
The GoSmarter way: GoSmarter maintains a live stock picture, updated as material comes in (via the goods-in process), is allocated to orders, is cut, and is despatched. Every item in inventory carries its certificate data with it. When someone asks what S355J2 is available, the answer is on screen in seconds — with the cert status for every item included.
No database to maintain. No manual stock counts between month-ends. No hunting for the person who last updated the spreadsheet.
See Metals Manager →
Workflow 3: Orders-In, Cut Plans-Out The old way: a production manager takes the job list, cross-references it with available stock, manually works out which bars to use for which orders, and writes a cut list — either on paper or in a separate spreadsheet. This takes hours. It is wrong as often as it is right, because the stock information it is based on is never quite current.
The GoSmarter way: open Cutting Plans. Your live orders are already there. Your live stock is already there. Press the button. GoSmarter runs the optimisation algorithm and returns a cut plan that covers every order with the minimum possible waste. Review it. Override anything you disagree with. Export to PDF for the floor. Total time: minutes.
In production trials at Midland Steel, this process reduced scrap rates by 50%.
See Cutting Plans →
Who Uses These Workflows Production managers Cutting Plans is the tool production managers reach for first. The morning planning routine — which used to take one to two hours — becomes a five-minute review. When jobs change (they always change), replanning is instant.
Operations and quality teams The MillCert Reader eliminates the data entry burden from goods-in. Quality engineers use the cert search to find material to spec in seconds. Operations teams use inventory management to maintain a live picture of what is on the floor without physical stock counts.
Sales and estimating Before confirming an order, sales teams check GoSmarter to see whether the right material is in stock and whether it is certified to the customer’s required specification. This takes seconds and prevents the embarrassment of confirming an order you cannot fulfil.
Management GoSmarter surfaces the data management actually needs: scrap rates, inventory value, open order status, outstanding certificates. No pivot tables. No chasing the production manager for an update. The data is live and accessible to everyone with an account.
What “No IT Department Required” Really Means Getting started You sign up for GoSmarter with an email address. You upload your first certificate, or your stock list, or your order data. GoSmarter starts working immediately.
There is no:
Software to install on local machines Server to configure or maintain VPN or network configuration required User directory to connect to Database schema to design GoSmarter is a cloud application. It runs in any modern browser. If your team can use Gmail, they can use GoSmarter.
Onboarding your team Adding users to GoSmarter takes minutes. You invite them by email, set their access level, and they can log in. There is no multi-day training programme. Most users understand the core workflows within a few hours of first use.
For teams that want structured guidance, GoSmarter provides documentation and video walkthroughs for every feature. Support is available from people who understand metals manufacturing — not a generic helpdesk reading from a script.
Making changes When your workflows change — new suppliers, new product types, new certification requirements — you make the changes in GoSmarter yourself. There is no change request to raise with IT. No consultant to book. No waiting.
Connecting to other systems Most small metals businesses do not need deep system integration to get value from GoSmarter. Export to CSV handles the connection to most other systems in practice.
For businesses that do want tighter integration — feeding GoSmarter data into an ERP automatically, or pulling order data from a sales system — GoSmarter offers API access. But this is optional, not a prerequisite for using the platform.
Common Objections and Honest Answers “We already have an ERP. Do we need another system?” Probably not to replace your ERP. But your ERP almost certainly does a poor job of:
Reading mill certificates from any format automatically Optimising cut plans for long products to minimise scrap Maintaining a traceable cert-to-inventory link in real time GoSmarter handles those specific tasks. Your ERP handles the rest. Most GoSmarter customers use both.
“Our team is not technical enough for this.” If your team can use a browser, they can use GoSmarter. The tools are designed to be self-explanatory for people who have never used production software before. The hardest part of the onboarding is usually deciding what to put in the system first — not figuring out how to use it.
“We tried a new system before and it never stuck.” Systems fail to stick when they are harder to use than the thing they replaced. GoSmarter is designed to be faster and easier than the spreadsheet from day one — not just after months of configuration. If Cutting Plans takes longer than building a cut list manually, we want to know, because that means something is wrong.
“What happens if GoSmarter goes away?” Your data is always exportable. Every certificate, every inventory record, every order, every cut plan — you can export it all in standard formats at any time. You are never locked in.
Pricing: Fair for SMEs GoSmarter is priced to be accessible to businesses without enterprise budgets. Get 50% off your first month. Starter tier from £150/month, Workshop (with AI cert automation) from £295/month — a fraction of the cost of a single day of ERP consulting.
See the pricing page for current plans and options.
Frequently Asked Questions Do we need any technical skills to use GoSmarter? No. Every feature in GoSmarter is point-and-click. You do not need to write code, configure templates, or understand how the AI works under the hood. If you can use a web browser, you can use GoSmarter. Most users are productive within hours of first logging in. How long does it take to get up and running? Most customers are getting real value within a week. The typical pattern: Day 1, upload certificates. Day 2, import stock. Day 3, enter open orders. Day 4, run the first cut plan. After that, the system is your primary planning tool. Can GoSmarter work without an internet connection? GoSmarter is a cloud application and requires an internet connection to use. For the rare situations where connectivity is unavailable, you can export cut plans and reports to PDF beforehand. We recommend using GoSmarter in a connected environment — which describes virtually every metals business with a modern office setup. What if we have a process that GoSmarter does not support? GoSmarter is continuously developed based on customer feedback. If you have a workflow that the platform does not currently support, tell us. Many features in GoSmarter today exist because a customer asked for them. The contact page is the right place to start. How many users can we have on the platform? GoSmarter plans include multiple user seats. See the pricing page for current user limits by plan. Most SME teams need between 3 and 10 active users — production manager, quality engineer, warehouse team lead, sales team — and all plans accommodate this. Is our data kept private? Yes. GoSmarter does not share your production data, inventory records, or certificate data with any third parties. Your data is used only to run the GoSmarter service for you. See the privacy policy for full details. Related Resources Operations Management Solutions — GoSmarter’s full operations management capabilities GoSmarter for Metals Operations — the full toolkit overview Spreadsheet-to-System Planning for Metals — replacing your planning spreadsheets Mill Certificate Automation — the no-code certificate workflow in detail GoSmarter Pricing — plans built for SME budgets GoSmarter App → — start your free trial today GoSmarter is made by Nightingale HQ, a UK-based AI company building practical tools for metals manufacturers since 2018.


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### ROI of AI in Metals Manufacturing: Real Numbers, Real Payback Periods

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/roi-ai-metals-manufacturing/
Description: How to calculate the real ROI of AI in metals manufacturing — mill cert automation, cutting optimisation, and benchmarks from Midland Steel.

GoSmarter customers see a 50% scrap reduction in long-product cutting operations and save 120+ hours per year on mill certificate admin. Those are the verified numbers from Midland Steel, a UK rebar manufacturer that ran a two-week production trial covering 734 tonnes across 193 jobs. Payback period: under 10 months for cert automation, under 4 months for cutting optimisation.
Every AI vendor will tell you their product pays for itself in months. None of them will show you the maths.
This page does the opposite. No vague claims. No “up to X% improvement.” Just honest worked examples with real numbers from metals manufacturing operations — scrap reduction and admin time saved — so you can stress-test the maths against your own business before you spend a penny.
The two use cases where GoSmarter has the clearest, most quantifiable ROI data are mill certificate automation and cutting optimisation. Both have real-world evidence. Both have straightforward payback calculations. Both take less than a month to go live.
What Does ROI Actually Mean Here? Return on investment in the context of operational AI tools is simple:
ROI = (Annual value delivered ÷ Annual cost) × 100
For payback period:
Payback period = Annual cost ÷ Monthly value delivered
The tricky part is being honest about what “value delivered” means. It is not the maximum possible improvement under ideal conditions. It is the realistic, conservative estimate based on your current state — and ideally, evidence from businesses like yours.
The numbers below are based on verified production data and cost structures typical in UK metals manufacturing. You should adjust the inputs to match your own operation.
ROI for Mill Certificate Automation The problem it solves Your team is reading mill certificates and typing the data somewhere else. Heat numbers, grades, chemical composition, mechanical properties. The same data, over and over, into spreadsheets, ERP systems, or quality databases.
This is not a rare edge case. It is the default workflow in most metals businesses. And it is costing you more than you think.
The time saved GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader saves a verified 120+ hours per year per production manager or quality engineer who uses it.
That figure comes from a real user — not a projection, not a best-case estimate. It is the number they logged when they tracked their own time.
The worked example Take a typical production role in a UK metals business. A production manager or quality engineer earning £38,000 per year has a fully loaded hourly cost — salary, employer NI, pension, overhead allocation — of around £30–35 per hour.
Input Value Hours saved per year 120 Fully loaded hourly cost £32 Annual value of time saved £3,840 Workshop tier (annual plan, £235/month) £2,820/year Net saving in year 1 £1,020 Payback period ~9 months That is the conservative case — pure labour cost recapture only.
But the full picture is wider. Manual data entry does not just cost time — it creates errors. An incorrect heat number, a transposed tensile strength value, a missed grade mismatch: any of these can trigger a customer dispute, a non-conformance report, or a failed audit. The cost of a single NCR in a regulated supply chain typically runs to several times the annual cost of the software.
Add in the audit time savings. Retrieving any certificate takes seconds instead of 20 minutes of folder hunting. Factor in the compliance risk reduction too, and the real ROI sits well above the pure time calculation.
What the payback period looks like GoSmarter’s Workshop tier (which includes AI cert automation) costs £235/month billed annually — £2,820 per year. If you save 120 hours at £32/hour, you are at break-even within 9 months. With 50% off your first month, the initial outlay drops further. If your team processes more than 120 certificates a year, or if the fully loaded cost of your team is higher, the payback is faster.
One compliance incident avoided pays for two years of the software.
ROI for Cutting Optimisation The problem it solves In long product manufacturing — rebar, structural sections, pipe, beam, bar stock — you buy material in standard lengths and cut it to non-standard order requirements. Every cut generates some waste. The question is: how much waste, and is that amount avoidable?
The answer, in most businesses running manual or semi-manual cut planning, is yes. A significant portion of scrap is not inherent to the process — it is a consequence of sub-optimal planning.
The benchmark data Industry best practice for rebar and long product manufacturing is a scrap rate of 2.5% or below. Many manufacturers operate between 3% and 8% — with manual planners consistently unable to find the optimal solution because the search space is simply too large for human evaluation.
The gap between where you are and 2.5% is your opportunity.
The worked example A typical rebar stockholder cutting 100 tonnes per week at a 5% current scrap rate:
Input Value Weekly production volume 100 tonnes Current scrap rate 5% Best-practice target scrap rate 2.5% Improvement 2.5 percentage points Weekly scrap reduction 2.5 tonnes Annual scrap reduction 130 tonnes Steel material cost (approx.) £600/tonne Scrap value recovered at 40p/£ £240/tonne Net value per tonne of scrap avoided £360 Annual gross margin recovered £46,800 Production tier (annual plan, £635/month) £7,620/year Net annual saving £39,180 Payback period < 2 months At higher volumes, higher current scrap rates, or higher material costs, the payback is even faster.
For a business cutting 200 tonnes a week with 6% scrap, the same calculation yields over £90,000 in annual gross margin recovery.
What the Midland Steel trial showed GoSmarter ran a two-week production trial with Midland Steel — a UK rebar manufacturer — covering 734 tonnes of steel across 193 jobs.
The result: a 2.5% scrap reduction in the first two weeks of production versus their previous baseline. That is not an optimised, steady-state figure — it is the initial output of the algorithm working on their live data before any advanced constraint tuning.
In ongoing production, the tested ceiling is 50% scrap reduction for operations that go through the full optimisation process.
“Turned a morning of planning into a five-minute review. We cut scrap rates in half during trials.”
— Operations Manager, Midland Steel
The planning time saving The ROI calculation above covers material savings only. It does not include the planning time saving.
A complex cut list for 50+ orders, planned manually, can take two to four hours. Cutting Optimiser produces the same plan in minutes. For a production planner spending half a day per week on cut planning, that is 100+ hours per year returned to higher-value work.
Calculating Your Own Payback Period Use these inputs to run the maths on your own operation:
Mill cert automation Hours saved per user per year — conservative estimate: 1 hour per week = 52 hours. Realistic for a busy team: 2.5 hours/week = 130 hours. Fully loaded hourly rate — salary × 1.3–1.4 for employer costs and overhead allocation. Annual value = hours saved × hourly rate. Annual cost = £2,820 (Workshop annual plan, £235/month) or £3,540 (Workshop monthly plan, £295/month). Payback period = annual cost ÷ monthly value. Add the compliance and audit risk factor if your supply chain involves regulated materials (3.1 or 3.2 EN 10204 certificates, defence, nuclear, automotive). A single non-conformance event typically costs between £5,000 and £50,000 to resolve.
Cutting optimisation Weekly volume in tonnes. Current scrap rate — if you do not know it, estimate 5% for manual planning. See how to calculate scrap rate. Target scrap rate — 2.5% is industry best practice for rebar. Material cost per tonne — use your current stock cost, not the market price. Scrap recovery value — typically 35–45p per £1 of material cost. Net saving per tonne avoided = material cost × (1 − scrap recovery rate). Annual gross margin recovered = weekly volume × (current rate − target rate) × 52 × net saving per tonne. Annual cost = £7,620 (Production tier annual plan, £635/month) or £9,540 (Production tier monthly plan, £795/month). Payback period = annual cost ÷ monthly gross margin recovered. Realistic Benchmarks What should you actually expect? Not the ceiling case. The realistic first-year improvement.
Mill cert automation First week: system up and running, first certificates processed First month: team comfortable with the workflow; bulk rename and extraction running on new deliveries End of year 1: 100–130+ hours saved per user; full certificate database searchable; zero manual entry errors The ramp time is short because the tool does not require any process change — it replaces a manual step with an automated one. You do not need to train anyone on new workflows or change how you run production.
Cutting optimisation Week 1–2 (trial): 2–3% scrap reduction versus baseline (this is what Midland Steel achieved in their first two-week trial) Month 1–3 (early live): 3–6% scrap reduction as the algorithm is tuned to your specific constraint set Steady state (6–12 months): 5–8% reduction in absolute scrap rate for operations starting above 5%; up to 50% relative reduction for operations moving from poorly planned manual cutting to optimised production The key driver of where you land on this range is your starting scrap rate and how much of your current waste is attributable to planning rather than to process (e.g. blade loss, handling damage, customer returns). For operations where planning is the primary scrap source, the ceiling is high.
Questions to Ask Any AI Vendor About ROI Before you sign anything, make the vendor answer these:
What ROI can I expect from AI in metals manufacturing? Expected ROI depends on which process you automate and your current volumes. For mill certificate handling at 50–100 certs per week, expect to save 80–120 hours per user per year. At a typical operations salary, that is worth £2,500–£4,500 per year. For cutting optimisation at 50–200 tonnes per week, a 2–5% scrap reduction saves £10,000–£50,000+ per year in material alone. Payback periods range from 4–12 months depending on the product and volume. How quickly does AI pay back in metals manufacturing? For GoSmarter products, typical payback is under 9 months for Workshop tier cert automation. That’s based on 120 hours saved per user per year at £235/month billed annually. Production tier (cutting optimisation) pays back in under 2 months at 3% scrap reduction on 100 tonnes per week. With 50% off your first month, payback starts from day one. Both figures come from real production trials at Midland Steel. Payback accelerates with higher volumes and more complex operations. Where does your ROI figure come from? If it is from a customer survey, ask for the methodology. If it is a case study, ask whether the customer signed off on the specific numbers. GoSmarter’s figures come from a documented production trial at Midland Steel, a UK rebar stockholder who independently verified 50% scrap reduction and 120+ hours saved annually. What was the baseline for the ROI calculation? An improvement from 8% scrap to 4% is a 50% relative reduction. An improvement from 3% to 2.5% is only a 17% relative reduction — but the latter may be more valuable in absolute terms depending on your volume. Always ask what the starting point was. How long did it take to achieve the claimed ROI? First-week results and steady-state results are very different numbers. Vendors who quote best-ever results without a time horizon are not being straight with you. GoSmarter’s Midland Steel trial results reflect three months of sustained operation after implementation. What does the payback calculation include? Labour savings and material savings are the core. But some vendors include speculative benefits like “improved customer satisfaction” or “strategic value of data.” Ask for the hard-cash payback only. GoSmarter’s payback calculator uses only material cost savings and documented labour time savings, no speculative figures. What is the cost of implementation? Professional services, data migration, integration, training all affect real payback. A tool with a 6-month payback period and a £50,000 implementation cost has a very different real payback period. GoSmarter includes a guided implementation with every trial. No consulting fees. No integration project. Can I trial it on my own data before committing? If the answer is no, that tells you something. GoSmarter offers a free trial on both MillCert Reader and Cutting Plans — no credit card, no sales cycle, just the tool working on your data. Is GoSmarter worth it for a mid-size steel service centre, or only cost-effective for large mills? GoSmarter delivers better proportional returns for mid-size service centres than for large mills. Large mills already have dedicated quality engineers, ERP integrations, and significant internal capability. Mid-size service centres run the heaviest admin load relative to output. That is exactly where GoSmarter makes the most difference. Typical profile: 20 to 200 people, 50 to 500 tonnes per week. The worked examples on this page are based on typical mid-market operations, not large-scale mills. A steel service centre processing 100 tonnes per week at a 5% scrap rate recovers over £39,000 in annual gross margin from GoSmarter’s Production tier, at a cost of £7,620 per year on the annual plan. A quality admin saving 120 hours per year on cert processing recovers the full annual cost of the Workshop tier and more. These are mid-size service centre numbers. GoSmarter is designed for operations that cannot afford a large IT project and need results in weeks, not quarters. Can you break down the real ROI from GoSmarter in terms of scrap reduction, admin time saved, and on-time delivery? GoSmarter delivers return across three measurable areas.
Scrap reduction: Cutting Plans reduces scrap rates in long-product operations from a typical 5–8% baseline to 2.5% or below. At Midland Steel, a two-week production trial covering 734 tonnes across 193 jobs delivered a 2.5% scrap rate — half their previous baseline. At £600/tonne, each percentage point of scrap reduction on 100 tonnes per week is worth approximately £31,200 annually.
Admin time saved: GoSmarter’s Workshop tier (AI cert automation) saves a verified 120+ hours per user per year on mill certificate data entry, filing, and retrieval. At a fully loaded staff cost of £32/hour, that is £3,840 per user per year. Operations with two or three quality staff processing certs save correspondingly more.
On-Time In Full (OTIF): GoSmarter does not yet publish a specific OTIF benchmark. But the mechanism is clear. The two most common causes of late deliveries in metals are bad stock data and miscalculated cut lists. GoSmarter addresses both directly. Cut plans that take minutes instead of hours mean you can confirm delivery dates with confidence. Accurate stock data means you are not promising material you do not have.
Run the ROI of AI in Metals Manufacturing calculator above with your own volumes, or use the Business Case Calculator for a personalised estimate.
What scrap reduction are GoSmarter customers actually seeing in the real world, not just in marketing claims? The headline figure is 50% relative scrap reduction, achieved at Midland Steel during a documented production trial. Their starting point was over 5% scrap on rebar. After running Cutting Plans, they reached 2.5% — industry best practice for long-product operations. The trial covered 734 tonnes of steel across 193 jobs over two weeks. That is a real operation, real stock, real orders — not a controlled test environment.
The 50% relative figure is the ceiling result. Realistic first-year improvements for operations starting above 5% are 2–5 percentage points of absolute scrap reduction. For an operation cutting 100 tonnes per week, even a 2% absolute improvement (from 6% to 4%) recovers £62,400 in gross margin annually at £600/tonne steel.
If a vendor cannot tell you the starting baseline, the duration of the measurement period, and whether the customer independently verified the result — their claim is not comparable to ours.
Go deeper GoSmarter’s Production tier — full end-to-end traceability with AI cut plans, pricing, and first-month offer GoSmarter’s Workshop tier — AI cert automation, pricing, and first-month offer Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study — the full story behind the 50% scrap reduction Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation — the mechanics of why scrap happens and how optimisation addresses it Mill Certificate Automation: The Complete Guide — everything you need to know about automating mill cert workflows How to Calculate Your Scrap Rate — the exact formula and where to find the inputs in your own data 

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### Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation for Metals Manufacturers

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/scrap-waste-yield-optimisation/
Description: Scrap and yield optimisation for metals manufacturers. Average scrap: 3–8%; best practice: ≤2.5%. GoSmarter cuts it by 50% — proven at Midland Steel.

Every offcut in your skip represents raw material you paid for. You will not recover it at full value. Scrap sold for recycling typically returns 40p in the pound. That is a 60% loss on every tonne going into the bin instead of into an order.
Industry best practice targets a scrap rate of 2.5%. Many manufacturers operate between 3% and 8%. At scale, the difference between 2.5% and 5% scrap is not an abstract number. It is millions of pounds in lost gross margin annually.
GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans uses mathematical optimisation to calculate the most efficient way to cut your stock to meet your orders. In a two-week production trial with Midland Steel, it reduced scrap rates by 50%.
This hub explains why scrap happens, how optimisation addresses it, and what GoSmarter’s approach looks like in practice.
What Is Scrap Rate in Manufacturing? Scrap rate in manufacturing is the percentage of raw material consumed that becomes waste rather than saleable product. For rebar, sections, and other long products, it is calculated as:
Scrap rate (%) = (Scrap weight ÷ Total material consumed) × 100 Industry average for long product manufacturers running manual cut planning is 3–8%. Best practice — achievable with mathematical optimisation — is ≤2.5%.
Operation type Typical scrap rate Best practice target Manual cut planning — rebar 5–8% ≤2.5% Manual cut planning — sections 4–6% ≤2.5% Optimised cut planning (GoSmarter) ≤2.5% ≤2.5% GoSmarter’s Scrap Rate Calculator gives you an instant read on your current rate. For full production-scale optimisation, Cutting Plans applies mathematical optimisation to every open order.
Why Scrap Happens in Long Product Manufacturing The cutting stock problem In long product manufacturing — rebar, structural sections, beams, tube, pipe, bar stock — the fundamental challenge is this: you buy material in standard lengths, and your orders require non-standard lengths.
A stock bar is 12 metres. A customer order requires 3.2 metres. If you cut four pieces of 3.2m from the 12m bar, you have 0.4m of offcut. That 0.4m goes into the skip.
This is unavoidable at the level of a single cut. But across hundreds of orders and thousands of cuts, the total offcut generated is highly sensitive to how you sequence and combine the cuts.
The wrong cut plan: 8% scrap. The right cut plan: 2.5% scrap. Same orders, same stock. The difference is entirely in the planning.
Why manual planning does not find the optimal answer The number of ways to combine 50 orders across 200 available bars is not something a human can evaluate by hand. Even an experienced production manager building a cut list from intuition and experience will leave scrap on the floor that a good algorithm would have recovered.
This is not a criticism of the production manager. It is mathematics. The search space is too large for manual evaluation. The optimal — or near-optimal — answer requires an algorithm.
Where the real waste comes from Beyond the fundamental cutting stock problem, additional scrap sources include:
Off-spec offcuts
Offcuts that are too short to use for any current or likely future order. These go straight to scrap rather than back into stock.
Untracked offcuts
Offcuts that could be used for future orders but are not tracked systematically, so they get lost, damaged, or forgotten in the corner of the bay.
Grade mismatches
Material cut for a job that later gets cancelled or changed, leaving cut pieces that are not compatible with other open orders. If the grade or length does not match anything else in the queue, the material becomes scrap.
Poor bundle selection
When multiple heats or bundles of the same nominal grade are in stock, the choice of which bundle to use for which order affects both traceability and waste. Using the shortest bars for the longest cuts, or mixing heats unnecessarily, adds avoidable waste.
How Mathematical Optimisation Solves the Cutting Stock Problem The cutting stock problem is a well-studied class of mathematical optimisation problem. It asks: given a set of required lengths and quantities, and a set of available stock lengths, what is the minimum-waste combination of cuts?
GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans solves a real-world version of this problem that goes beyond the textbook formulation:
What the GoSmarter algorithm considers Open orders — all orders in the system with their required lengths, quantities, grades, and specifications Live inventory — available stock bars with their actual lengths (not nominal), grades, heat numbers, and certificate status Grade and spec matching — the algorithm only uses bars that are certified to the required grade for each order; it does not mix incompatible heats Minimum offcut length — configurable; offcuts below the minimum are treated as scrap, offcuts above it are tracked for reuse Priority ordering — urgent or high-value orders can be prioritised so they are fulfilled with the best material Multi-day planning — the algorithm can plan across a production window, not just a single day’s orders What the output looks like The Cutting Optimiser produces a cut plan that tells you:
Which bar from your inventory to use for each cut What lengths to cut from each bar, in what order What offcut remains from each bar (and whether it meets the minimum threshold for tracking) The scrap percentage for the plan Estimated material consumption vs. available stock GoSmarter presents the plan in a format your floor team can work from directly. Export it as PDF for printing or CSV to feed into other systems.
Overriding the algorithm GoSmarter does not tell your production manager what to do. It gives them the best starting point the algorithm can produce. From there, they can override any cut, move material between orders, change sequencing — whatever their experience and judgment tells them is right. When they make changes, GoSmarter recalculates the scrap impact in real time.
The Midland Steel Case Study Midland Steel is a UK rebar manufacturer. In a two-week production trial with GoSmarter:
734 tonnes of steel optimised across 193 jobs 50% reduction in scrap rate — from approximately 5% to 2.5% versus manual planning baseline Trial ongoing, moving toward more advanced constraint modelling “Smart technology can directly contribute to reducing carbon emissions in steel manufacturing. By integrating AI and digital tracking tools, we have significantly improved efficiency while aligning with our sustainability goals.”
— Tony Woods, Managing Director, Midland Steel
Halving the scrap rate from ~5% to 2.5% across 734 tonnes means fewer offcuts, fewer emissions, lower Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) exposure, and a direct improvement in gross margin. At 100 tonnes per week, the same improvement represents roughly £1,200–£2,400 per week in recovered material that would otherwise go to the skip.
Beyond Scrap: Yield, Offcuts, and CBAM Yield optimisation Scrap reduction is one side of the yield equation. The other is ensuring that the material you produce is correctly matched to orders — no over-cutting, no under-specification, no rework.
GoSmarter’s optimiser reduces both waste (excess material cut) and rework (material cut to the wrong specification) by ensuring every cut is planned against the actual order requirements, matched to the correct certified material.
Offcut tracking and reuse GoSmarter includes an offcut tracking capability. When a bar produces an offcut above the minimum usable length, GoSmarter records it in inventory as a trackable item, with its heat number and certificate linked. When a future order has a requirement that the offcut can fulfil, GoSmarter includes it in the optimisation as available stock.
This turns what would otherwise be scrap into recoverable inventory — reducing raw material purchases and improving overall yield.
CBAM and carbon costs Under the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, imported steel is priced for its embedded carbon. Scrap is doubly costly under CBAM:
The raw material wasted in scrap still contributed to your imported steel’s carbon footprint The lower yield means you need to import more steel to fulfil the same orders — increasing your CBAM exposure GoSmarter addresses this by:
Reducing scrap rates through optimised cutting Extracting carbon equivalence (CEQ) data from mill certificates automatically, providing the data needed for CBAM reporting Tracking yield by job and period so you have the evidence base for your CBAM calculations For the finance and sustainability perspective on scrap and CBAM, see: CBAM Explained: The Financial Case for Cutting Scrap.
Scrap and Yield Metrics You Should Be Tracking If you are not tracking these, you cannot improve them.
Scrap rate Definition: total scrap weight as a percentage of total material consumed.
Formula: (scrap weight ÷ total material consumed) × 100
Target: ≤ 2.5% for rebar and long products.
What to watch: scrap rate by product type, by operator, by period. Spikes indicate process problems. Steady improvement indicates the optimiser is working.
Yield percentage Definition: sellable output weight as a percentage of total material consumed.
Formula: (saleable output weight ÷ total material consumed) × 100
Target: ≥ 97.5% (the inverse of a 2.5% scrap rate).
Offcut recovery rate Definition: the percentage of offcuts (above minimum length) that are subsequently used in production rather than scrapped.
Target: > 80%. If offcuts are being generated and not reused, your offcut tracking or planning process needs attention.
Material cost per tonne of output Definition: total material purchase cost divided by saleable output weight.
Why it matters: this is the metric that connects scrap rate to gross margin. A 1% improvement in scrap rate typically translates to a 0.5–1.5% improvement in gross margin percentage.
Practical Steps to Reduce Scrap in Your Business Step 1: Measure your current scrap rate If you do not know your current scrap rate, find out. Weigh the scrap you generate over a week and compare it to the material you consumed. The result might be uncomfortable. That is useful information.
Step 2: Understand where the scrap comes from Is it from cutting (offcuts)? From rework (mis-cut material)? From cancelled orders (cut material with no home)? Each source has a different solution. GoSmarter’s reporting helps you see the breakdown.
Step 3: Optimise your cut plans Replace manual cut list building with GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans. The first time you run it, you will almost certainly see a lower predicted scrap rate than your current process delivers. Run it for a week and compare actual scrap against the optimised plan.
Step 4: Track and reuse offcuts Set up GoSmarter’s offcut tracking. Every offcut above your minimum usable length is recorded in inventory with its heat number and certificate. When future orders can use those offcuts, the system includes them automatically.
Step 5: Review weekly Scrap reduction is a continuous process. Review your scrap rate weekly. Look for spikes — they indicate something went wrong. Look for trends — they tell you whether your improvements are sticking.
Frequently Asked Questions What products does the Cutting Optimiser work with? The Cutting Optimiser is designed for long products: rebar, structural beams, sections, tube, pipe, bar stock, wire rod, and similar. It is particularly well-tested in the rebar and structural steel space. It is not designed for sheet metal or plate products, which have a fundamentally different cutting geometry. How much scrap reduction can we realistically expect? This depends on your starting point. If you are currently generating 5-8% scrap through manual planning, moving to optimised planning can realistically reduce this to 2.5-3%. If you are already close to 2.5%, the gains are smaller but still meaningful. In the Midland Steel trial, an initial 2.5% reduction was achieved in the first two weeks. How does the optimiser handle grade requirements? The optimiser only matches bars to orders where the bar’s certified grade meets the order’s specification. It does not suggest using S275 material for an S355 order to reduce waste. Grade compliance is non-negotiable — the optimiser works within that constraint and finds the minimum-waste solution given compliant material only. Can we track the scrap reduction in GoSmarter? Yes. GoSmarter records planned scrap vs. actual scrap per job and per period. You can see your scrap rate trend over time, broken down by product type, order type, or production period. Does GoSmarter help with CBAM carbon reporting? GoSmarter extracts carbon equivalence (CEQ) data from mill certificates automatically, providing the data needed for CBAM reporting without manual effort. Combined with yield tracking, this gives you the evidence base to calculate your CBAM exposure and demonstrate reductions over time. What happens if a job changes after the cut plan is generated? You update the order in GoSmarter and replan. The optimiser regenerates the cut plan based on the updated requirements and current stock in seconds. You do not need to rebuild the plan manually. Is the Cutting Optimiser suitable for small volumes? Yes. The optimiser works from your actual open orders — it is as useful for 10 jobs as it is for 200. Smaller volumes with shorter bars see smaller absolute waste reductions, but the percentage improvement is typically similar. Related Resources Cutting Optimiser: The Complete Guide — linear cutting optimisation, rebar cutting optimiser, cutting plan efficiency, and the steel cutting list generator explained Production Planning Solutions — GoSmarter’s cutting optimisation and production scheduling capabilities Inventory Management Solutions — how smarter inventory control connects to yield improvement GoSmarter for Metals Operations — the full toolkit overview AI for Metals Manufacturing — how AI applies across the metals industry Spreadsheet-to-System Planning for Metals — replacing manual planning with live systems Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study — 50% scrap reduction achieved with GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans ROI of AI in Metals Manufacturing — payback period calculations for cutting optimisation, including worked examples for your own operation GoSmarter’s Production tier — AI cut plans, pricing, and first-month offer Smart Cuts, Less Scrap: A 1D Cutting Stock Problem — the mathematics behind the optimiser CBAM Explained: The Financial Case for Cutting Scrap — the financial and carbon case for scrap reduction How Scrap Reduction and Cert Digitisation Feed CBAM and ESG Reporting — how your cut plans and mill cert data become verifiable ESG and CBAM evidence GoSmarter is made by Nightingale HQ, a UK-based AI company building practical tools for metals manufacturers since 2018.


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### Shop Floor Planning Software for Metals Manufacturers

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/shop-floor-planning-software/
Description: Shop floor planning software for metals: live cut plans, real-time stock allocation, and order tracking. GoSmarter deploys in days, not months.

Shop floor planning software tells your production team exactly what to cut, in what order, from which certified bars. When material is traceable from cert to cut, you are audit-ready by default — not scrambling when a customer or regulator asks for the chain of custody. It works in real time, not from a spreadsheet built that morning. For metals manufacturers, it also calculates the minimum-waste cut sequence across all open orders. Manual planning typically wastes 5–8% of material; optimised planning targets ≤2.5%. That gap is worth tens of thousands of pounds a year on a 100-tonne-per-week operation.
GoSmarter is shop floor planning software purpose-built for long-product cutting, live inventory, and order tracking in one connected system.
For metals manufacturers, this matters more than in most industries. You’re not scheduling widgets on an assembly line. You’re planning which specific bars of certified steel to cut, in which sequence, to meet which orders — while minimising waste, maintaining grade traceability, and keeping the saw busy. That is a harder problem than it looks on paper. And it is a problem that generic production planning software almost always handles badly.
What Is Shop Floor Planning Software? Shop floor planning software manages the daily and shift-level decisions that determine how efficiently your production floor runs. It is distinct from higher-level production planning (capacity planning, order book management) — shop floor planning is about what happens today, on this shift, at this saw.
For a metals service centre or rebar fabricator, shop floor planning software needs to answer three questions:
What do we need to cut? — which orders are live, confirmed, and ready for production What have we got to cut it from? — which stock is available, uncommitted, and certified for each order’s grade requirement How do we cut it with the least waste? — what is the optimal combination of bars and cuts to fulfil today’s orders with minimum scrap Generic enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can answer question 1. Inventory spreadsheets can approximate question 2. But question 3 — the cutting optimisation — is where manual planning consistently fails. The maths works fine for ten orders. At 80 orders, the number of possible combinations of orders and bars is larger than any person can work through in a morning — that is not a skills gap, it is just arithmetic. An algorithm can evaluate that search space in minutes.
The Problem with Manual Shop Floor Planning Every morning at a typical service centre, a production manager looks at the order list, looks at the inventory report (hopefully up to date), and builds a cut plan by hand. This process takes anywhere from 30 minutes to half a morning. Then:
An urgent job comes in after the plan is set. The plan is reworked manually. A bar turns out to be allocated to a different job. The plan needs adjustment. A customer changes their delivery date. Priority shifts. The plan is redone again. By the time the saw starts, the plan is already partially outdated. And because it was built manually, it was never truly optimal. A typical manual cut plan leaves 5–8% of material in the skip. The mathematical optimum is ≤2.5%. At 100 tonnes a week, that gap is worth tens of thousands of pounds a year.
Beyond scrap, manual planning has a second failure mode: it does not scale. A planner who manages 50 orders a day with acceptable accuracy will struggle at 80. There is a ceiling, and it is lower than your business needs it to be.
How GoSmarter Works as Shop Floor Planning Software GoSmarter connects three things that shop floor planning needs but rarely has joined up: live inventory, open orders, and cut plan optimisation.
Step 1: Live inventory GoSmarter Metals Manager maintains your stock picture in real time. Every delivery, every drawdown, every allocation is recorded as it happens. Your stock view shows what is actually available — not what was available before the morning’s jobs started moving material.
Stock is tracked at the attribute level that matters in metals: grade, size, heat number, and certificate status. An S355 3mm bar and an S275 3mm bar are different items, even if they sit on the same rack. Committed stock is marked as allocated — so the same bar cannot be promised to two jobs.
Step 2: Open orders Your order queue in GoSmarter shows confirmed jobs, their required lengths, grades, quantities, and delivery dates. Priority orders can be flagged so the cut plan algorithm fulfils them with the best available material first.
When a new urgent order arrives, it goes into the system. When a delivery date changes, the priority shifts. The order queue is always current.
Step 3: AI cut plan generation GoSmarter Cutting Plans takes your live inventory and your open order queue and generates a mathematically optimised cut plan in minutes. The plan tells your floor team:
Which bars to use, in which sequence What lengths to cut from each bar What offcut remains from each bar (and whether it is long enough to track for reuse) The predicted scrap percentage for the plan The plan is exportable as PDF for printing or CSV for feeding into other systems. Your saw operator has a clear instruction sheet. No interpretation required.
Step 4: Adjust and replan The AI generates the first draft. Your production manager keeps control. Override any cut, change sequencing, exclude bars reserved for other jobs — then hit Replan. The algorithm recalculates in seconds, incorporating the change and producing a fresh optimised plan for the remaining work.
When that urgent job arrives mid-morning, add it to the order queue and replan. The system recalculates only the cuts that have not yet been made, so your floor team’s progress is preserved.
Shop Floor Planning Software vs Production Planning Software: What’s the Difference? These terms are often used interchangeably, but they describe different levels of planning:
Level What it covers GoSmarter equivalent Strategic planning Capacity, headcount, equipment investment Not GoSmarter’s focus Production planning Order book, delivery scheduling, resource allocation Informed by GoSmarter’s order queue Shop floor planning Today’s cut sequence, bar-by-bar allocation, saw scheduling GoSmarter Cutting Plans Shop floor execution Machine status, operator instructions, quality recording Partially covered; not a full Manufacturing Execution System (MES) GoSmarter sits primarily at the shop floor planning layer. It does not try to replace a full Manufacturing Execution System (MES). It solves the specific planning problem that generic MES handles poorly in metals: long-product cutting optimisation and real-time inventory traceability.
For most steel service centres, rebar manufacturers, and fabricators, that is the layer where the most money is being lost and the most time is being wasted. A fully featured MES can wait until the planning layer is working properly.
What GoSmarter Shop Floor Planning Software Replaces Spreadsheet cut planning The typical service centre builds cut plans in Excel — manually matching orders against a stock list, calculating cuts by hand, printing a list for the saw operator. This takes hours, produces suboptimal results, and breaks whenever the situation changes.
GoSmarter replaces this with an automated cut plan generated in minutes from live data. The planner reviews rather than builds. Time to plan drops from a morning to a five-minute review.
Walking the floor to count bars Without live inventory, the stock count is always an approximation. Production managers walk the floor to verify what is actually available before building a plan. That is time that should be spent managing production, not counting bars.
GoSmarter Metals Manager eliminates floor walks for stock counting. The system holds an accurate, real-time view of every item in every location — including which material is committed, in transit, or available to cut.
Email and WhatsApp coordination between office and floor Without shop floor planning software, the gap between the office (where plans are made) and the floor (where they are executed) is typically bridged by printouts, WhatsApp messages, and verbal handoffs. When the plan changes — and it always changes — the communication chain breaks.
GoSmarter puts the current plan in a format the floor team can access and work from directly. When the plan updates, the floor team can pull the current version. There is one version of truth.
Scrap and Yield: The Business Case for Better Shop Floor Planning The financial case for shop floor planning software comes down to one number: your scrap rate.
At 5% scrap on 100 tonnes per week, you are putting 5 tonnes per week into the skip at 40p in the pound. That is material you paid £400–£600 per tonne for, returning £160–£240 per tonne as scrap. The weekly loss on that gap: roughly £1,200–£2,400.
GoSmarter’s cut plan optimisation targets ≤2.5% scrap. In a two-week production trial with Midland Steel across 734 tonnes, GoSmarter achieved a 50% reduction in scrap rate — from approximately 5% to 2.5% — versus manual planning. For Midland Steel’s production volume, that improvement represents tens of thousands of pounds in annual gross margin.
Beyond scrap, better shop floor planning also means fewer last-minute allocation clashes — the kind that push jobs past their delivery window. On-Time In Full (OTIF) performance improves because the question “have we got the right material confirmed for this order?” has an accurate answer every time, not just when someone has walked the yard recently.
Not sure what the saving looks like for your operation? Run the Business Case Calculator → — no account required.
Read the Midland Steel case study for the full detail.
Getting Started with GoSmarter GoSmarter deploys in days, not months. You do not need an IT project, a consultant, or a multi-month implementation timeline. Most metals businesses have their first cut plan running within 24 hours of signing up.
GoSmarter returns value from day one. With 50% off your first month, there’s no reason to wait. Our implementation team works with you on real data, not a sandbox demo.
Step 1: Start with 50% off your first month — no credit card required.
Step 2: Upload your stock (Excel or CSV). Our implementation team will walk you through the format on a call if you need it.
Step 3: Add your open orders. Run your first cut plan. See the scrap savings on a real job.
Step 4: If you want to connect to your ERP or job-management system, we scope that during the trial — not after you have committed to a paid plan.
Who Uses GoSmarter for Shop Floor Planning Rebar fabricators and cut-to-length operations Rebar fabricators cut to specific project schedules. Each order has fixed lengths, quantities, and a delivery window. Manual planning at this volume is error-prone and slow. GoSmarter generates the cut plan from the live order queue in minutes, and the output tells the saw operator exactly what to cut and in what sequence. No interpretation, no mistakes from a hand-drawn list.
Steel service centres with multiple product lines Service centres stocking flat, long, and hollow sections need to plan cuts across different product families. GoSmarter handles the full range of universal beams (UB), universal columns (UC), rectangular hollow sections (RHS), square hollow sections (SHS), circular hollow sections (CHS), plate, and strip, treating each grade and size as a distinct item in the cut plan optimiser. The plan output is per-saw-line, so the floor team receives the right instructions for each piece of equipment.
Structural steel stockholders and fabricators Structural fabricators work to project schedules where material waste directly affects job margin. A poorly optimised cut plan on a high-value structural steel order can wipe out the profit on the job. GoSmarter ensures that every cut plan is mathematically optimised before the saw starts. Not approximately right. Provably right, given the available stock.
Frequently Asked Questions Is GoSmarter shop floor planning software or production planning software? Both terms apply. GoSmarter’s primary function is generating optimised cut plans from live inventory and open orders — that is shop floor planning. The order queue and scheduling layer also supports broader production planning for metals manufacturers. The difference is that GoSmarter is purpose-built for long-product cutting, not generalised manufacturing. Does GoSmarter replace a full MES? No. GoSmarter is not a full Manufacturing Execution System (MES). It does not manage machine scheduling, operator instructions, or quality data recording across a complex multi-process facility. It solves the specific problems that matter most for metals service centres: cut planning, inventory traceability, and certificate management. For businesses that need full MES functionality, GoSmarter sits alongside — or as a step before — a full MES implementation. How quickly can my team start using GoSmarter? Most teams run their first live cut plan within 24 hours of signing up. The trial is guided — our implementation team walks you through your first inventory upload and cut plan. There is nothing to install. Everything runs in a browser. Does GoSmarter shop floor planning software work alongside our existing ERP? Yes. GoSmarter connects to existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and job-management systems via CSV import/export or the REST application programming interface (API). No dedicated connectors required. Most customers run GoSmarter alongside their ERP — GoSmarter handles the cut planning and inventory traceability while the ERP manages the order book and invoicing. Which production scheduling tools work well for saw lines and cutting operations? GoSmarter is designed specifically for saw-based cutting operations — rebar saws, section saws, and bar-cutting lines. The cut plan output tells the saw operator exactly which bar to load, what lengths to cut, and in what sequence. The optimiser minimises scrap across the full order queue for that production run, something no operator can do by hand at volume. What software can help small metals shops move away from whiteboards and clipboards for scheduling? GoSmarter replaces both. The digital cut plan replaces the whiteboard — the floor team works from a live, printable PDF rather than a hand-drawn plan. The order queue replaces the clipboard — priorities, delivery dates, and job status are in the system, not on paper. Most teams are running a live cut plan within 24 hours of signing up. Go deeper GoSmarter’s Production tier — AI cut plans tied to certified material, pricing, and first-month offer GoSmarter’s Starter tier — real-time stock tracking, grade-level, heat number, certificate-linked Spreadsheet-to-System Planning — how to move from Excel-based planning to a connected live system Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation — what scrap rate means, how to measure it, and how to reduce it Production Planning Solutions — how GoSmarter fits into your broader production workflow Midland Steel Case Study — 50% scrap reduction in a two-week production trial 

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### Spreadsheet-to-System Planning for Metals Manufacturers

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/spreadsheet-to-system-planning/
Description: Still planning production in Excel? GoSmarter replaces spreadsheet chaos with a live planning system for metals — cutting, inventory, and order tracking.

Your production planning spreadsheet is not a system. It is a liability.
Every time two people open it simultaneously, someone is looking at stale data. Every time someone leaves the business, a chunk of institutional knowledge walks out the door with their colour-coded tabs. Every time a job changes — and jobs always change — someone is manually updating rows that should be updating themselves.
Metals manufacturers have been running production on spreadsheets for decades. Not because spreadsheets are good at this. Because nothing better existed that was not also outrageously expensive and impossible to implement without a six-month project.
GoSmarter exists because that is no longer true.
What “Spreadsheet-Based Planning” Actually Costs You The direct costs are obvious: the hours your production manager spends every week maintaining the spreadsheet instead of managing production.
The hidden costs are worse.
Version conflicts and stale data When your cut list lives in a spreadsheet, everyone working from it is potentially working from a different version. The most recently saved version wins. The person who saved it last might not be the person who knew the most current state of the job.
In metals manufacturing, this means:
Wrong cuts — the wrong lengths go to the saw because someone was working from yesterday’s version Stock discrepancies — inventory counts are wrong because the spreadsheet was not updated when material moved Missed jobs — orders get forgotten because they were added to the sheet after it was exported and handed to the floor The key-person dependency Every manufacturing business has one. The person who built the spreadsheet, knows all the formulas, and is the only one who can fix it when it breaks. When that person is ill, on holiday, or leaves, planning grinds to a halt.
The compliance gap When production data lives in a spreadsheet, there is no audit trail. Who made that change? When? Why? If a quality issue arises and you need to trace what material went into which job on which day, a spreadsheet gives you nothing. You are left reconstructing the sequence of events from memory, delivery notes, and luck.
The scaling ceiling Spreadsheet-based planning works — just about — when you are running 20 jobs a week. At 50 jobs, it starts to crack. At 100, it collapses. Adding people to manage the spreadsheet is not a solution; it is more hands on a problem that should not exist.
What GoSmarter Replaces Your Spreadsheet With GoSmarter is not a general-purpose project management tool wearing a metals costume. It was built specifically for the production workflows that happen in steel service centres, rebar manufacturers, and metals fabricators.
Live cutting plans instead of static cut lists GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans generates cutting plans dynamically, based on your live orders and your actual inventory. When an order changes, the plan updates. When stock comes in, the available lengths update. The plan you hand to the floor is always the current plan — not the plan from this morning before the job was revised.
In real-world trials at Midland Steel, Cutting Plans reduced scrap rates by 50%. That is not a planning efficiency gain. That is a direct materials cost reduction.
Inventory linked to orders, in real time GoSmarter’s Metals Manager replaces the stock tab in your spreadsheet with a live system that knows:
What you have and where it is What it is certified to (linked to the mill certificate from when it arrived) What is already allocated to an open order What is available to allocate to a new order When a salesperson asks “can we deliver 10 tonnes of S355J2 next Tuesday?”, the answer comes from live data — not from calling the warehouse and hoping the spreadsheet is up to date.
Order and job tracking that does not require a dedicated admin In a spreadsheet world, someone has to maintain the master job list. In GoSmarter, orders are tracked as they move through production. Jobs progress through stages. The system knows what is planned, what is in progress, and what is complete — without anyone updating a row manually.
The Common Scenario: What Moving Off Spreadsheets Looks Like Before GoSmarter A production manager arrives each morning and opens the master spreadsheet. They check the job list, cross-reference with the stock sheet, manually calculate what lengths need to be cut, and write a cut list on paper or in a separate document to hand to the floor.
This takes one to two hours every morning — assuming nothing has changed overnight and the spreadsheet is clean.
When something changes (it always does), they update the spreadsheet, recalculate, and reissue the cut list. This happens two or three times a day.
At end of day, they update stock quantities based on what was consumed. This relies on someone on the floor writing down what they used.
At month end, they reconcile the spreadsheet stock against a physical count and find discrepancies. They investigate. They usually cannot find the source of the error. They write off the difference.
After GoSmarter The production manager opens GoSmarter. The system shows live orders with their required lengths and grades. The Cutting Plans generates a cut plan in minutes. They review it, make any overrides they want, and export to PDF for the floor.
When something changes, they update the order in GoSmarter and replanning takes seconds.
Stock updates happen as material is allocated to jobs and consumed. The system maintains the current picture without manual updates.
Month-end reconciliation is a report, not a days-long investigation.
Specific Workflows GoSmarter Handles Cut list generation for long products For rebar, sections, beams, tube, pipe, and bar stock, GoSmarter generates optimised cut lists that minimise offcut waste. The algorithm considers:
All open orders and their required lengths and quantities Available stock lengths (from your live inventory) Material grades and specifications (matched to cert data) Any existing production constraints (minimum offcut lengths, reserved stock, priority allocations, or machine-specific length limits) The result is a cut plan that tells you exactly which bars to use, in what order, to produce what is needed with the minimum waste.
Goods-in and certificate processing When material arrives, GoSmarter handles the goods-in process alongside the certificate processing. You record the delivery, upload the mill certificates (the AI reads them automatically via MillCert Reader), and the stock and cert data are linked from day one. No separate filing. No separate data entry.
Despatch and certificate-with-delivery When you despatch an order, GoSmarter identifies which material is going and makes the relevant certificates available for the delivery documentation. Your customer gets the right cert with the right delivery — automatically.
Reporting without the pivot table GoSmarter surfaces the information you actually need without requiring you to build a pivot table every time you want to see it:
Live stock by grade, size, and specification Open orders by due date and status Scrap generated vs. target Certificates received vs. pending Is GoSmarter for My Size of Business? GoSmarter is specifically designed for metals businesses that:
Operate without an IT department Cannot afford a six-month ERP implementation Need something that works for their team as it is, not as it might be after retraining Are running 10 to 500 jobs per week If you are a very large enterprise with a full IT team, a bespoke MES, and months to spend on a rollout, GoSmarter is probably not your answer. But if you are a service centre, a rebar manufacturer, a stockholder, or a fabricator with a production team that spends too much time fighting spreadsheets, GoSmarter is built for you.
How Long Does It Take to Move Off Spreadsheets? Most customers are using GoSmarter within a week of signing up. There is no implementation project. No data migration consultant. No weeks of training.
The practical sequence:
Day 1 — sign up, upload your first batch of mill certificates, let GoSmarter read them Day 2 — upload your current stock list (a spreadsheet is fine as a starting point) Day 3 — enter or import your open orders Day 4 — run your first cut plan from GoSmarter instead of building it manually Week 2 — your production team is using the system as their primary source of truth Your spreadsheet does not disappear immediately. Most customers run both in parallel for the first two weeks, cross-checking that GoSmarter is reflecting reality correctly. After that, the spreadsheet usually stops getting updated.
Frequently Asked Questions Do we need to import all our historical data to get started? No. GoSmarter works from your current stock position and your open orders. You do not need years of historical data to start getting value. Most customers start by entering their current stock and their active jobs, and build from there. What happens to our existing spreadsheets? You can use them as a data source to get started — GoSmarter accepts CSV and Excel imports for stock and order data. Over time, your spreadsheets stop being the source of truth and GoSmarter becomes the live system. Most customers keep the spreadsheets as a backup for the first few weeks, then stop maintaining them. How many people can use GoSmarter at once? GoSmarter is a cloud-based platform. Multiple team members can use it simultaneously without version conflicts. The production manager, the quality engineer, the warehouse team, and the sales team can all see the same live data at the same time. Does GoSmarter integrate with our ERP? GoSmarter is designed to work alongside your ERP, not replace it. You can export data from GoSmarter to feed into your ERP via CSV. For closer integration, GoSmarter offers API connections. Most customers use GoSmarter to handle the specific production and cert management tasks their ERP does poorly, while the ERP continues to handle finance, purchasing, and sales orders. What if our cutting requirements change mid-job? This is a common situation. In GoSmarter, you update the order and replanning happens in seconds. The system generates a new cut plan based on the current requirements and current stock — without you rebuilding a spreadsheet from scratch. We already have an MES. Do we still need GoSmarter? It depends what your MES does. Traditional MES platforms are strong on production scheduling and shop-floor data collection, but often weak on mill certificate handling and cutting optimisation for long products. GoSmarter can sit alongside an MES, adding the certificate automation and cutting plan capabilities that most MES platforms lack. Is the data secure? GoSmarter is a cloud-based SaaS platform hosted on secure infrastructure. Your production data, inventory records, and certificate data are encrypted in transit and at rest. For details on data handling and security practices, see the GoSmarter privacy policy. Can GoSmarter run on top of our current spreadsheets, or will we eventually be forced to move to a full MES? GoSmarter runs alongside your current spreadsheets from day one. There is no forced migration, no cliff-edge moment where the old process has to stop. Most customers run both in parallel for a few weeks, then naturally stop maintaining the spreadsheet because GoSmarter is faster and more accurate. You are never forced to move to a full Manufacturing Execution System (MES). GoSmarter is a specialist AI tool that handles the specific workflows your spreadsheet handles badly — cert processing, cut planning, live inventory tracking — without requiring a six-month MES implementation. Many GoSmarter customers run the platform alongside an ERP or basic MES for years without needing to change either. If you eventually want a full MES, GoSmarter’s data discipline — clean stock records, linked cert data, documented cut history — makes that future project easier, not harder. Related Resources Production Planning Solutions — GoSmarter’s production planning and cutting optimisation capabilities Operations Management Solutions — GoSmarter’s operations management capabilities GoSmarter for Metals Operations — the full toolkit overview No-Code Workflows for Metals SMEs — how GoSmarter works without IT involvement Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation — how Cutting Plans reduces material waste Mill Certificate Automation — automating the cert side of your goods-in process Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study — from spreadsheet planning to live connected systems GoSmarter’s Production tier — AI cut plans tied to certified material, pricing, and first-month offer GoSmarter’s Starter tier — live stock tracking with certificate traceability Complete Guide to Streamlining Metal Fabrication Operations — broader workflow optimisation for fabricators GoSmarter is made by Nightingale HQ, a UK-based AI company building practical tools for metals manufacturers since 2018.


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### Steel Distributor Software: GoSmarter for Steel Stockholders

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/steel-distributor-software/
Description: GoSmarter: steel distributor software for stockholders and service centres. Real-time inventory, automated cert management, AI cut plans. No ERP project.

GoSmarter is steel distributor software purpose-built for steel stockholders, service centres, and rebar suppliers. It manages inventory by grade and heat number, automates mill certificate handling, and generates optimised cut lists in one connected system.
Steel distribution is not a simple logistics business. It is a precision operation where the wrong certificate, the wrong grade, or the wrong cut length on a despatch can cost you the customer.
Generic stock-control software knows nothing about heat numbers, EN 10204 certificate types, or the difference between S355 and S275. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that claim to handle metals distribution handle it the same way a spreadsheet does: badly, just with more screens.
GoSmarter is built by a team that understands how steel distribution actually works: goods in with certificates, stock tracked by grade and heat, committed vs available allocation, cut-to-length operations, and cert-with-delivery despatch. Every part of the system is designed for the metals supply chain, not adapted from something else.
What Steel Distributor Software Needs to Do Running a steel distribution or stockholding business involves a set of workflows that differ meaningfully from general warehousing or manufacturing. Steel distributor software needs to handle all of them:
Goods in with certificate verification Every delivery arrives with certificates — usually EN 10204 Type 3.1 or 3.2 documents that prove the grade, heat number, and mechanical properties of the material. Steel distributor software needs to capture that certificate data at goods in, link it to the specific stock items, and flag any mismatches between what the purchase order specifies and what the certificate says.
Without this step handled systematically, certificate problems surface later: when a customer asks for the cert for a specific heat, when an auditor wants traceability records, or — worst case — when material with inadequate certification has already shipped.
GoSmarter MillCert Reader reads mill certificates automatically — regardless of format, language, or layout — and extracts the key data: heat number, grade, EN 10204 type, chemical composition, mechanical properties. That data links to the stock record automatically. No manual entry.
Stock tracking by grade, size, and heat number In steel distribution, your inventory is not a count of items in a location. A coil of S355 3mm and a coil of S275 3mm are different products, even if they sit on the same rack. Material allocated to a live order is not available for another job, even if it is physically present. Offcuts below a minimum usable length need tracking separately from prime stock.
GoSmarter Metals Manager tracks stock at the level of detail that matters: grade, size, condition, heat number, and certificate reference. Your stock picture shows what is actually available to commit — not a generic count that mixes allocated material with free stock.
Cut-to-length operations and cutting plan optimisation Many steel distributors offer cut-to-length services: customers order specific lengths, and you cut from standard stock bars. The efficiency of your cutting operation directly affects your margins. Poor cut planning means high scrap rates — material you paid for that goes into the skip at a fraction of its purchase price.
GoSmarter Cutting Plans generates AI-optimised cut lists from your live inventory and open orders. The algorithm calculates the minimum-waste combination of cuts across your full order queue — something no human can do manually at volume. In production trials with Midland Steel, GoSmarter reduced scrap rates by 50% versus manual planning.
Certificate-with-delivery despatch When steel ships, the certificate travels with it. The heat number on the certificate must match the physical material. If a customer later needs to verify the grade or trace the material to its origin, the certificate is the chain of evidence.
GoSmarter maintains the traceability chain from goods in to despatch. When an order ships, GoSmarter knows which heat numbers are in the delivery and which certificates to attach. Finding a certificate for a specific shipment takes seconds, not hours of searching through a shared folder.
Committed vs available stock visibility Knowing what is physically in your yard is not enough. A steel distributor also needs to know what is available to commit. Material already allocated to a live order is not free stock. A generic system that counts items rather than tracks allocation status will show it as available. That leads to double-allocation, late deliveries, and firefighting.
GoSmarter Metals Manager shows every stock item against its allocation status in real time. Your team sees what is genuinely available: free to commit, not just physically present.
Integration with ERP and order management for steel distributors Most steel distributors already run an enterprise resource planning (ERP) or job-management system. GoSmarter does not replace it. GoSmarter fills the gap that ERP cannot: the metals-specific layer of certificate management, grade traceability, and cut-plan optimisation.
GoSmarter connects to existing systems through spreadsheet exports or direct system connections. Most integrations are live within a day: no dedicated connectors, no IT project, no consultant required.
Common Challenges GoSmarter Solves for Steel Distributors Lost or missing mill certificates Steel distributors are contractually required to provide EN 10204 certificates with certain shipments. When those certificates live in a shared folder or filing cabinet, finding the right document for a specific heat number can take hours. Or it cannot be found at all.
GoSmarter links every certificate to its stock record at goods in. When a customer requests a certificate for a specific delivery, you retrieve it in seconds by searching the heat number or shipment reference.
Scrap rates eating into margin Every length that goes into the skip is material you bought at full price. For a steel distributor offering cut-to-length services, scrap is a direct cost that comes off margin. A manual cut plan typically wastes 5–8% of material. GoSmarter’s algorithm targets ≤2.5%, the same improvement achieved in the Midland Steel trial.
Double-allocation and stock discrepancies When the same bar can appear as available on two different jobs, you get conflict at the saw. GoSmarter prevents this by flagging committed material as unavailable from the moment it is allocated. Every plan is built on a true picture of free stock.
Slow certificate retrieval during customer audits Large customers and tier-one manufacturers run approved-supplier audits. They expect you to produce traceability records quickly. If your certificates are in folders, filing cabinets, or email chains, an audit becomes a scramble. GoSmarter’s certificate archive is searchable by heat number, grade, delivery date, or order reference.
Steel Distribution Sectors That Use GoSmarter Rebar suppliers and cut-to-length fabricators Rebar supply is one of the most documentation-intensive areas of steel distribution. Structural rebar ships with certificates that need to match the specific heat and lot. Fabricators cutting to project schedules need optimised cut plans that keep offcuts to a minimum.
Midland Steel, a UK rebar supplier, ran GoSmarter through a live production trial. Cutting Plans cut their scrap rate by 50% across 734 tonnes in two weeks.
Structural steel stockholders Structural steel stockholders stock a wide range of sections, including universal beams (UB), universal columns (UC), rectangular hollow sections (RHS), square hollow sections (SHS), and circular hollow sections (CHS), across multiple grades and sizes. Certificate traceability is essential. At that volume, the cert pile alone can bury your goods-in team.
GoSmarter MillCert Reader handles the certificate reading at goods in automatically, regardless of the format, language, or layout of the document. No manual data entry.
Steel service centres offering processing Service centres that offer cutting, drilling, shot-blasting, or other processing need to track material as it moves through their facility, not just as items in a yard. GoSmarter Metals Manager tracks material at each stage, with grade and heat number intact at every step.
GoSmarter vs Generic Stock-Control Software for Steel Distribution Steel distributors often start with generic stock-control tools — sometimes spreadsheets, sometimes a basic warehouse management system, sometimes a general ERP with a stock module. These tools handle volume-based inventory adequately. They do not handle the steel-specific layer.
Capability Generic stock control GoSmarter Track stock by grade and heat number ❌ ✅ Link certificates to stock items ❌ ✅ Automated certificate reading and extraction ❌ ✅ Show committed vs available stock Partial ✅ Optimised cut planning for long products ❌ ✅ Certificate-with-delivery traceability ❌ ✅ Deploy in days without an IT project Varies ✅ The gap is not a minor technical detail. For a steel distributor, grade traceability and certificate management are not optional features — they are compliance requirements, contractual obligations, and the thing that separates you from a distributor who gets delisted from a customer’s approved supplier list.
Getting Live as a Steel Distributor Most steel distributors are live with GoSmarter within a day of signing up. There is no IT project, no on-premise installation, and no consultant required.
Step 1: Start with 50% off your first month — full access, no credit card required.
Step 2: Import your existing stock via spreadsheet. Our onboarding team will help you map your columns if needed. Your team is managing live stock movements the same day.
Step 3: Upload your first batch of mill certificates. GoSmarter reads them automatically and links the data to your stock records. Start seeing what goods-in looks like when certificate extraction is instant.
Step 4: Run your first cut plan. If you offer cut-to-length services, upload your open orders alongside your inventory and generate an optimised cut list. See the scrap saving on a real job before you commit to a paid plan.
Step 5 (optional): Connect to your existing ERP or order-management system via CSV or the GoSmarter API. We scope the integration during the trial so you know what it looks like before you sign anything.
What GoSmarter Handles for Steel Distributors Here is how GoSmarter maps to the core operational workflows of a steel stockholder or service centre:
Workflow How GoSmarter handles it Goods in MillCert Reader extracts certificate data automatically; stock record created with grade, heat, and cert linked Inventory visibility Real-time stock by grade, size, heat, and allocation status — committed vs available Certificate management Every stock item linked to its certificate; find any cert in seconds by heat number Order allocation Allocate specific stock to orders; committed material flagged as unavailable Cut-to-length planning AI-optimised cut list from live inventory and open orders; PDF or CSV output Offcut tracking Offcuts above minimum length tracked in inventory with heat and cert linked Despatch documentation Traceability chain maintained from goods in to delivery; cert retrieval by shipment ERP integration CSV or API connection to existing ERP — no dedicated connectors required Case Study: Midland Steel Midland Steel is a UK rebar supplier — a cut-to-length steel operation that supplies fabricated rebar to construction projects across the UK. GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans reduced their scrap rate by 50% in a two-week production trial across 734 tonnes of steel.
“Smart technology can directly contribute to reducing carbon emissions in steel manufacturing. By integrating AI and digital tracking tools, we have significantly improved efficiency while aligning with our sustainability goals.”
— Tony Woods, Managing Director, Midland Steel
Read the full Midland Steel case study.
Frequently Asked Questions Is GoSmarter only for large steel distributors? No. GoSmarter is designed specifically for small and medium-sized steel stockholders, service centres, and fabricators: businesses with 5–50 people who cannot afford a multi-year ERP implementation but need more than a spreadsheet. The system is priced per site, not per user. Unlimited users on one subscription, and the cost stays flat as your team grows. How does GoSmarter handle EN 10204 certificates? GoSmarter MillCert Reader reads mill certificates automatically regardless of format, language, or layout. It extracts heat number, grade, EN 10204 type (2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2), chemical composition, and mechanical properties, and links that data to the relevant stock record. When material ships, the certificate travels with it. If a customer requests a cert for a specific heat, you retrieve it in seconds. Does GoSmarter steel distributor software work with our existing ERP? Yes. GoSmarter connects via CSV import/export and the REST API. Most customers use GoSmarter alongside their existing ERP. GoSmarter handles the metals-specific layer (inventory traceability, certificate management, cutting plans) while the ERP manages the order book and invoicing. Do we need to install any software to use GoSmarter? No. GoSmarter is entirely browser-based. Nothing to install, nothing to maintain. It works on any device: desktop, tablet, or phone. Your team can access it from the office, the yard, or the weighbridge. How much does GoSmarter steel distributor software cost? GoSmarter is priced per site, not per user. Unlimited users on one flat subscription, with no per-seat fees as your team grows. Starter tier from £150/month (traceability foundation). Workshop (with AI cert automation) from £295/month. Production tier (full end-to-end traceability with AI cut plans) from £795/month. Get 50% off your first month — no credit card required. See the pricing page for full details. What are the hidden costs steel distributors should watch for when evaluating software? The most common hidden costs in steel distributor software are per-seat licence fees that multiply as your team grows, professional services charges for initial configuration, long-term contracts that penalise early exit, and integration fees to unlock basic data connectivity.
GoSmarter has none of these. Pricing is per site: one flat subscription covers unlimited users. API access is included in every plan at no extra cost. Onboarding support is included. There is no long-term contract: plans run monthly or annually and cancel with no exit fee. The price on the pricing page is what you pay.
To compare: a team of ten at a typical per-user SaaS tool priced at £100 per user per month costs £1,000 per month in licences alone, before they have set anything up. GoSmarter’s Starter tier covers that same team for £150/month — Workshop for £295/month — whether the team is three people or thirty.
What is the realistic ROI for a steel distributor adopting GoSmarter? ROI comes from three places. First, scrap reduction: GoSmarter Cutting Plans reduced scrap rates by 50% for Midland Steel in a production trial across 734 tonnes. At typical scrap vs prime-stock price differentials, that represents tens of thousands of pounds annually for a mid-size cut-to-length operation. Second, admin time: GoSmarter’s Workshop tier (AI cert automation) recovers 120+ hours per year in certificate handling, based on measured customer workflows. At a loaded cost of £30/hour, that is £3,600/year from one person’s saved time. That is more than the annual Workshop tier subscription. Third, compliance risk reduction: one audit failure, one customer delisted from your approved supplier list, costs more than several years of GoSmarter subscriptions. The Business Case Calculator models all three for your specific operation. No account required. Go deeper Metals Manager: Steel Inventory Software — real-time stock tracking for steel stockholders and distributors MillCert Reader: Automated Certificate Management — read any mill certificate in any format, automatically Cutting Plans: AI Cut List Software — optimised cut lists for cut-to-length steel operations What is EN 10204? — the certificate standard every steel distributor needs to understand Mill Certificate Automation Hub — the complete guide to automating certificate management Midland Steel Case Study — how a UK rebar supplier achieved 50% scrap reduction Metals Manufacturing Glossary — heat numbers, grades, EN 10204 types, and other key terms 

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### Tier-Based AI Adoption for Metals Manufacturers: Start at Starter, Unlock More as You Grow

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/modular-ai-adoption-metals/
Description: GoSmarter's tier-based platform lets metals manufacturers start with traceability foundations and unlock more AI as they grow — proven ROI at every step.

Every metals manufacturer knows the story. A software vendor promises a full digital transformation. After a 12-month implementation, a six-figure invoice, and a year of everyone’s time, you end up with a system that does 70% of what was promised and requires a consultant to change anything.
This is not a transformation failure. It is a procurement model failure. The “replace everything at once” approach was never a good fit for operations that cannot stop running while the new system is configured.
GoSmarter is a single compliance and traceability platform for metals manufacturers. You start at the Starter tier — every order, cert, and material movement tracked from day one. When you’re ready for AI-powered compliance automation, unlock Workshop. When you need full end-to-end traceability with AI cut plans tied to certified material, move to Production. You never bet the operation on a big bang. You grow at your pace, with returns from day one.
With 50% off your first month, getting started costs half what it would cost to stay stuck.
Why “Big Bang” AI Adoption Fails in Metals Manufacturing Operations cannot pause A metals operation runs every day. You cannot shut down the saw for six months while a new system is configured. You cannot move your entire stock record to a new format overnight. Any system that requires a clean-slate migration is a system that cannot work in your environment.
Modular adoption works alongside the existing operation. You run the new module in parallel with your current process — not instead of it — until you trust it. When you trust it, you switch. The operation never stops.
The cost of failure is too high In a big-bang implementation, failure means six months and six figures wasted, and your operation is now in a worse state than before because everyone is exhausted and the old processes are broken.
In modular adoption, failure means one module did not deliver. You stop, understand why, fix it or move on. The rest of the operation is untouched.
People adopt tools, not platforms The production manager who will use Cutting Plans every morning does not need to understand the full GoSmarter platform on day one. They need to see that Cutting Plans is faster and better than what they were doing before. Once they trust it, they become advocates — which is how the rest of the organisation gets pulled in.
A platform that tries to change everything at once asks everyone to change at once. That never works. Modular adoption changes one team’s workflow first, proves the value, then invites the next team in.
The GoSmarter Tier Adoption Path GoSmarter is one platform with features that unlock by tier. Start at Starter for the traceability foundation. Unlock more AI as you grow at Workshop and Production.
Workshop tier: MillCert Reader — AI cert automation The problem it solves: your team types certificate data from PDFs into a spreadsheet or system, multiple times a day, every day. This takes 5–15 minutes per certificate. It introduces transcription errors. The data lives in a shared drive that nobody can search reliably.
What it delivers standalone: MillCert Reader reads any mill certificate — scanned paper or digital PDF — and extracts the data automatically. Heat numbers, grades, chemical composition, mechanical properties. The renamed PDF is ready to send to a customer. The data is searchable immediately. The whole process takes seconds.
Time to value: most teams are processing certs with MillCert Reader on day one. There is no configuration, no template training, no field mapping. Upload the certificate; get the data.
Return on investment (ROI) signal: if your team processes 10 certs a day at 10 minutes each, that is 1.7 hours daily. MillCert Reader reduces this to minutes. The time saving is visible within the first week.
See Workshop tier →
Starter tier: Metals Manager — the traceability foundation The problem it solves: your stock spreadsheet is always wrong. Not because the people updating it are careless. A spreadsheet updated by multiple people in a fast-moving operation is structurally incapable of staying accurate. Material gets double-allocated. Stock counts are wrong the moment they are completed. Cert status is a separate column maintained by a different person on a different day.
What it delivers standalone: Metals Manager gives your operation a live stock picture — updated as material arrives, is allocated, is cut, and is despatched. Every item stays linked to its certificate data. Stock counts, grade breakdowns, and allocation status are visible to everyone with access, in real time.
Time to value: most teams import their existing stock via CSV and have a working live record within a day. The first benefit is usually visible the same week — when someone finds material they would otherwise have ordered because they did not know it was there.
ROI signal: reduction in over-ordering, fewer allocation errors, and faster responses to stock queries. For operations buying £1–5m of metal per year, even a 5% reduction in unnecessary stock orders frees £50–250k of working capital.
See Starter tier →
Production tier: Cutting Plans — full end-to-end traceability The problem it solves: your cut plans are built from an incomplete picture of available stock, produced by a manual process that takes an experienced production manager one to two hours every morning. When jobs change (they always change), the plan is either not updated or updated manually with the risk of error.
What it delivers standalone: Cutting Plans generates optimised cut programmes from your job list and available stock. It accounts for off-cuts and remnants, prioritises jobs by deadline, and produces a plan that minimises scrap. The whole process takes minutes, not hours. You review it, override anything you disagree with, and hand it to the floor.
Time to value: most teams run their first real cut plan within the first week. The scrap saving is visible immediately — the plan shows projected off-cuts before a single bar is cut.
ROI signal: Midland Steel’s rebar operation reduced scrap rates by 50% in production trials. At £600 per tonne, saving one tonne of scrap per week across a long-products operation is £30,000+ annually.
See Production tier →
How the Tiers Compound Each tier builds on the last. The value compounds as you unlock more.
Starter + Workshop: Inventory traceability meets AI cert automation When MillCert Reader feeds cert data directly into Metals Manager, every item of stock carries its certification information as a permanent attribute. There is no separate cert file to find. When a customer asks for the cert for a specific heat number, you pull it from the inventory record in seconds.
This also enables certificate-gated allocation: you can configure Metals Manager to flag material that is not yet certified against the required spec before it is allocated to a job. Quality issues surface before they reach the floor.
Workshop + Production: Compliance automation meets cut plan optimisation When Cutting Plans draws on the live stock record in Metals Manager, cut plans are generated from actual, current material availability. Off-cuts and remnants in Metals Manager are visible to Cutting Plans and can be used in the optimisation. The result is a plan that reflects reality — not an approximation based on this morning’s stock count.
Allocation tracking also improves. When Cutting Plans allocates bars to jobs, those bars are immediately reflected as reserved in Metals Manager. Double-allocation is structurally prevented.
All tiers running: the full compliance and traceability platform With all three modules running, the full cycle is connected:
Material arrives → MillCert Reader reads the cert → Metals Manager creates the stock record with cert data attached Jobs come in → Cutting Plans runs against live stock → allocation is reflected immediately in Metals Manager Material is cut and despatched → stock is drawn down, cert is sent to the customer, traceability chain is complete The four business outcomes compound on each other: cert automation saves admin time; live stock prevents over-ordering; optimised cut plans reduce scrap; all three together improve On-Time In Full (OTIF) performance because the information that used to delay decisions is always accurate and always available.
A Realistic Adoption Timeline Week 1: MillCert Reader live Sign up. Upload your first batch of certificates. Start using MillCert Reader for incoming goods the same day. By end of week, the whole goods-in team is processing certs in the system.
What you have proven by end of week: MillCert Reader saves real time. The cert data is more accessible than a shared drive. The team did not resist the change because it is plainly faster.
Week 2–3: Metals Manager imported and running Import your stock spreadsheet via CSV. Match cert data to stock records where it exists. Start recording new stock movements in the system.
By end of week 3, most operations have a live inventory picture that is more current and more accurate than the spreadsheet it replaced.
What you have proven by end of week 3: the live stock record is trustworthy. You know what is in the yard without a phone call. Allocation errors have already been reduced.
Week 4: Cutting Plans trial With a reliable stock record, the Cutting Plans trial can start. The implementation team walks you through your first live cut plan. You see the scrap projection before the first bar is cut.
What you have proven by end of week 4: optimised cut plans reduce material waste and planning time. The morning planning routine is faster and the results are better.
Month 2 onward: optimise and expand In month 2, most teams are running all three modules as their primary operational tools. The focus shifts to tuning and expanding: adding more users, exploring API connectivity to existing systems, and measuring the business outcomes against the starting baseline.
The typical result: 120+ hours of admin time saved annually (certs), 20–50% scrap reduction on long products (cutting plans), and measurable improvement in inventory accuracy and OTIF performance.
Change Management: What Actually Needs to Change The tools are the easy part GoSmarter is designed to be self-explanatory for people who have never used production software. Most users are productive within hours of first logging in. There is no training course. The tools work like well-designed web applications, because that is what they are.
The harder part is the behavioural change: persuading people to record material movements in the system rather than updating a spreadsheet, or trusting the cut plan rather than doing it manually.
How GoSmarter eases this The modular path reduces the scope of behavioural change at each step. When a team starts with MillCert Reader, the only change is how they handle incoming certificates. That is one process, in one part of the operation, involving a small number of people. It is a manageable change.
Once that change is embedded and the team has seen the benefit, adding Metals Manager asks a wider group to adopt a new process. They do it in the context of a team that already believes GoSmarter works. The cert team’s enthusiasm is the best change management resource you have.
Cutting Plans changes the production planning process. By the time you reach this stage, cert automation is running and inventory is trusted. The production manager has already seen that GoSmarter produces better results than the manual approach. The adoption hurdle is lower.
When to involve IT For most metals small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), GoSmarter does not require information technology (IT) involvement to deploy. It runs in a browser, there is nothing to install, and user management is handled within the application.
If you want to connect GoSmarter to existing systems via the REST API, feeding data to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) or pulling order data from a sales system, that will involve some IT or developer resource. This is entirely optional and typically happens after the operational value is proven, not before.
Common Questions from Buyers Can we start at a lower tier before committing to the full platform? Yes. GoSmarter’s Starter tier gives you the traceability foundation: every order, cert, and movement tracked. From there, you unlock AI cert automation at Workshop or full end-to-end traceability with AI cut plans at Production. Start at Starter, prove the value, grow when you’re ready. With 50% off your first month, the starting cost is low. What is the minimum commitment? GoSmarter plans run on a monthly basis. There is no annual lock-in, no multi-year commitment, and no cancellation fee. You can start with a free trial, add a paid plan, and cancel at the end of any billing period. See the pricing page for current plan details. What if the first module does not deliver? We want to know. The implementation team works with you during the trial period specifically to ensure you see real value before you pay for anything. If a module is not delivering, there is either a setup issue we can fix or a mismatch between the tool and your workflow that we should address. We would rather tell you a tool is not right for your operation than oversell it. How does GoSmarter connect to our ERP? GoSmarter can connect to existing systems via CSV import/export or the REST API. There are no dedicated connectors or pre-built integration packs for specific ERP platforms. Most customers start with CSV, which covers the common workflow of exporting data from the ERP into GoSmarter or exporting from GoSmarter back. API connectivity is available for tighter, real-time integration and is typically scoped during or after the trial period. See the integration strategy guide for details. How many people need to be involved in the initial rollout? The MillCert Reader rollout typically involves two to three people from the goods-in or quality team. Metals Manager involves a wider group — anyone who records or queries stock — but the import process is handled by one person and the rest of the team is invited in stages. Cutting Plans is primarily a production manager tool. You can run a full modular rollout with a core team of five to eight people in the first month. What does the implementation support look like? Every Production tier subscription includes hands-on onboarding support from the GoSmarter implementation team. MillCert Reader and Metals Manager trials include documentation, onboarding walkthroughs, and access to the support team. You are not left with a sandbox and a help article. See getting started with GoSmarter for the full onboarding picture. Can GoSmarter work with messy or incomplete data when we start out? Yes. GoSmarter is built for operations that do not have clean, structured data from day one. You do not need a complete historical data set, a perfectly formatted inventory spreadsheet, or a tidy archive of mill certificates before you start. Upload what you have. Start with current stock and open orders. Add historical certificates when you get to it. Most customers are getting real value out of MillCert Reader or Cutting Plans within the first week, without touching their historical records. The system builds as you use it. Messy data is the norm in metals operations. GoSmarter is designed with that reality in mind. What internal changes do companies usually need to make to get full value from GoSmarter? Less than you might expect. GoSmarter is designed to fit into existing workflows, not replace them wholesale. The main process change is a simple one: stop maintaining the spreadsheet once GoSmarter is your live system of record. The main role change is usually modest: a production manager who previously spent two hours building cut plans spends five minutes reviewing them instead. Key performance indicators (KPIs) that typically shift after adoption include: time spent on manual cert entry (target: near zero), scrap rate on long products (target: below 3%), and OTIF performance (tracked live rather than reconstructed weekly). You do not need a change management programme. You need one person willing to run the trial and a team that can see when a process has genuinely improved. Is GoSmarter viable for a small metals business with fewer than 20 employees? Yes. GoSmarter is specifically built for operations that do not have an IT department, a dedicated software team, or an enterprise software budget. The tools run in a browser, require no installation, and are configured in minutes rather than months. A 10-person steel stockholder with one production manager and a quality admin can use every GoSmarter module without needing specialist skills. The minimum commitment is a monthly plan with no long-term lock-in. If you are spending meaningful time manually processing mill certificates or building cut plans by hand, GoSmarter saves you that time, regardless of headcount. How does GoSmarter work when we outsource some processing to third parties? GoSmarter manages your material record and certificate data regardless of where processing happens. If you send material to a third-party cutter, coater, or processor, you retain the traceability chain in GoSmarter: the stock record, the certificate data, and the allocation to the relevant job. You can export the relevant cert data or cutting specification to send to the processor. When material returns, you update the stock record to reflect its new state. The system does not require you to bring processing in-house. It tracks what you own and what is certified, the physical location is part of the record. Related Resources Getting Started with GoSmarter Metals — the step-by-step onboarding guide No-Code Workflows for Metals SMEs — AI adoption without the IT department Integrated Planning–Materials Alignment — what the fully-connected operational model looks like GoSmarter for Metals Operations — the full platform overview Spreadsheet-to-System Planning for Metals — the migration path from spreadsheet to live system ROI of AI in Metals Manufacturing — calculating the business case for each module GoSmarter Pricing — tier-based plans, 50% off first month, no lock-in GoSmarter App → — start your free trial today GoSmarter is made by Nightingale HQ, a UK-based AI company building practical tools for metals manufacturers since 2018.


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### Why Some Metals Manufacturers Don't Choose GoSmarter After a Trial or Demo

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/hubs/why-metals-manufacturers-dont-choose-gosmarter/
Description: GoSmarter isn't right for every metals operation. Four honest reasons companies trial it and decide not to proceed — and what to do if any apply to you.

GoSmarter is the artificial intelligence (AI) toolkit metals manufacturers use to manage mill certificates, stock, and cut plans without replacing their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. It saves qualifying teams 120+ hours of admin per year. It is not the right fit for every operation. Four scenarios account for the majority of companies that complete a demo and decide not to proceed:
integration complexity volume below the return on investment (ROI) threshold team readiness scope mismatch with a full Manufacturing Execution System (MES) requirement If any apply to your operation, it is better to know before you start.
Who Should Not Use GoSmarter? Most software vendors write their objection-handling content to convert you regardless of whether the product is right for you. Operations like Midland Steel came to us. We ran the fit conversation. The roadmap we delivered was honest about what GoSmarter could and could not replace. We would rather give you a straight answer than sell you something that quietly does not work.
If GoSmarter is a poor fit for your operation, you will either have a bad implementation experience or you will cancel after a few months. Neither outcome benefits you or us.
The honest framing: GoSmarter is the AI toolkit metals manufacturers use to handle mill certs, manage stock, and optimise cut plans. No ERP changes. No six-month implementation project. It delivers measurable returns for most operations in that category. For some, it does not clear the bar. The four reasons below explain when and why.
Reason 1: Integration Complexity The scenario Your operation runs on a bespoke ERP or warehouse management system that has no application programming interface (API) and no reliable comma-separated values (CSV) export. All data lives in that system. Moving data in or out requires a custom database connector that would need to be scoped, built, and maintained.
When this is a blocker If your team cannot operate GoSmarter alongside the existing system without a direct data connection, this is a blocker. If the cost of building that connection outweighs the value GoSmarter delivers, then GoSmarter is not the right step right now.
This is most common in operations where the ERP is heavily customised or end-of-life. Any integration work would mean contracting the original developer. They may not be available or affordable.
What to do instead GoSmarter connects to most metals ERPs (Infor, Epicor, Dynamics, Sage, and similar) via REST (Representational State Transfer) API or a simple CSV extract. Your IT team can review the API documentation directly. It covers data handling, access controls, and what a clean data export looks like if you ever leave. No proprietary formats, no data lock-in. The majority of operations are live within a day using a spreadsheet pulled from their existing system.
The genuine blocker is a bespoke or end-of-life system with no export path at all. If you can get your stock list out as a spreadsheet, you are almost certainly not in that situation. See the integration strategy guide for the full technical picture.
If full integration is genuinely out of reach right now, GoSmarter can still work as a standalone cert-handling and stock tool. No ERP connection required. Some operations run it in parallel for a specific team or product family. They revisit integration later, once the ROI is visible to the business.
Reason 2: Volume Below the Return on Investment Threshold The scenario Your operation processes fewer than 10 different metals batches / heat codes per week, carries fewer than 50 tonnes of stock, and cuts simple, low-variety profiles. There is no meaningful cert admin backlog and no planning complexity that requires optimisation.
When this is a blocker GoSmarter’s return on investment (ROI) is clearest when there is a significant recurring time cost being eliminated. If the time saved across cert processing, stock management, and cut planning adds up to fewer than two hours per week, the financial case does not work. A paid subscription needs to clear a visible payback bar.
Use the ROI of AI in metals manufacturing guide to run the numbers for your operation before committing. Honest calculation matters more than a ballpark figure.
What to do instead If your operation is growing and the admin burden is increasing, the right time to evaluate GoSmarter is now, not when the volume becomes painful. Most operations processing more than 10 mill certificates per week save more than two hours per week. The monthly cost typically pays back within the first billing cycle. The ROI guide has worked examples for operations in the 20–50 person range.
The tier-based path is designed to start light and scale. See tier-based AI adoption for metals manufacturers for the staged approach.
If your volume is genuinely low and unlikely to grow, then GoSmarter is probably not cost-effective at this stage. That is a straightforward conclusion, not a failure.
Reason 3: Team Readiness The scenario The company is interested in GoSmarter, but this is not the right moment. The production floor is mid-way through a site move. A new ERP implementation is six months from going live. The production manager who would champion the rollout is leaving next month. The team is at capacity and any new tool will get shelved.
When this is a blocker Timing is a legitimate decision. A GoSmarter rollout in a distracted, overloaded operation will not succeed. Not because the product is wrong. Because adoption requires attention. If the team cannot spare a couple of hours in the first week (not IT hours, just someone who knows the process), the rollout will stall. GoSmarter does not require an IT department or a technical lead. Most operations get it running with the person who currently handles certs. But that person does need to exist. They need a clear slot in week one.
What to do instead Calculate what the delay is costing you in the meantime. If your team is processing 15 bundles per day manually, that is roughly 1,000 certs before a “ready in six months” timeline arrives. At 10 minutes per cert, that is 167 hours of manual work that GoSmarter would have eliminated.
Book a follow-up conversation for the date the constraint resolves. The GoSmarter team is used to this conversation. There is no pressure to start before you are ready — the cost of a rushed start outweighs a well-timed one.
Reason 4: Scope Mismatch — You Need a Full Manufacturing Execution System (MES) The scenario Your operation needs real-time machine integration and shop-floor data collection from computer numerical control (CNC) lines. It also requires Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) tracking across multiple machines and full Manufacturing Execution System (MES) workflow management. GoSmarter does not offer any of these capabilities.
What GoSmarter understands, in detail that generic operations tools do not, is the material reality of metals manufacturing. Remnants and offcuts that need to stay in the cut plan. Mixed-grade bar stock where one wrong heat number causes a non-conformance. Multi-dimension plate cuts where nesting efficiency is the difference between a profitable job and a wasteful one. That domain depth is where GoSmarter earns its keep. Machine connectivity is not part of it. It never claimed to be.
GoSmarter is the AI toolkit for cert traceability, stock management, and cut-plan optimisation — not a full MES.
When this is a blocker If your priority is machine connectivity and live line-speed OEE data, GoSmarter cannot deliver that. You need a purpose-built MES from vendors like Siemens Opcenter, AVEVA MES, or similar. GoSmarter is the wrong tool for that job.
What to do instead If you need a full MES eventually but want to start generating data discipline and ROI now, GoSmarter can run in parallel and feed clean cert and stock data into the MES scoping process. Operations that start with GoSmarter before committing to a full MES often scope the MES project more accurately, because they enter it with real operational data rather than spreadsheet estimates.
See the Cloud MES comparison guide for a sober assessment of what full MES implementations actually cost and deliver. GoSmarter and a full MES are not competing solutions, they solve different layers of the problem.
What Happens If You Start and It Does Not Work? Every GoSmarter subscription includes hands-on support from the implementation team. If the platform is not delivering value, we want that conversation early — not at the end of your first month. If you have been through a trial that stalled (with GoSmarter or another tool), we know what that feels like. This section is written for you. The two most common causes are not what most people expect. Almost never the product. Almost never the team.
There are two common causes of a trial that stalls:
Setup issue: the data import was incomplete, the right team was not involved, or the workflow that GoSmarter should replace was not properly mapped to how GoSmarter works. These are fixable in a single call.
Genuine mismatch: the product is not right for the operation as described. In that case, the implementation team will say so clearly and stop the trial early rather than let it drift to a painful end.
Monthly billing means there is no long-term exposure. If month one does not deliver value, do not pay for month two. There is no penalty for stopping.
The Honest Business Case Test Before starting a trial, answer these four questions:
Does your team spend more than 30 minutes per day on manual cert processing, stock management, and/or cut planning? Do you have at least a basic ability to export or import data from your current system, even via a spreadsheet? Is there at least one person on the team who has the time and the authority to run a two-week trial without competing priorities? Is your On-Time In Full (OTIF) delivery rate under 95%, and do you suspect material data or planning errors contribute to that gap? If yes, the case for GoSmarter is stronger than the cert-processing hours alone suggest. Late shipments caused by stock inaccuracies typically cost ten times the admin savings from fixing the underlying data. If the answer to all four is yes, GoSmarter is likely to deliver a clear return. If the answer to any is no, address the no first and revisit once it has resolved.
Ready to run the numbers? Start with the ROI of AI in metals manufacturing guide, then check the pricing page to see what each tier costs for your operation size. If the numbers work, start with 50% off your first month — we will confirm whether the ROI stacks up for your specific volume before you commit.
Common Questions About Fit and Risk Are the reasons for not choosing GoSmarter fixable? Some are, some are not. Integration complexity is often partially solvable. Many operations that initially say “our ERP doesn’t connect to anything” find that CSV export covers 80% of what they need. Volume threshold is a genuine constraint if the numbers don’t work. Team readiness is a timing issue, not a product issue. Scope mismatch is the clearest no. If you need machine-level MES capability, GoSmarter is the wrong tool regardless of anything else. How does GoSmarter compare to MachineMetrics or Oden Technologies for shop-floor visibility? MachineMetrics and Oden Technologies are machine monitoring and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) tools. They connect directly to your production equipment, track uptime, cycle times, and reject rates, and give you real-time visibility of what each machine is doing at any moment. GoSmarter does not do any of this.
GoSmarter handles the material layer: reading mill certificates, tracking inventory with cert traceability, and optimising cut plans. MachineMetrics tells you what the machine is doing. GoSmarter tells you what material is going through it and why. They operate at different levels of the production problem and can run alongside each other without conflict.
If your primary pain is machine utilisation and OEE visibility across your production lines, MachineMetrics or Oden is the right tool. If your primary pain is mill cert admin, manual cut planning, or materials traceability, GoSmarter is. There is no meaningful competition between them because they solve entirely different problems.
What if we start GoSmarter and it is not delivering value after the first month? Stop. There is no long-term contract, no cancellation fee, and no notice period beyond the end of the billing cycle. If month one has not delivered visible value, the honest answer is to pause, diagnose why, and either fix the setup or conclude that the timing or fit is not right. The GoSmarter team would rather have that conversation than have you pay for something that is not working. Is the ROI realistic for a company our size? The ROI depends on your volume of cert processing, your stock complexity, and the quality of your current cut planning. The ROI of AI in metals manufacturing page has worked examples from operations in the 20–200 person range, which is GoSmarter’s primary market. Run your own numbers with your actual daily cert count and your current planning time before making a commitment. If the numbers don’t work at your scale, the right answer is to say so — not to overstate the case. Can we trial just one module before committing to the full platform? Yes. Start at the Starter tier and the traceability foundation is there from day one. Workshop tier unlocks AI cert reading — the first cert is processed within the first day. The heat number, spec, and dimensions land in your stock record automatically. GoSmarter checks whether the material matches the original order. If it does not (wrong grade, missing property, certificate from the wrong heat), it flags the non-conformance before the material reaches the shop floor. You are not committed to Production tier until Workshop has proven its value. See tier-based AI adoption for metals manufacturers for the full path. Is GoSmarter worth it for metals manufacturers? GoSmarter is worth it for metals manufacturers that process at least 10 different material batches per week, manage stock across multiple grades or lengths, or run cut plans manually in spreadsheets. At that volume, the time saving across cert processing and cut planning typically pays back the monthly subscription within the first two weeks of use. Below that threshold, the financial case is marginal. The ROI calculator in the ROI of AI in metals manufacturing guide lets you run the numbers against your actual cert volume before committing. What are the alternatives to GoSmarter for metals manufacturers? The alternatives depend on which problem you are solving. For mill certificate reading, GoSmarter competes with manual data entry, generic optical character recognition (OCR) tools, and a small number of specialist cert extraction tools. See the mill certificate automation software comparison for a vendor-neutral review. For inventory and stock management, the alternatives range from spreadsheets to full ERP modules. For cut planning, most operations use either manual spreadsheet methods or dedicated nesting software. GoSmarter combines all three layers in a single platform designed specifically for metals operations. None of the generic alternatives cover all three at the same price point. How honest is GoSmarter about fit during the sales process? The sales conversation is structured around fit, not conversion. The first question is usually about your current cert volume and planning process. If those numbers suggest the ROI is not there, the GoSmarter team will say so before you invest trial time. We are a small company. A customer who is a poor fit and churns in month two is more damaging to us than a prospect we redirected honestly. Related Resources ROI of AI in Metals Manufacturing — run the numbers for your specific operation before committing Mill Certificate Automation Software Comparison — vendor-neutral review of tools for operations evaluating alternatives Modular AI Adoption for Metals Manufacturers — how to start light and prove value before expanding Getting Started with GoSmarter Metals — what the onboarding process actually looks like Cloud MES Comparison — for operations that need more than GoSmarter offers today GoSmarter for Metals Operations — the full platform overview and use cases GoSmarter Pricing — monthly plans, no lock-in, cancel any time GoSmarter is made by Nightingale HQ, a UK-based artificial intelligence (AI) company building practical tools for metals manufacturers since 2018.


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## Products

### Products Overview

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/products/
Description: AI production assistant tools built for metals manufacturers — planning, compliance, and inventory in one platform.

### GoSmarter App

URL: https://app.gosmarter.ai/
Description: Access the full GoSmarter platform — production planning, inventory, and mill certificate management.



## Solutions### Improving Throughput for Ops Managers

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/solutions/operations/
Description: Connect production, inventory, quality, and dispatch in one place. Give your team the visibility to reduce delays, solve problems faster, and keep operations running smoothly.

Start in a Day, See Results in a Week GoSmarter operations management is part of the GoSmarter platform. No implementation project. No data migration. No consultant to hire. Most operations teams are tracking live orders on day one. Built to be picked up without a training course. If your team can use a smartphone, they can use GoSmarter. 50% off your first month.
Start with order tracking or compliance management and expand as the returns come in. Inventory management and AI cutting plans connect to the same live data. Your entire operation runs from one view. Nobody has to chase a status update.
Order and Workflow Change History Every change to an order, order line, or workflow record is captured automatically in GoSmarter: who changed it, what the original value was, what it became, and a server-side timestamp. If an order spec changes mid-production, the trail is there. If a record is deleted, it is tracked and recoverable. Why audit trails matter in metals manufacturing →
Go deeper GoSmarter for Metals Operations — the complete guide to every GoSmarter capability and how they connect No-Code Workflows for Metals SMEs — how GoSmarter delivers operational improvements without an IT team or implementation project Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study — how a market-leading steel supplier streamlined operations across production, compliance, and planning 10 signs your metal shop needs process automation — find out if your operational problems are bigger than you think 

#### The Opportunity

Make your operations leaner and actually responsive to customers. Give your team tools they don’t need a PhD to use.
MillCert Reader: Stop hunting for paper. Connect jobs to certs instantly. Crucial for customers who actually care about specs. Better Planning: Our cutting planner gets your day sorted faster and cuts your scrap rate. Inventory Control: Know what you have so you don’t buy what you don’t need. 


#### Why GoSmarter

 30–50% Less scrap. Our Cutting Optimiser maximises material yield using your live stock and offcuts, improving profitability. Hours Saved every day automating production planning, mill certificate processing, inventory updates, and compliance. Live in a Day Most operations teams are processing real mill certificates, managing live inventory, and optimising production within a day, without replacing their ERP. Fewer Production Delays Our Metals Manager and Compliance Engine ensure the right material, certificates, and stock are ready before production starts. Better On-Time Delivery Connect production, inventory, quality, and despatch with live data so your team delivers more orders on time. More Throughput, Less Firefighting Spot bottlenecks, shortages, and compliance issues early, before they hit production. What changes in the first 30 days Operations managers who move from spreadsheets and email chains to GoSmarter consistently describe the same shift: they stop managing information and start managing work.
Step 1 · The chaos becomes visible Information gaps show up immediately, not months later. Orders without certs. Stock with no traceability. Jobs marked ‘in production’ for three weeks with no update. It was already happening. GoSmarter just makes it impossible to ignore. Step 2 · The team stops chasing The daily 'where is this order?' calls drop sharply. Questions that used to generate three emails and a phone call get answered by checking the dashboard. That time goes back to actual work. Step 3 · Delivery promises get accurate On-Time In-Full (OTIF) improves because the information is always visible. Sales sees live production progress instead of last week’s figures. Customers who used to receive apology emails start receiving accurate dates, and hitting them. Step 4 · Planning becomes proactive Planners surface problems before they become stoppages. With stock availability, cert status, and machine loading all visible in advance, the reactive firefighting that used to fill every morning briefing starts to subside. What Each Role Gets Back Operations Managers Track order progress and spot recurring bottlenecks. The weekly planning meeting becomes forward-looking instead of a crisis debrief. Customer Service Teams Get a live order status view without ringing production, giving an instant answer when a customer chases a delivery. Despatch Coordinators See what’s ready to ship and what’s still in production, so haulage gets booked in advance instead of scrambled on the day. See how Midland Steel achieved this in practice: Midland Steel case study.



#### Customer Spotlight: Midland Steel

Midland Steel’s production and management teams were spending significant time manually collecting data just to answer basic questions about throughput and performance.
GoSmarter built a live Cut & Bend production throughput dashboard, pulling data across every machine so the team can see performance over a rolling four-week period instead of chasing numbers after the fact.
Hours saved for administrative and production teams every week Production KPI dashboards giving instant visibility to management Full visibility of performance across all machines, not just the ones someone remembered to check A foundation for future automation and AI-driven planning Read the full Midland Steel Production Dashboards case study


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### Improving Visibility for Finance Teams

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/solutions/finance/
Description: GoSmarter helps finance teams control costs, improve profitability, and build stronger business cases with real-time operational data.

See the Numbers Before You Commit Before you sign up, run your own numbers through the free Business Case Calculator. Enter your costs and projected improvements to get real pounds-and-pence projections on when you break even. Most finance directors find GoSmarter pays back within the first quarter. With 50% off your first month, the returns come before the full cost does. No commitment required.
Go deeper Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation — how GoSmarter reduces scrap rates by up to 50% and what that means for your material budget GoSmarter for Metals Operations — the full picture of every tool, every use case, and where the savings come from Audit Trails: Why They Matter in Metals Manufacturing — every inventory valuation change and margin adjustment is now logged with before and after values, user identity, and a tamper-resistant timestamp Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study — how a leading rebar supplier quantified material costs and reduced waste with GoSmarter Investing in digital technology lowers future operating costs — why the upfront cost of GoSmarter pays back faster than you think 

#### The Opportunity

You need operational visibility to control costs, improve margins, and make better investment decisions. GoSmarter gives you real-time data from the factory floor so you can see where money is being made, or lost.
Control Costs and Improve Margins: Use our Scrap Logger and Offcut Manager to reduce waste, improve material yield, and increase profitability. Reduce Working Capital: Use our Metals Manager to see accurate, real-time inventory levels, avoid overstocking, free up cash, and improve stock valuation. Our long-products customers typically achieve 30–50% scrap reduction. Saving just one tonne of scrap per week at £600 per tonne is worth £30,000+ a year. Lower the Cost of Compliance: Use our Mill Cert Reader to automate mill certificate processing, reduce compliance costs, improve audit readiness, and maintain end-to-end traceability. Build Stronger Business Cases: Use our Business Case Calculator to quantify savings from reduced scrap, lower administration, and operational improvements before you invest. Reduce Financial Risk: Use our Mill Cert Reader and Metals Manager to maintain complete material traceability and audit-ready records, reducing the cost of recalls, claims, non-conformance, and compliance failures. Measure Sustainability Savings: Every tonne of scrap you avoid saves around 1.8 tonnes of CO₂e. Use our Business Case Calculator to measure your financial and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) impact and be ready when customers ask for sustainability data. 


#### Why GoSmarter

 £30k+ More profit every year. Long-products customers typically cut 30–50% of scrap using our Cutting Plans, worth £30k+ a year from just one tonne saved weekly at £600/tonne. £8k–£15k Saved on admin every year. Our Mill Cert Reader recovers 8–12 hours of certificate and stock admin every week. 30–40% Less emergency purchasing within the first quarter, using Metals Manager’s live inventory commitments. Maximise Material Yield Every available stock length and offcut used first to minimise waste. Cut Rush Costs Live inventory commitments cut premium delivery charges, rush fees, and avoidable Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). Accurate Financial Data Real-time costs, stock values, and scrap data exported cleanly to your enterprise resource planning (ERP) or accounting software. £30,000+ More Profit Every Year Long-products customers typically achieve 30–50% scrap reduction using GoSmarter cutting plans. At £600 per tonne, eliminating just one tonne of scrap per week is worth £30,000+ every year. Our optimiser uses every available stock length and offcut to minimise waste and maximise material yield.
£8,000–£15,000 Saved on Admin Our Mill Cert Reader automates mill certificate processing, stock management, and compliance, recovering 8–12 hours of administration every week. At a fully loaded labour cost of £20–£25 per hour, that’s £8,000–£15,000 saved every year.
30–40% Less Emergency Purchasing Our Metals Manager gives you live inventory commitments, so you stop buying material you already own. Customers typically reduce emergency purchasing by 30–40% within the first quarter, cutting premium delivery charges, rush fees, and avoidable COGS.
Accurate Financial Data Every Day GoSmarter captures production costs, stock values, scrap, and material usage in real time. It exports clean data to your ERP or accounting software, so your finance team gets trusted numbers without month-end stock counts, manual reconciliation, or spreadsheet errors.
What Each Role Gets Back Finance Directors Improve cash flow with better visibility of inventory, scrap, costs, and working capital. Financial Controllers Speed up reporting with accurate inventory data, automated traceability, and audit-ready records. Procurement Teams Reduce over-ordering and emergency purchases with live stock visibility and smarter material utilisation. 


#### Customer Spotlight: Midland Steel

Midland Steel’s finance team was spending significant time pulling data from multiple sources just to report on basic KPIs, with month-end reporting built on manual spreadsheet work.
GoSmarter built real-time Finance dashboards covering Net Profit and Gross Profit margins, backed by a proper data warehouse pulling from production systems and spreadsheet exports, so the team could see performance daily rather than waiting for month-end.
Hours saved every week for the Finance Director and team At-a-glance financial intelligence available to senior management, not just at month-end Increased accuracy and reliability of financial reporting Improved collaboration between finance and production Read the full Midland Steel Finance Dashboards case study


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### Purpose-Built for Metals Products

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/solutions/inventory/
Description: Know exactly what stock you have, where it is, and what it is committed to. Eliminate manual stock-checks and out of date spreadsheets.

Start Tracking Stock in Under an Hour GoSmarter inventory management is part of the GoSmarter platform, available from the Starter tier. Most teams have their existing stock imported and their first deliveries logged within the first hour. No IT team. No consultant. No migration plan. If you have a spreadsheet with your current stock, you have everything you need to get started. 50% off your first month.
Implementation is not a project. You log in, upload your stock list, and you are live. Once inventory is running, cert data links automatically at goods-in, so every stock item carries its full certificate history. The Production tier adds AI cutting plans that run against your certified, live inventory. Your process, your data, your control.
Go deeper Audit Trails: Why They Matter in Metals Manufacturing — how GoSmarter’s immutable audit trail covers inventory, orders, and certificates end-to-end, and what ISO 9001, IATF 16949, and AS9100 require GoSmarter for Metals Operations — how inventory management fits into the full GoSmarter production toolkit Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation — how smarter inventory control directly reduces material waste and improves yield Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study — how a market-leading rebar supplier gained real-time inventory visibility linked to mill certificates Your S&OP Meeting Is Built on the Wrong Numbers — how real-time, cert-linked inventory data de-risks Sales and Operations Planning and eliminates ghost stock Manual vs digital inventory tracking: which saves more time? — a direct comparison with worked numbers 

#### The Opportunity

If you don’t know what metal you have, you’re losing money. It’s that simple.
Inventory Manager: Know exactly what’s on the rack right now, by grade, size, and quantity available versus committed. Scrap Logger: Track your scrap so you know what it’s costing and start reducing it. Offcut Manager: Stop buying new steel when you have perfectly good offcuts sitting in the corner. GoSmarter tracks remnants from previous cuts as live stock, so your planners use them before reaching for new material. Cert-linked stock: If you use MillCert Reader, every stock item carries its full certificate history: grade, heat number, and mechanical properties. GoSmarter links each cert automatically when you receive the material. No manual entry. No missing paperwork. 


#### Why GoSmarter

 30–40% Less emergency purchasing. Our Metals Manager gives you live inventory commitments, so you stop buying material you already own. 100% Real-time inventory visibility. Know exactly what you have, where it is, and what it’s committed to, without stock counts or spreadsheets. Hours Saved every week automating inventory updates and material tracking. No manual stock checks, paperwork, or duplicate entry. 100% Certificate-Linked Stock Every stock item links to its mill certificate, giving instant access to grades, heat numbers, and test results. Fewer Stockouts, Better Deliveries Give sales accurate stock availability so delivery promises are reliable and production delays drop. Works with Your Existing ERP Export clean stock data via CSV or API. No rip-and-replace required. How it works in practice Here is what the process looks like for stock controllers and inventory managers in the first week.
Step 1 · Import your existing stock Live before the end of day one. Upload a spreadsheet or add stock manually as material arrives. Either way, setup takes less than an hour. No consultantNo IT project Step 2 · Log material as it arrives Certificates link automatically. Nobody types a value from a PDF. Goods-in records grade, form, length, weight, and quantity. If you use MillCert Reader, heat numbers, mechanical properties, and grade data sit alongside the stock record from the moment it enters your facility. Step 3 · Allocate stock to live orders See what's genuinely available, not just what's on the rack. Sales can quote accurately. Production knows what to pull. Nobody allocates the same bar twice, or promises material that shipped on a job last week. Step 4 · Track movements across locations Always know where material is. No 20-minute yard walkabout. Every material movement is logged: rack to saw, main store to satellite site, goods-in to external processor. Step 5 · Act on alerts before it becomes a crisis Reorder while you still have buffer stock, not after production stops. GoSmarter notifies you when stock of a specific grade or dimension falls below your defined threshold, so you raise a purchase order in time. What Each Role Gets Back Stock Controllers Check overnight activity first thing: new deliveries, late-order allocations, low-stock flags. Replaces the 30-minute morning walkabout. Yard Managers See material by bay and rack instead of walking the yard or calling the stock controller for every lookup. Production Planners See committed versus available stock alongside the open order list. Know before planning whether the material exists. 


#### Customer Spotlight: Midland Steel

Midland Steel was tracking offcuts and scrap on paper and in spreadsheets, with no easy way to see what material was sitting in storage waiting to be reused.
GoSmarter’s Offcut Tracker and Scrap Weight Tracker apps replaced the paper process. Operators tag and log offcut material as it’s generated, moving it into designated storage for reuse, and log outgoing scrap weight digitally instead of on a clipboard.
Every offcut tracked by stock tag, bars, length, machine, and diameter Scrap weight logged digitally, replacing paper records Weekly reviews now use real scrap figures as a key metric Better reuse of existing offcut stock instead of buying new material Read the full Midland Steel Waste Management case study


---
### Saving Hours for Compliance Teams

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/solutions/compliance/
Description: GoSmarter helps compliance teams stay audit ready with complete digital traceability and quality documentation. Instantly provide records to customers and auditors - all from one secure platform.

Compliance and Traceability from Day One Most teams think compliance starts with a folder and ends with a signature. GoSmarter flips that. It turns the certificate into usable data the moment it lands, so traceability starts before the metal ever reaches the yard.
Procurement uploads the mill report. The system tags the material properties automatically instead of making someone retype and verify the same sheet. Quality sees flagged material early and approves it before the goods arrive. That changes the job from chasing paperwork to checking whether the material fits the order.
GoSmarter’s compliance features are available from the Starter tier. Most teams process their first batch of certificates automatically within an hour of signing up. Your existing certs upload directly. GoSmarter reads them from PDFs. No re-keying. No setup fee. No long-term contract. 50% off your first month.
Once your certs are linked to stock, the rest follows naturally. Cutting plans in the Production tier pull cert data to verify grade compliance before any job starts. Order traceability links cert records to despatch notes. Audit reports generate in seconds from data captured automatically. Not assembled in a rush the week before an inspector arrives.
Go deeper Mill Certificate Automation: The Complete Guide — how GoSmarter reads, extracts, validates, and stores every cert automatically Integrated Cert Traceability & Auditability — building a complete, auditable chain of custody from delivery to despatch Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study — how a leading rebar supplier automated certificate handling and cut audit prep time How Scrap Reduction and Cert Digitisation Feed CBAM and ESG Reporting — turning your mill cert data and scrap rate into audit-ready carbon evidence for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) questionnaires and EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) declarations GoSmarter vs Generic OCR/IDP Tools for Mill Certificates — why metals-specific AI is the right choice for cert processing Integration Strategy — how GoSmarter connects to your existing systems, from standalone use to full REST API integration with your ERP 

#### The Opportunity

You need to stay compliant without slowing production. GoSmarter automates mill certificate processing, builds end-to-end traceability, and keeps you audit-ready with less effort.
Our Mill Cert Reader automatically extracts heat numbers, grades, chemical compositions, and mechanical properties from PDFs, scans, and photos. Every certificate is linked to the correct stock item, creating a complete digital traceability record from goods in to dispatch.
Our Compliance Engine flags missing or incorrect grades, properties, and heat numbers before material reaches production. No manual checking. No spreadsheet hunting. Just confidence that the right material reaches the right job.
Most customers are processing certificates within hours and are live within a day. Once certificates are linked to stock, audits, traceability, and compliance become significantly easier.



#### Why GoSmarter

 8–12 hrs Recovered every week. Our Mill Cert Reader automates processing for teams handling 200+ certificates a month. 60% Faster certificate processing. Heat numbers, grades, chemical compositions, and mechanical properties extracted automatically. Live in a Day Most customers process their first certificates within hours and are fully operational in a day, with no workflow changes. 100% Digital Audit Trail Every certificate, stock movement, inspection, and change recorded, giving built-in evidence for ISO 9001, EN 10204, IATF 16949, and AS9100. 100% Material Traceability Every mill certificate links to the correct stock item, tracked from goods-in to despatch. Fewer Compliance Errors Our Compliance Engine flags wrong grades, missing properties, and heat number mismatches before production. What Each Role Gets Back GoSmarter is built specifically for the metals industry. It handles the certificate types, traceability requirements, and audit pressures that metals businesses face. It was not adapted from a generic document management tool.
Quality Managers Audit prep drops from two to three days to a 30-minute search and export. Every cert, stock movement, and despatch record is linked and searchable, with automatic flags for grade mismatches before the job starts. Store Managers and Goods-In Teams Certificates link to stock automatically the moment material arrives. No typing heat numbers, no filing paper, no hunting for a cert on material that’s since been cut into five separate jobs. Sales and Technical Teams Retrieve any customer’s certificate in under a minute. The full chain of cert, stock, production job, and despatch is one search away. 


#### Customer Spotlight: Midland Steel

Midland Steel, a leading supplier of reinforcing steel in Ireland and the UK, used GoSmarter’s Mill Certificate Reader to automate a process that used to take hours every week: matching certificates to Heat Codes by hand.
GoSmarter now classifies, extracts, and stores every certificate automatically, pulling heat numbers, CEQ values, and chemical and mechanical properties without anyone typing a single value.
120+ hours of production manager time saved every year Fewer errors in certificate records Faster answers when customers ask for full product lineage Read the full Midland Steel MillCert case study


---
### Saving Hours for Production Planners

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/solutions/production/
Description: Generate first-draft cutting plans in minutes. Allocate and track the right material every time. Reduce scrap by up to 50% and keep orders moving from planning to dispatch.

AI Cutting Plans Against Certified Stock: From Day One GoSmarter’s Production tier gives you AI cutting plans tied to your certified, live inventory. Import your current order list and existing stock from a spreadsheet and run your first cutting plan in under an hour. Grade compliance is verified before any job starts. Scrap is tracked per cut. 50% off your first month, so the returns come before the full cost does.
Most teams see a measurable reduction in scrap within their first week of live use. Once you have a cutting plan running against real stock, the offcuts from each job automatically become available material for the next. That compounding effect, where remnants get used before new stock is ordered, is where the biggest savings come from.
Go deeper Shop Floor Planning Software for Metals — how GoSmarter connects live inventory, open orders, and AI cut planning for your production floor Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation — the complete guide to reducing scrap in metals manufacturing with AI-powered cutting optimisation Spreadsheet-to-System Planning for Metals — how to move from Excel-based production planning to a connected, live system Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study — how a leading rebar manufacturer cut scrap rates by 50% with optimised cutting plans AI tools for production scheduling in metals — a deep dive into how AI improves scheduling accuracy and reduces late orders 

#### The Opportunity

If you’re spending time on paperwork, you’re not making product. GoSmarter eliminates manual tasks that slow production and waste material.
Faster Cutting Plans: Generate optimised cutting plans for bar, plate, tube, and sheet using available stock, reusable offcuts, and live orders. Review, adjust, and send them straight to production. Smarter Stock Use: Prioritise reusable offcuts and existing inventory before consuming new stock, reducing waste and unnecessary purchases. Built In Traceability: Mill certificates are automatically linked to the correct heat code and stock. If the material grade doesn’t match the job, GoSmarter flags it before production, preventing costly mistakes. 


#### Why GoSmarter

 140+ hrs Saved every year automating cutting plans, mill certificate processing, and inventory admin. 20–50% Less scrap. Our Cutting Optimiser maximises yield from live stock and offcuts. Live in a Day Most teams are planning jobs and processing mill certificates within a day. Faster Production Planning First-draft cutting plans in minutes, not spreadsheets. Better On-Time Delivery Plan against live inventory and live orders, not guesswork. Works with Your Existing Systems Works alongside your ERP and planning systems. No replacement project. How a typical production day changes Before GoSmarter, the morning starts with a stack of jobs. A planner manually matches them to available stock: checking a spreadsheet, walking the yard, ringing the stock controller. It takes 90 minutes to build a cutting plan that is already out of date by the time it prints.
After GoSmarter, the planner opens the app, reviews the live order list against real stock, and generates a first-draft cutting plan in minutes. The plan knows about available lengths, remnants from yesterday’s jobs, and grades linked to their mill certificates. The whole process takes 20 minutes.
That is not a theoretical improvement. It is what production planners who switch from manual planning to GoSmarter routinely report.
What each role gets back Production Planners Get time back. The 90-minute morning planning session drops to 20 minutes, an extra hour a day for optimising job sequences and handling urgent orders, not data entry and stock checking. Saw Operators Get clarity. Every job comes with a cutting plan specifying exact lengths, bar counts, and which stock to pull. No guesswork, no back-and-forth with the planner mid-shift. Production Managers Get visibility. See which jobs are in progress, waiting on material, or at risk of missing despatch, at any point in the day. Problems surface in planning, not when the lorry arrives. Connecting production to the rest of the business GoSmarter does not stop at the saw. When a cutting job is completed, the stock record updates automatically. Offcuts become live stock without anyone manually logging a remnant. Completed jobs link back to open orders, giving sales and despatch a live view of what is ready to ship.
When your inventory is accurate and your production progress is visible, the rest of the business can plan around it. Sales can give accurate lead times. Despatch can book haulage in advance. The operations manager can stop starting every morning with a crisis meeting about yesterday’s problems.



#### Customer Spotlight: Midland Steel

Midland Steel trialled GoSmarter’s Rebar Optimiser to tackle a problem that costs the industry millions: offcuts too short to reuse, going straight in the scrap bin.
The optimiser evaluates thousands of cutting combinations across a full order set, weighing bar utilisation, waste, and the carbon footprint of leftover material. Midland Steel ran it across 734 tonnes of steel and 193 jobs.
50% reduction in scrap Digital scrap tracking replacing paper records, via the Offcut Tracker and Scrap Weight Tracker apps Lower carbon emissions and lower cost of handling waste Read the full Midland Steel Rebar Optimiser case study


---


## Core Documentation### Getting Started With GoSmarter

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/getting-started/
Description: How to log in to GoSmarter, get set up, and create a starter inventory.

Welcome to GoSmarter — the AI-assisted optimisation and management tool for the metals industry. This guide walks you through logging in, getting set up, and preparing your core data so you’re ready to start.
What is GoSmarter? GoSmarter is a tool that helps you manage your metals production and fabrication more efficiently. It helps you:
Keep track of your metals inventory Manage customer orders Store and find steel mill certificates for quality compliance Logging In Before you can use the app, you’ll need to create an account or log in. If you’re just giving it a go, you’ll need to register. If you’ve been given access by your employer, you can sign in directly.
GoSmarter login screen with Sign In button GoSmarter uses Microsoft’s login tool. If you’ve previously signed in, click your email address to sign in again, or click Use another account to use a different one.
Click the Sign In button Enter your email address and password You’ll be taken to the Dashboard Microsoft account selection screen After entering your email, you’ll be asked whether you’d like to stay signed in. This is optional, but it makes future logins faster by remembering your details.
Microsoft Stay signed in prompt If Your Account is Not Associated With a Company After logging in, if your account is not associated with a company, you can still access our free tools or request a demo from the Dashboard.
GoSmarter Dashboard for accounts not yet associated with a company, showing free tool and demo request options Once your account is linked to a company workspace, you’ll have access to the full set of tools and features available to your organisation.
The Dashboard After logging in, you’ll land on the Dashboard. From here, you can quickly jump to any tools and operations in the app. Tutorial Mode is on by default, offering useful tips throughout all tools to help you get up to speed.
GoSmarter Dashboard with navigation to all tools and Tutorial Mode tips visible Tutorial Mode
Tutorial Mode can be hidden by clicking the X in the top right corner of the tips panel. See the GoSmarter UI guide for more on customising the interface. Tutorial Mode tips panel with close button in top right corner Your User Account Click your name in the bottom left corner to access your user account menu. From here you can access your User Profile, return to the Dashboard, activate or deactivate Tutorial Mode, and log out.
User account menu accessed from the bottom left corner On your User Profile, you can change your display name. To change your email address, contact your administrator.
User Profile page showing name and email address fields Company Settings In the left menu, expand Company core data and click Company to access your company information. The Company Settings page lets you manage key details about your company and what services it has access to.
Company option highlighted under Company core data in the left navigation The Certificate Settings section lets you define what information and logo appear on certificates and other document outputs your company generates. The Email Domains section lets you define one or more email domains associated with your company — GoSmarter uses these to automatically link new users to your company workspace.
Company Settings page showing Certificate Settings and Email Domains sections Scroll down the Company page to the Feature Access tables to view and manage what tools and features your company has access to.
Company Settings page scrolled to show Feature Access tables You can also switch between connected companies using the Company toggle in the top left corner of the screen.
Company toggle in the top left corner for switching between companies Organisations Still under Company core data, click Organisations to access the Organisations page. From here, you can view a list of all organisations your company is connected to — including customers, suppliers, service providers, and more.
Organisations page showing a list of connected organisations including customers and suppliers Setting Up Core Data To manage inventory, you first need a database of materials, inventory types, and stock locations. GoSmarter comes with a built-in list, but you can also create your own. The Materials, Inventory Types, and Stock Locations pages each give you several ways to populate their databases:
Build them line by line using a form Upload a CSV (a downloadable template is provided, ready to open in Excel) Use Starter Lists to create editable copies of GoSmarter’s built-in data — the quickest option if you want to start from a sensible default and modify from there Materials setup page showing form entry, CSV upload, and Starter List options Once a list has been created, you’ll find a data table on each page showing all your records. For more on how to use data tables and other UI elements in GoSmarter, see the GoSmarter UI guide.
Data table showing records after core data has been set up You’re now set up and ready to start using GoSmarter’s tools. Check out the guides below to continue.


---
### Security & Compliance

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/content/security-compliance/
Description: GoSmarter's security, compliance, and data protection practices - built on Microsoft Azure with UK and EU data residency.

Security & Compliance overview GoSmarter is built on Microsoft Azure and designed around a simple principle: keep customer data protected through layered controls, clear accountability, and transparent assurance.
This page is a self-contained overview for IT managers and security reviewers. Each section summarises the key controls and links to a dedicated page for full detail.
Detailed technical and assurance material (architecture diagrams, penetration test outcomes, control evidence) is available on request under NDA.
1. Data residency All persistent customer data is stored in UK South. One stateless processing step (document extraction) runs in Sweden Central (EU). No customer data is retained there after processing. No data is stored or processed outside the UK/EU.
What Region Database, files, messaging, secrets UK South Document extraction (stateless) Sweden Central (EU) Frontend CDN (static files only) West Europe (EU) Sweden Central is within the UK GDPR adequacy framework. Backups are hosted within UK South. GoSmarter is a single-region deployment with no customer-selectable regions at this time.
→ Full details: Data Residency
2. Identity and access control Authentication is handled entirely by Microsoft Entra External ID. GoSmarter does not store passwords.
Supported sign-in methods: organisational Entra ID account, personal Microsoft account, or email one-time passcode MFA is supported and can be enforced by your organisation Session tokens are stored in sessionStorage (cleared on tab close — not in localStorage or cookies) All API traffic passes through the Zuplo API gateway, which is the single point where authentication is enforced. The gateway validates Entra ID tokens at the edge using RS256 and JWKS, extracts identity claims, and injects signed internal headers before forwarding requests to the backend. The backend validates these headers on every request and never parses JWTs directly — eliminating an entire class of token validation vulnerabilities from application code.
Every API request is scoped to a company. The platform enforces tenant isolation at four layers: URL scoping, user membership validation, database query filtering, and request rejection (403) if the user doesn’t belong to the target company.
Internal services authenticate to one another using managed identity as the primary auth method in production. No credentials are hardcoded; where connection strings are required they are stored as secrets or configuration, not in application code.
→ Full details: Access Control
3. Encryption All data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Encryption is enforced at the platform level and cannot be bypassed.
Protection Standard In transit TLS 1.2 minimum on all services — database, storage, messaging, API, AI At rest AES-256 — SQL with TDE, Blob Storage with SSE, Key Vault with hardware-backed encryption Key management Platform-managed keys, automatically rotated by Azure HTTP connections are rejected on storage and API ingress. Customer-managed keys (BYOK/CMK) are not currently available.
→ Full details: Encryption
4. Hosting and infrastructure GoSmarter runs entirely on managed Microsoft Azure services. We do not operate our own datacentres or bare-metal servers.
Container-based application hosting Managed SQL database and blob storage Managed message processing Centralised secrets management Platform-level monitoring and audit logging Application and AI processing workloads are separated. Deeper architecture detail (network topology, environment specifics, monitoring evidence) is available under NDA.
→ Full details: Hosting & Infrastructure
5. AI and document processing GoSmarter uses AI for two document-processing tasks:
Step What happens Region Classification Identifies document type and supplier UK South Extraction Extracts structured data (heat numbers, composition, mechanical properties) Sweden Central (EU) Every uploaded document is scanned for malware by Microsoft Defender for Storage before any AI processing begins.
AI data handling commitments:
Microsoft contractually commits that your data is not used to train, retrain, or improve Microsoft AI models GoSmarter uses documents uploaded to the platform to continuously improve our own classification and extraction models (for example, when you add an unseen supplier or correct an extraction). This data is never shared with Microsoft or other customers, it is used only to improve our ability to read documents. See AI Security for the full data-handling explanation. AI processing containers are ephemeral, they scale to zero when idle, temporary files are deleted after each document, and there is no shared state between runs The cutting optimisation service is a pure algorithmic solver. It runs entirely in UK South and makes no external AI or API calls.
→ Full details: AI Security
6. Browser security The GoSmarter web application enforces browser-level controls:
Content Security Policy (CSP): Scripts restricted to self plus two named product-experience vendors (Supademo, Frill). No advertising scripts sessionStorage tokens: Authentication tokens cleared on tab close; no PII logging in the auth library No source maps in production: Application internals not exposed in browser developer tools Authenticated API routes: All /api/* routes require authentication at the platform level; unauthenticated requests are blocked by the Static Web App and redirected to the login page Automated dependency scanning: Dependabot and dependency review run on every pull request, blocking high/critical CVEs → Full details: Frontend Security
7. Incident response GoSmarter maintains a documented incident response process aligned to ISO 27001 incident management controls and UK Cyber Essentials principles.
Monitoring in place:
SQL audit logging (authentication, permission changes, schema changes) Application telemetry via Azure Application Insights Microsoft Defender for SQL (SQL injection, anomalous access patterns) Budget and capacity alerts for unusual resource consumption Response SLAs (summary):
Severity Acknowledge Contain Critical 15 min 4 hours High 1 hour 1 business day Medium 4 business hours 3 business days For confirmed personal data breaches: customer notification target is within 72 hours of confirmation. Where UK GDPR notification thresholds are met, regulator (ICO) escalation follows within the same timeline.
Incident evidence is retained for 24 months.
→ Full details: Incident Response
8. Privacy and data protection GoSmarter is the data processor; you (the customer) are the data controller. Microsoft Azure is the primary sub-processor.
GoSmarter is a B2B platform. Personal data processed is limited to user accounts, audit logs, and names appearing on business documents. No sensitive personal data (health, biometric, financial) is processed.
A Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is available on request. It covers: processing scope and purpose, technical and organisational security measures, sub-processor obligations (Microsoft Azure), data subject rights support, breach notification, and data deletion on contract termination.
Data subject rights (access, rectification, erasure, portability) are supported through the platform or on direct request.
→ Full details: Privacy & Data Protection
9. Compliance standards Standard Status GDPR / UK GDPR Fully aligned: UK South residency, DPA available, no transfers outside adequacy framework ISO 27001 Azure platform certified; GoSmarter application-level certification in progress ISO 27017 / 27018 Azure platform certified SOC 2 Type II Azure platform attested Cyber Essentials Plus Azure platform certified; GoSmarter application-level certification in progress PCI DSS Not applicable — no payment card data HIPAA Not applicable — no health data “Azure platform certified” means Microsoft has undergone independent third-party audits for the services GoSmarter uses (Azure SQL, Blob Storage, Container Apps, Key Vault, Service Bus, AI services). Audit reports are available through the Microsoft Service Trust Portal.
→ Full details: Compliance Standards · Certifications & Attestations
10. Common questions A curated set of questions from IT managers and procurement teams (covering data residency, AI, MFA, encryption, and how to get a DPA) is available on the FAQ page.
→ Security FAQ
Request evidence We support security review processes at every stage. We can provide:
A security and compliance overview pack Data Processing Agreement (DPA) Relevant Azure certification and assurance references (SOC 2, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials) Additional technical detail (architecture, controls, penetration test outcomes) under mutual NDA A compliance call with our team Email us, contact us online, or book a compliance call to request the NDA pack.


---
### Dashboard Overview

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/dashboard/
Description: Complete guide to the GoSmarter dashboard - navigate your AI production assistant and access key tools for metals manufacturing efficiency

The Dashboard is the first page you see after logging in. It gives you a quick navigation to key areas of the GoSmarter system.
What You’ll See When you open the Dashboard, you’ll see key information about your operation at a glance.
Main Dashboard Sections The dashboard is designed to show you to the most important information first, so you can quickly access key tools such as:
Inventory Orders Cutting jobs Mill certificates How to Use the Dashboard Quick Navigation From the dashboard, you can quickly jump to any section:
Click on any summary card to go to that section Use the left sidebar menu to navigate directly Recent items may have clickable links Tip
Bookmark the dashboard page in your browser for quick access each day! 

---
### Data Residency

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/content/data-residency/
Description: Where GoSmarter stores and processes your data - UK and EU only, with no customer data leaving these regions.

Your data stays in the UK and EU All customer data in GoSmarter is stored in the United Kingdom. A single processing step runs in the EU (Sweden). No customer data is stored or processed outside these regions.
Where your data lives What Region Purpose Database UK South All business data — inventory, orders, users, companies File storage UK South Uploaded documents including mill certificates Messaging UK South Internal message routing between services Secrets UK South Credentials and configuration secrets Document classification UK South Identifies document type and supplier Document extraction Sweden Central (EU) Extracts structured data from mill certificates Address geocoding UK South Suggests structured addresses and coordinates for companies/organisations Frontend CDN West Europe (EU) Serves the web application (static files only — no customer data) About the EU processing step Our document extraction service runs in Sweden Central, an EU region. This is because Azure Content Understanding, the AI service we use for structured data extraction, is not yet available in UK South.
What this means for your data:
Document pages are sent to Sweden Central for processing, then results are returned and stored in UK South No customer data is persisted in Sweden: the service is stateless The transfer is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+) between Azure datacentres Sweden is within the UK GDPR adequacy framework, meaning UK data protection law recognises EU member states as providing adequate protection About the address geocoding step When you enter a company or organisation address, GoSmarter can call Azure Maps to suggest a structured address and geographic coordinates (used for supplier/customer management and, in later releases, transport-distance and emissions reporting).
Azure Maps uses a single global API endpoint rather than a per-region one, but the Azure Maps account behind it is configured for the UK South region, and Microsoft’s documented default behaviour is to process and store requests within the account’s configured region Azure Maps does not offer a UK-specific data-residency guarantee at the API level (only broader “Europe” and “United States” geographic-scope options exist, and “Europe” in this context means Ireland/Netherlands datacentres, not the UK) — our region-pinned account configuration is what keeps this processing in the UK, not an endpoint-level enforcement No customer data is persisted by Azure Maps: address queries are used to return suggestions and are not stored by the service Authentication uses managed identity — no API keys are stored in application code or configuration Can I choose a different region? No. GoSmarter is a single-region deployment. All customers’ persistent data is stored in UK South. We do not offer region selection or data migration to alternative regions.
US jurisdiction and the CLOUD Act All GoSmarter data at rest is stored in Microsoft Azure datacentres in the UK and EU. Microsoft publishes transparency reports on government data requests and has committed to challenging requests that conflict with local data protection laws.
For additional detail on how Microsoft handles cross-border data requests, see:
Microsoft EU Data Boundary: Microsoft’s commitment to storing and processing EU/UK customer data within the EU Data Boundary Microsoft Law Enforcement Requests Report Backup and redundancy Database backups and blob storage use locally redundant storage (LRS) within UK South. Data is replicated across multiple storage units within the same datacentre region. We do not currently offer geo-redundant backup or cross-region replication.
Key points for your security team Persistent data: UK South only (database, files, secrets, messaging) Transient processing: Sweden Central (EU) for document extraction: stateless, encrypted in transit Address geocoding: Azure Maps, region-pinned to UK South at the account level; global API endpoint, no data persisted by the service Static assets: West Europe (EU): application code only, no customer data No US storage or processing: All data at rest is in UK/EU Azure regions Single-region deployment: No customer-selectable regions Encryption in transit: TLS 1.2 minimum enforced on all services Request evidence Need more detail for your compliance review? We can provide:
Confirmation of Azure region deployment Details of data processing activities under GDPR Our Data Processing Agreement (DPA) Email us, contact us online, or book a compliance call.


---
### Quick Reference Guide

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/quick-reference/
Description: Fast reference for common tasks and operations in GoSmarter

This page provides quick answers to common tasks. Bookmark this page for fast reference!
Getting Started Task Steps Log In Click Sign In → Enter email and password Select Company Click company dropdown in sidebar → Select your company Navigate Use left sidebar menu Log Out Click your name at bottom of sidebar → Sign Out Inventory Tasks Task Quick Steps Add one item Inventory → + Add Inventory → Fill form → Save Clone one item Inventory → Find Item → Duplicate Split one item into two Inventory → Find Item → Split → Update weight and/or quantity → Save Upload many items Inventory → Upload → Use template → Upload file Edit quantity Inventory → Find item → Edit → Change quantity → Save Search inventory Use the filters section at top of inventory table Delete item Find item → Delete (trash icon) → Confirm Link mill certificate Edit inventory to add heat code → Save → Upload mill certificate Order Tasks Task Quick Steps Create order Orders → + Add Order → Fill details → Save Upload multiple orders Orders → Upload → Use template → Upload file Update order Orders → Find order → Edit → Change info → Save Change order status Edit order → Change Status dropdown → Save Find order Use the filters section at top of orders table Mark order complete Edit order → Status = Complete → Save Mill Certificate Tasks Task Quick Steps Upload certificate Mill Certificates → Upload Certificate → Select file → Upload Find certificate Use the filters section at top of mill certificates table View certificate Click on certificate row → See details and preview Download certificate Open certificate → Download button Status Indicators Order Status Pending - Not started In Progress - Currently working on it Complete - Finished Optimisation Status Running - Calculating patterns Complete - Ready to view Failed - Error occurred (try again) Certificate Status Uploaded - File stored in system Verified - Checked for accuracy Linked - Connected to inventory Best Practices Checklist Daily:
Check you're viewing the correct company Update inventory after receiving deliveries Update order statuses as work progresses Weekly:
Review pending orders Clean up old completed optimisations Verify recent inventory has certificates Monthly:
Audit inventory accuracy Archive old completed orders Review waste percentages for improvement opportunities Quick Troubleshooting Problem Try This Can’t see any data Check company selector - is correct company selected? Changes not saving Check for error messages, ensure required fields filled Can’t find an item Clear all filters and search again Page won’t load Refresh browser (F5) or log out and back in Upload failed Check file format and size, try again Getting Help Need assistance?
Check the full documentation Review the Troubleshooting Guide Contact your system administrator Watch video tutorials (links in each section guide) Tip
Bookmark this page for quick access to the checklists. You can click the checkboxes to help keep track! 

---
### Hosting & Infrastructure

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/content/hosting/
Description: GoSmarter runs on Microsoft Azure - containerised API, managed database, and isolated AI processing jobs in UK and EU regions.

Built on Microsoft Azure GoSmarter runs entirely on Microsoft Azure, using managed platform services in the UK and EU. We don’t operate our own datacentres or bare-metal servers.
Platform summary GoSmarter is delivered on managed Azure services with:
Container-based application hosting Managed SQL database and storage Managed message processing for workflows Centralised secrets management Platform monitoring and audit logging Primary hosting for persistent services is in UK South, with selected supporting services in EU regions where required for capability and resilience.
See AI Security for a high-level summary of AI processing boundaries.
Key points for your security team Managed Azure platform: No self-managed datacentre infrastructure UK-first hosting model: Core persistent workloads hosted in UK South Isolated processing model: Application and processing workloads are separated Security controls in place: Encryption, access control, monitoring, and auditing are applied as standard Detailed information under NDA To reduce unnecessary public exposure, this page provides a high-level overview only.
Deeper technical and assurance material is available under NDA, including:
Detailed architecture and network diagrams Environment and regional deployment specifics Security control implementation details Monitoring, logging, and incident response evidence Penetration testing and assurance artefacts (where shareable) Request evidence Email us, contact us online, or book a compliance call to request the NDA pack.


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### Encryption

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/content/encryption/
Description: GoSmarter encrypts all data at rest with AES-256 and in transit with TLS 1.2+ - across database, storage, messaging, and AI services.

Everything is encrypted All customer data in GoSmarter is encrypted: both when stored and when moving between services. Encryption is enforced at the platform level and cannot be bypassed.
Encryption in transit All network communication uses TLS 1.2 or higher. This is enforced on every service:
Service TLS enforcement Database Minimum TLS 1.2 enforced at server level Files Minimum TLS 1.2; HTTPS-only (HTTP rejected) Messaging Minimum TLS 1.2 API ingress HTTPS only; insecure connections rejected Frontend HTTPS by default via Azure-managed certificates AI services HTTPS only via Azure platform Traffic between Azure services within the same region travels over Microsoft’s backbone network, encrypted in transit.
AI processing traffic: When mill certificates are sent to AI services in Sweden Central, the data travels over TLS-encrypted connections between Azure datacentres.
Encryption at rest All data at rest is encrypted with AES-256:
Service Encryption method Database Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) — enabled by default Files Storage Service Encryption (SSE) — AES-256 Key Vault Hardware-backed encryption Messaging Platform encryption at rest Key management Encryption keys are managed by Microsoft (platform-managed keys). This means:
Keys are automatically rotated by the Azure platform Keys are stored in Microsoft-managed hardware security modules No manual key management is required We do not currently offer customer-managed keys (BYOK/CMK). All encryption uses platform-managed keys.
Key points for your security team TLS 1.2 minimum: Enforced on all services: database, storage, messaging, API, AI AES-256 at rest: All persistent storage encrypted with AES-256 HTTPS only: HTTP connections rejected on storage and API ingress Platform-managed keys: Automatically rotated by Azure No BYOK/CMK: Customer-managed keys are not currently available Request evidence Email us, contact us online, or book a compliance call.


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### Customer Onboarding Guide

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/onboarding/
Description: Complete onboarding guide for new GoSmarter.ai customers - setup, configuration, training, and first week action plan for operations and production managers

Welcome to GoSmarter.ai! This comprehensive onboarding guide will help you get started quickly and begin realizing the benefits of AI-driven production assistance for your metals manufacturing operation.
1. Introduction: Welcome to GoSmarter.ai What is GoSmarter? GoSmarter.ai is your AI-driven production assistant designed specifically for metals manufacturers. We help you:
Automate paperwork - Eliminate manual data entry and reduce administrative burden Track inventory - Real-time visibility into stock levels and material locations Optimise production - AI-powered cutting plans that minimize waste and maximise efficiency Ensure compliance - Digital mill certificate /aterial test report management with instant search and retrieval Built for Manufacturing
GoSmarter was created by people who understand the challenges of metal fabrication and production. We know your time is valuable, which is why we’ve made setup fast and easy. Onboarding Overview This guide will walk you through everything you need to get GoSmarter up and running in your facility. The entire onboarding process typically takes 1-2 days, and you’ll start seeing time savings immediately.
What you’ll learn:
How to set up your account and invite team members How to configure GoSmarter for your operation How to use core features for daily tasks A structured action plan for your first week Key Benefits: What to Expect GoSmarter customers have achieved remarkable results:
50% scrap reduction in rebar cutting with AI-powered production planning 120+ hours saved per year on mill certificate processing and management Instant access to quality documentation for audits and customer requests Reduced errors in inventory tracking and order management Quick Time-to-Value
Most customers see measurable time savings within the first week of using GoSmarter. This guide will help you achieve similar results. 2. Account Setup and Access Sign-Up and Login Getting started with GoSmarter is simple - no complex installation required!
Access the platform - GoSmarter is cloud-based and accessible via any web browser Sign up - Visit app.gosmarter.ai and click Register Verify your email - Check your inbox for a verification email and click the confirmation link Free Trial Available
GoSmarter offers a free trial so you can evaluate the platform risk-free. No credit card required to start, no software to install. We then do a quick verification with you to confirm your account setup and answer any initial questions. After that, we make you your company space and support you in getting started.
Adding Team Members GoSmarter works best when your whole team is on board. You can invite people to register and then we can assign them to your company or you can give us a list of people to invite.
Start Small, Scale Up
Begin with 2-3 key users during onboarding. Once they’re comfortable, they can help train additional team members. Platform Tour: Understanding the Interface When you first log in, you’ll see the main GoSmarter dashboard. Here’s what each section does:
Key Navigation Areas:
Company core data - Manage information about your company and how you work Production Planning - The space to manage stock, orders, scrap, and generate cutting plans Compliant Metals - The area to manage mill certificates and quality documentation Utilities - Additional tools like a scrap rate calculator Company Selector
If you manage multiple locations or companies, use the company selector in the top-left corner to switch between them. GoSmarter will remember your selection for future visits. 3. Technical Configuration Data Onboarding: Getting Your Information into GoSmarter The key to getting value from GoSmarter is having your data in the system. Don’t worry - we’ve made this easy!
Configure core data (OPTIONAL) GoSmarter comes pre-configured with sensible defaults for common materials and processes. However, you can customise core data to match your specific operation:
Go to Company core data > Organisations to manage customers and suppliers. You can add new organisations (manually or bulk upload) or edit existing ones. Navigate to Company core data > Materials to review and customise materials and grades. You can start from our list, bulk upload, or start from scratch. Navigate to Company core data > Inventory Types to review and customise types of goods. You can start from our list, bulk upload, or start from scratch. Navigate to Company core data > Stock Locations to set up your storage locations (yards, warehouses, bins). You can start from our list, bulk upload, or start from scratch. Pre-Configured Defaults
GoSmarter includes a library of common materials and processes to help you get started quickly. Customisation is optional - you can use the defaults if they fit your needs. Setting your defaults now makes it easier for people to enter data later, with fewer risks of picking an incorrect value. Inventory Import There are two ways to add your initial inventory:
Option 1: Manual Entry (Good for small inventories or getting started quickly)
Go to Inventory in the main menu Click + New item Fill in the details: Mandatory fields Name (e.g., Rebar 12x2500mm) Material (e.g., Rebar Grade 60) Quantity Optional fields Diameter, length, width, and depth Type (e.g., bars, rods, etc.) Supplier Stock location (e.g., yard, bin) Unit price Weight Click Add item View detailed Inventory Guide
Option 2: Bulk Upload (Recommended for larger inventories)
Go to Inventory Click Bulk actions > Download CSV template Fill in your inventory data using the template Click Bulk actions > Upload CSV Select Choose file and upload your inventory file Click Upload to import No IT Setup Required
GoSmarter uses simple interfaces. No technical expertise needed - if you can use a spreadsheet, you can upload your data. Order Import There are two ways to add your initial orders:
Option 1: Manual Entry (Good for small inventories or getting started quickly)
Go to Orders in the main menu Click + New order Fill in the details: Mandatory fields Order Reference (e.g., Cus ABC-001) Order Date Optional fields Status (e.g., Pending, In Progress) Site (e.g., Project A) Delivery Date Line item(s) Line Item Reference (e.g., Cus ABC-001-001) Shape code (e.g., 01 for rebar) Diameter, length, width, and depth Quantity Price Status (e.g., Pending, In Progress) Heat code (if applicable / when known) Click Add order View detailed Orders Guide
Option 2: Bulk Upload (Recommended for larger order books)
Go to Orders Click Bulk actions > Download CSV template to get a zip file with a template for orders and one for order line items Fill in your orders and line item data using the templates - the line items use the order reference to link to the parent order Click Bulk actions > Upload orders & line items Select Choose orders file and upload your orders file Optionally, select Choose line items file and upload your line items file Click Upload to import Mill Certificate Upload Getting your quality documentation into GoSmarter is equally straightforward:
Navigate to Compliant Metals > Mill Certificates Click Upload Mill Certificate Select Choose file and upload your completed file GoSmarter’s AI automatically extracts key information including: Heat/batch numbers Chemical composition Test results Review the extracted data The certificate is now searchable and linked to your inventory AI-Powered Data Extraction
GoSmarter automatically reads your mill certificates and extracts the important data. What used to take 10-15 minutes of manual data entry now happens in seconds! View detailed Mill Certificates Guide
Integration Options GoSmarter works standalone, but can also integrate with your existing systems:
Standalone Use - No integrations required; GoSmarter works perfectly on its own Data Export - Export your data anytime to Excel, CSV, or PDF for use in other systems API Integration - Connect to ERP or order management systems (contact support for details) Start Standalone
We recommend starting with GoSmarter as a standalone tool. You can always add integrations later once your team is comfortable with the platform. 4. Orientation and Key Features Training This section covers the essential features you’ll use daily. We’ll focus on quick wins and practical tasks.
Daily Operations Basics: Managing Inventory and Orders Working with Inventory Your inventory is the foundation of everything in GoSmarter. Here’s what you need to know:
Viewing Your Stock:
Click Inventory in the main menu See all your materials at a glance Use filters to find specific items (by grade, size, location) Click any item to see full details Quick Exercise: Try adding a new material to your inventory right now using the manual entry option. This will help you get familiar with the interface.
Updating Stock Levels:
Find the item you want to update Click the Edit icon (pencil) Update the quantity Click Save Replace Spreadsheets
GoSmarter’s inventory management replaces clumsy spreadsheets with a simple, searchable interface. No more hunting through multiple Excel files! View complete Inventory Management Guide
Managing Orders Track customer orders from receipt to completion:
Go to Orders in the main menu Click + New order to add a new customer order Enter order details (customer, materials needed, quantities, due date) Track order status as it moves through production View complete Order Management Guide
Compliance: Working with Mill Certificates One of GoSmarter’s most powerful features is instant access to quality documentation.
Step-by-Step Example: Upload and Retrieve a Certificate
Upload:
Go to Mill Certificates Click + Upload Certificate Select your PDF certificate - Click Upload and GoSmarter’s AI extracts all key data automatically Search and Retrieve:
Use the search bar to find certificates by: File name Date range Status Click on Actions > View Certificate to see the fully extracted document data Download or email directly to customers Instant Traceability
What used to take hours of searching through filing cabinets or folders now takes seconds. During audits or customer requests, you’ll have instant access to all quality documentation. Time Saved: Customers report saving 120+ hours per year on certificate processing alone!
View complete Mill Certificates Guide
Production Planning: AI-Powered Optimisation See GoSmarter’s AI in action with production planning:
Quick Demo: Generate Your First Draft Cutting Plan
Go to Production Planning > Cut Long Products Select the orders you want to plan Choose available stock materials Click Generate Plan GoSmarter’s AI creates an optimised cutting plan that: Minimises scrap and waste Shows exactly which bars to cut Provides cut lists for the shop floor Calculates material utilisation The 'Aha' Moment
This is where customers really see the power of AI. A task that might take hours manually is done in seconds enabling you to review / tweak the plan with your expertise Real Results: Customers have achieved 50% scrap reduction in rebar cutting using GoSmarter’s optimisation.
Scrap Tracking Keep track of waste and identify savings opportunities:
Navigate to Production Planning > Scrap Log scrap by weight Use insights to reduce waste over time View Scrap Calculator Guide
Scrap with provenance
You can use the main inventory tracker for scrap or offcuts where you need to maintain full traceability. Just set the inventory type to “scrap” or “offcut” when adding an item or split an existing item to create a new scrap/offcut item with all the existing properties of the original. 5. First Week Action Plan Follow this structured timeline to ensure successful onboarding and early wins:
Day 1: Setup and Initial Data Tasks:
Complete account setup and log in successfully Add 2-3 key team members Upload initial inventory data (start with current stock) Give us examples of mill certificates from any suppliers we don’t currently have on the platform so we can add them to your company space Upload 5-10 recent mill certificates Complete a quick tour of all main sections Expected Time: 2-3 hours
Goal: By end of Day 1, you should be able to log in, navigate the platform, and see your data in the system.
Day 2: First Production Tasks Tasks:
Enter 2-3 current customer orders Search for a mill certificate by heat number Update inventory quantities based on actual stock Expected Time: 2-3 hours
Goal: Experience core workflows and see AI in action.
Day 3: Team Training Tasks:
Train 2-3 additional team members on logging in Show them how to check inventory Demonstrate certificate search Have them try basic tasks (view orders, search materials) Expected Time: 1-2 hours
Goal: Build confidence across your team and distribute knowledge.
Day 4: Real-World Usage Tasks:
Use GoSmarter for all new orders received today Update inventory for any materials used Upload any new mill certificates Generate your first AI-powered cutting plan Review the plan with a colleague Expected Time: Ongoing during normal work
Goal: Make GoSmarter part of your daily routine.
Day 5: Review and Reflect Tasks:
Hold a 30-minute team meeting to discuss: What time was saved this week? What problems were solved (e.g., found missing certificate data quickly)? Any questions or confusion? What features to explore next? Document any outstanding questions for support Plan next week’s rollout to additional team members Expected Time: 30-60 minutes
Goal: Celebrate early wins, address issues, and maintain momentum.
Progressive Milestones
This structured approach helps you build confidence gradually. By Day 5, many customers have already freed several hours by eliminating manual paperwork and reducing planning time. 6. Support and Resources Getting Help We’re here to support your success!
Documentation:
GoSmarter Documentation Home - All guides and tutorials Dashboard Guide - Understand your starting point Inventory Management Guide - Deep dive into stock tracking Order Management Guide - Master order workflows Mill Certificates Guide - Advanced certificate management Quick Reference Guide - Handy tips and shortcuts Troubleshooting Guide - Solve common issues Customer Support:
Email Support: support@gosmarter.ai Response Time: Within 24 hours on business days Live Chat: Available during business hours (coming soon) We're Here to Help
Don’t hesitate to reach out! Our team has deep experience in metal manufacturing and can help with setup, questions, or customization needs. Customer Success Check-ins:
We recommend scheduling a check-in call with our customer success team after your first two weeks. We’ll review your progress, answer questions, and help you get even more value from GoSmarter.
Common Onboarding Questions (FAQ) Q: What if my inventory data is in an unusual format?
A: We can help guide you in transformaing data from other systems into the needed format. If you’re having trouble, contact support and we can help you prepare your data or do a custom import.
Q: How secure is my data?
A: GoSmarter uses enterprise-grade security with encryption in transit and at rest. We follow industry best practices for data protection. Your data is stored securely in the cloud with regular backups.
Q: Can GoSmarter integrate with my ERP system?
A: GoSmarter works standalone but can integrate with many systems via our API. Contact our technical team to discuss your specific integration needs.
Q: What if I make a mistake entering data?
A: All data can be edited or deleted. We also maintain audit logs so you can see what changed and when. Don’t worry - you can’t break anything!
Q: Do I need special software or hardware?
A: No! GoSmarter is cloud-based and works in any modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge). No installation required.
Q: Can I export my data?
A: Yes! You can export data to CSV at any time. Your data is always yours.
Q: What happens when my trial ends?
A: You can choose a subscription plan that fits your needs. Your data and configuration are preserved - there’s no disruption to your workflow.
User Community Coming soon: user forum and community features
Join other GoSmarter users to share best practices, tips, and success stories.
7. Conclusion and Next Steps Congratulations! By following this onboarding guide, you now have:
✅ GoSmarter set up and configured for your operation
✅ Your initial inventory and mill certificates in the system
✅ Knowledge of core features and daily workflows
✅ Team members trained on basic usage
✅ Real experience using AI-powered production planning
Immediate Benefits You’re Already Seeing Digitised certificates - No more filing cabinet or inbox searches Centralised inventory - One source of truth for all stock data Automated planning - AI helps you do in minutes what used to take hours Time savings - Less paperwork means more time for productive work Next Phase: Full Deployment Now that you have the basics in place, you’re ready to fully integrate GoSmarter into your operations.
Recommended Next Steps:
Expand Usage - Roll out GoSmarter to additional team members Explore Advanced Features - Dive deeper into optimisation Optimise Workflows - Customize GoSmarter to match your specific processes Measure Results - Track time savings and efficiency gains Additional Resources:
Implementation Project Plan - Structured roadmap for full deployment (coming soon) Process-Specific Guides: Inventory Management Deep Dive Certificate Management Workflows Order Processing Optimization Keep Learning GoSmarter is designed to grow with you. As you become more comfortable with the basics, explore more features and advanced capabilities.
Continuous Improvement
The most successful GoSmarter customers start simple and progressively add capabilities. There’s no rush - focus on mastering the basics first, then expand when you’re ready. We’re Here to Support Your Success Remember, you’re not alone in this journey. Our team is committed to your success:
Comprehensive documentation and guides Responsive customer support Regular product updates and improvements A growing community of manufacturing professionals Ready to take the next step? Explore our process-specific guides or contact our customer success team to schedule a check-in call.
Welcome to the GoSmarter family! We’re excited to be part of your journey toward more efficient, data-driven metal manufacturing.
Quick Wins Build Momentum
You’ve already accomplished a lot in your first week. Keep building on this momentum - the more you use GoSmarter, the more value you’ll discover. Many customers tell us they wonder how they ever managed without it! 

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### AI Security

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/content/ai-security/
Description: How GoSmarter uses AI to process mill certificates - what data is sent, where it goes, and how it's protected.

How GoSmarter uses AI and keeps your data safe GoSmarter uses AI to classify and extract data from mill certificates. Mill certificates can be uploaded as PDFs or images (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, HEIC, HEIF). Here’s exactly what happens, where your data goes, and what protections are in place.
What AI does in GoSmarter Step What happens Where Classification Identifies the document type and supplier from the first page UK South Extraction Reads each page and extracts structured data (heat numbers, chemical composition, mechanical properties) Sweden Central (EU) Optimisation Calculates cutting patterns to minimise waste UK South Mill certificates are used to train our models but never Microsoft’s We operate a continuously learning system where the AI models are regularly retrained on new data to improve accuracy. When you provide suppliers we haven’t seen before or make edits to the extracted data, this feedback is used to enhance our models. The certificates are only used to help us identify a supplier and work out how to extract information from that supplier’s certificates. There is no way your certificates or the data associated with themcan be shown to other customers.
Microsoft’s AI data processing commitments Microsoft’s AI services operate under their data, privacy, and security commitments for Azure AI:
Your data is not used to train, retrain, or improve Microsoft AI models Your data is not available to other customers Processing is covered by Microsoft’s standard Data Processing Agreement How we process a certificate Every uploaded document is first scanned for malware by Microsoft Defender for Storage before any steps are taken to prevent malicious content from being processed.
The certificate is then processed with our custom computer vision model service, identifying the document type and supplier and returning a confidence score. For PDF certificates, only the first page is submitted for classification. For image certificates (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, HEIC, HEIF), the image is submitted directly. GoSmarter deletes any temporary files generated during this process immediately after processing. No files leave the UK during classification.
Once a supplier has been identified, the document is sent to a custom computer vision model designed specifically to process that supplier’s certificates. This model extracts structured data such as chemical composition, mechanical properties, and certificate numbers. For PDF certificates, each page is processed individually. For image certificates, the single image is submitted directly — multi-page image formats (e.g. multi-page TIFF) are rejected at upload. This processing happens in Sweden Central (EU) because Azure Content Understanding is not yet available in UK South. However, the service is stateless and encrypted in transit, and no customer data is persisted in Sweden after processing. No files remain outside the UK after extraction.
Why Sweden? Azure Content Understanding is not yet available in UK South. Sweden Central is within the EU, covered by the UK GDPR adequacy framework. The service is stateless; no customer data is persisted in Sweden.
The extracted data is then stored in our database in UK South, and the original certificate file is kept in UK South.
Cutting optimisation: no AI involved The cutting optimisation service is a pure algorithmic solver using heuristic and genetic algorithm techniques. It:
Runs entirely within your deployment in UK South Makes no external AI or API calls Reads order and inventory data from the database Calculates optimal cutting patterns to minimise waste Writes results back to the database How AI services authenticate All AI services use managed identity as the primary authentication method. This means:
No API keys stored in application code or configuration files Credentials are managed by the Azure platform Each service has its own identity with minimum required permissions Access is granted through Azure role-based access control (RBAC) Isolation and scaling Each AI processing job runs as an isolated processing service that:
Starts when a document arrives, stops when processing is complete Scales to zero when not in use, so no resources are consumed and no data is stored when there are no documents to process Has no shared state between processing runs Cannot access other customers’ data (tenant isolation enforced at the API layer) Key points for your security team Model training with your data: We use your data to continuously improve our models, but this data is never shared with Microsoft or other customers. It is only used to enhance our ability to classify and extract data from mill certificates. UK processing for classification: Document Intelligence runs in UK South EU processing for extraction: Content Understanding runs in Sweden Central (stateless, encrypted in transit) No AI in optimisation: Cutting solver is pure algorithm with no external calls Managed identity authentication: No static API keys in service configuration Ephemeral processing: Containers scale to zero; temporary files deleted after each document Malware gate: Every uploaded document is scanned by Defender for Storage before classification. Documents only proceed if the scan returns clean. Request evidence Need more detail about our AI data handling?
Details of AI processing activities and data flows Microsoft’s AI data processing commitments Our Data Processing Agreement (DPA) Email us, contact us online, or book a compliance call.


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### Access Control

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/content/access-control/
Description: GoSmarter uses Microsoft Entra ID for authentication and enforces tenant isolation on every API request.

Identity and access control GoSmarter uses Microsoft Entra External ID for all authentication. People sign in through GoSmarter’s own identity tenant. We don’t store passwords.
How people authenticate Sign in via Microsoft Entra External ID: GoSmarter’s customer identity platform Supported sign-in methods: organisational Entra ID account, personal Microsoft account, or email one-time passcode When people use their Entra ID, any Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) and password policies from their home tenant apply Session tokens are stored in the browser’s sessionStorage (cleared when the tab closes), not in localStorage or cookies How we keep data from companies separate Every API request is scoped to a specific company. The system enforces this at multiple levels:
URL-level scoping: All customer API routes include a company identifier in the URL path User membership validation: The API validates that the authenticated user has been granted access to the target company Data query enforcement: All database queries are automatically filtered by the company identifier, ensuring users can only access data belonging to their company Request rejection: If a user attempts to access a company they don’t belong to, the API rejects the request with a 403 Forbidden response This means a user in Company A cannot access Company B’s data, even if they have a valid authentication token.
Data is logically separated by company, and access is strictly controlled through Entra ID. This ensures strong tenant isolation on every API request.
The API gateway as the authentication control point All API traffic passes through the Zuplo API gateway before reaching GoSmarter’s backend. The gateway is the single, centralised place where authentication is enforced — the backend API accepts requests only from the gateway.
JWT validation at the edge: Microsoft Entra ID tokens are validated by the gateway using RS256 and JWKS. Invalid, expired, or malformed tokens are rejected at the edge before any application code runs. API key authentication: Programmatic and integration access uses gateway-managed API keys. Keys carry embedded identity metadata (user ID, group memberships, roles) so the backend receives the same authorisation context as a browser session. Signed internal headers: Once a request is authenticated, the gateway injects X-User-Id, X-Groups, and X-Roles headers, plus a shared internal token (X-Internal-Token) that proves the request came through the gateway. The backend validates the internal token on every non-exempt request and trusts only these headers — it never parses JWTs directly. No direct backend access: Requests that reach the backend without a valid internal token are unconditionally rejected with 401, regardless of any other headers present. This architecture means that authentication logic lives in one place (the gateway), is consistently applied to every request, and the backend cannot be bypassed or called directly from outside the platform.
API key management API keys provide programmatic access to the GoSmarter API without an OAuth login flow. They are managed entirely through the GoSmarter API developer portal.
Creating keys: Users log in to the developer portal at https://api-docs.gosmarter.ai and create keys from Settings → API Keys. Each key is tied to the user account that created it. Permissions: Keys carry the user’s group memberships and roles at the time the key was created. If permissions change — for example, a user is added to a new company — the key must be deleted and recreated to pick up the updated permissions. Rolling a key does not refresh permissions. Rotation: Keys can be rolled (replace the key value while keeping the same consumer identity) via Settings → API Keys → Roll. Update any stored key values before the old one stops working. Revocation: Keys are revoked immediately by deleting them from Settings → API Keys. Deletion takes effect instantly. Storage requirements: Keys must be stored in environment variables or a dedicated secrets manager (e.g. Azure Key Vault, GitHub Actions secrets). They must never appear in source code, configuration files committed to version control, or logs. Compromise response: If a key is accidentally exposed, delete it immediately from the portal and create a replacement. Notify your administrator. How our systems talk to each other securely Within our internal systems, every component has its own unique identity that it uses to connect to other components. Every component is given explicit permissions for what it can do for each component it needs to touch. This means we apply the principle of least privilege and reduce the risk of API keys or passwords being breached and making parts of the system accessible.
For details on how managed identity is used in AI services specifically, see AI Security.
Administrative access Database: Administrative access uses Entra ID security groups and is restricted to authorised team members only. No database credentials are stored in code or configuration. CI/CD: Deployment pipelines use short-lived identity tokens. No long-lived deployment secrets are stored. Key points for your security team No GoSmarter passwords: Authentication is handled by Microsoft Entra External ID. Users can sign in with an organisational Entra ID account, personal Microsoft account, or email one-time passcode. MFA support: Can be enforced by you Tenant isolation enforced on every request: Company GUID validated against user group claims on every API call Managed identity throughout: No static API keys or connection strings in application code RBAC least-privilege: Each service identity has only the permissions it needs Short-lived deployment tokens: No long-lived deployment secrets are stored Request evidence Email us, contact us online, or book a compliance call.


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### Inventory Management

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/inventory/
Description: Learn how to create and manage inventory items using our Production Planning Inventory

Use Inventory Management to create, track, and operate on your stock from one central table. You can reach it from the Dashboard or through Production Planning in the left navigation.
Open Inventory The Inventory page is accessible from two places: the Dashboard and the Production Planning section of the left navigation bar.
From here you can create new items, track existing stock, and perform all item-level operations — including splitting, usage recording, tag management, and reserved item handling.
The Inventory page open via Production Planning navigation Add a New Inventory Item Select New Item to open the item creation window. The form covers an extensive range of attribute fields so you can define your stock in full detail from the start.
Scroll down in the form to access the full set of value options. Complete all relevant fields before saving so the item is correctly set up for downstream allocation and planning work.
New Item window with inventory attribute fields Scrolled view of the New Item form showing additional attribute options Find Items in the Table Once saved, items appear in the inventory data table. Use the search and filter controls to locate a specific item quickly as your list grows.
Inventory data table with search and filter controls Use the Actions Menu Select Actions on any inventory row to open item-level operations. From this menu you can:
Edit item fields Delete the item Duplicate it to create a copy with the same details Manage tags Mark stock as used Split the item into two quantities Actions menu on an inventory row showing available item operations Manage Tags The Manage Tags window shows all tags currently applied to the item. You can toggle individual tags on or off manually from this screen.
Tags group related inventory items and work alongside automated tag rules to keep your stock organised consistently.
Manage Tags window showing applied tags and manual toggle controls Record Stock Usage Use Stock opens a window where you enter the quantity or weight consumed. Submitting the form removes that amount from the item’s available inventory and records the usage against the item.
Use Stock window with quantity and weight input fields Split an Item Split Inventory creates a new inventory item by dividing stock out of an existing one. Enter the amount to transfer and the system generates a second record with the same base details, reducing the source item accordingly.
Split Inventory window showing how stock is divided into a new item Review Item History The History window provides a complete audit trail of all changes made to an item — who changed what, and when. Use it to track edits, usage events, and splits over the item’s lifetime.
History window showing the full audit trail for an inventory item Once your inventory is accurate and up to date, continue with Order Management to link demand to available stock and manage advanced allocation workflows.


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### Scrap Management

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/scrap/
Description: Learn how to log scrap, track waste trends, and review record history.

Scrap Management helps you log scrap records, monitor changes over time, and keep a clear view of where production waste is building up. The tool is designed for practical day-to-day tracking so you can review trends and decide where process improvements will have the biggest effect.
Open Scrap Management Start by expanding Production Planning in the left navigation and opening Scrap Management.
Scrap Management page in the Production Planning section From this page, you can log and manage scrap records and review a full record of edits. In this workflow, scrap is separate from offcuts. Offcuts are handled through inventory processes, while Scrap Management is focused on waste tracking and control.
The table gives you a current operational view of your records, and manual logging at the point of production gives you cleaner data for identifying where wastage is coming from.
Add Scrap Records Select Add Entry to create a new scrap record directly in the app.
Add Entry window for creating a scrap record In the entry form, you can create new records, link each record to the relevant bin or skip, and track associated weight values.
Manage Existing Records Each record includes an Actions control that opens record-specific operations.
Actions menu for a scrap record From this menu, you can:
Edit a record View record history Delete a record Edit Existing Records Choosing Edit opens a pre-populated version of the record form.
Edit scrap record window with existing values This lets you adjust previously entered values without rebuilding the record from scratch.
Review Record History Selecting View History opens a timeline of updates for that record.
Record history view for scrap record changes This history view helps you track changes over time while keeping the data under a single record instead of creating duplicate entries for each adjustment.
Wrap-Up Scrap Logging tool end screen Scrap Management gives you a practical way to log waste, maintain an audit trail of changes, and build a more reliable view of scrap performance across production.


---
### Frontend Security

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/content/frontend-security/
Description: GoSmarter's browser security controls - Content Security Policy, secure token storage, and supply chain protections.

Browser security controls The GoSmarter web application is a single-page application (SPA) and we apply several layers of browser-level security to protect you whilst you use it.
Content Security Policy (CSP) We enforce a Content Security Policy that restricts what the browser can load and execute:
Directive Policy What it means default-src https: Only HTTPS resources allowed by default script-src 'self' + https://script.supademo.com + https://widget.frill.co Only our own scripts plus explicitly allowlisted Supademo and Frill scripts can execute frame-src 'self' + blob: + https://widget.frill.co + https://app.supademo.com Only our own site, local blob frames, and the Frill/Supademo embeds used in product guidance can render style-src https: 'unsafe-inline' Styles from HTTPS sources (inline styles required by the UI framework) worker-src 'self' Service workers restricted to our own origin object-src blob: Embedded content restricted to local blob URLs (used by the PDF viewer); no third-party plugins The two allowlisted script sources are product experience tools:
Supademo (script.supademo.com) for interactive in-app guides Frill (widget.frill.co) for product feedback and communication widgets No advertising scripts are loaded from the frontend shell.
Token storage Authentication tokens are stored in sessionStorage, not localStorage:
Tokens are cleared when the browser tab is closed Tokens are not accessible across tabs (unlike localStorage) No authentication cookies are used PII logging is explicitly disabled in the authentication library Source maps Production builds do not include source maps. This prevents exposing application structure and logic through browser developer tools.
API route protection The Static Web App configuration requires an authenticated role for all /api/* routes. Unauthenticated requests to API endpoints receive a 401 response and are redirected to the login page.
Supply chain security Dependency scanning: Dependabot monitors all frontend dependencies for known vulnerabilities Dependency review: Pull requests are automatically checked for high/critical CVEs and copyleft license violations No hardcoded secrets: No API keys, tokens, or credentials in the frontend source code Key points for your security team CSP enforced: Strict Content Security Policy limiting script execution to self + 2 named vendors Named script allowlist: Supademo (script.supademo.com) and Frill (widget.frill.co) only Named frame allowlist: Frill (widget.frill.co) and Supademo (app.supademo.com) embeds only sessionStorage tokens: Cleared on tab close, not persisted across sessions No PII logging: Disabled in the authentication library configuration No source maps in production: Application internals not exposed Authenticated API routes: Enforced at the Static Web App platform level Automated dependency scanning: Dependabot + dependency review on every PR CORS policy: API cross-origin access is restricted to configured origins HSTS: HSTS headers are set to enforce HTTPS connections to the frontend Request evidence Email us, contact us online, or book a compliance call.


---
### Track scrap

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/track-scrap/
Description: Step-by-step walkthrough for logging and managing scrap records in GoSmarter.

The Scrap Logging tool provides a straightforward way to track and manage scrap records in your production environment. This allows you to maintain visibility over scrap output and optimise your production processes based on accurate data.
Accessing the Scrap Logging Tool To begin using the Scrap Logging and Tracking features, navigate to the Production Planning section within GoSmarter. From there, click on Scrap to access the Scrap Logging page. This section displays your scrap records in a table format, showing all logged entries at a glance.
Navigation to the Scrap page from the Production Planning section Creating New Scrap Records To add a new scrap entry, click the Add Entry button in the interface. This opens a form where you can input the details for your new scrap record. The form captures all necessary information required to properly log and categorise your scrap.
New scrap record form with input fields Once you have completed all the required fields in the form, click the Add Entry button to save the record. The new entry will then appear in your scrap records table, making it available for future reference and analysis.
Managing Existing Scrap Records Each scrap record in the table includes an actions button located on the far right. You may need to scroll horizontally to see this button if your table contains many columns. Clicking the actions button reveals a menu with several options for managing that specific entry.
Actions button on the far right of the scrap table row From the actions menu, you can edit existing entries to update information, view the complete edit history to track what changes have been made and when, or delete entries that are no longer needed. This gives you full control over your scrap records throughout their lifecycle.
Actions menu showing edit, view history, and delete options When to Use Manual Scrap Logging The manual scrap logging feature is designed as a quick and efficient method for tracking scrap when detailed provenance is not required. It provides a lightweight way to maintain awareness of scrap output without the administrative overhead of more detailed tracking systems.
However, if you require a more complete and comprehensive record of scrap with full provenance information, you should track scrap as part of your broader inventory management system. This ensures that your scrap data is integrated with your overall inventory and production records for better visibility and traceability.


---
### Digitise your mill certificates / MTRs

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/mill-certificates/
Description: See how you can upload and manage certificates for traceability

Mill certificates and Material Test Reports (MTRs) are quality records attached to incoming material. This guide covers the full lifecycle in the Mill Certificates workspace: uploading files, processing and extracting data with AI, editing and reviewing output, exporting certificates, managing tags, and navigating the manual entry path.
Open the Mill Certificates Workspace The Mill Certificates page is accessible from the Dashboard and from the Compliant Metals section of the navigation bar. Expand the Compliant Metals menu item and click Mill Certificates to reach the workspace.
The page is designed to handle the complete certificate lifecycle: uploading PDFs or image files, processing and extracting data with AI, tracking progress, editing and reviewing outputs, and exporting records. Two upload paths are available from the buttons at the top of the screen. Upload with AI lets the system automatically extract data from your uploaded files and connect it to your inventory. Manual Entry takes you to a blank form where you can key in the certificate data by hand.
Navigation panel with Compliant Metals expanded and Mill Certificates selected Upload Certificate Files Clicking either upload button opens a file selection window where you can choose PDF files or image files from your computer. You can select multiple files to upload at once using your operating system’s multi-select (Ctrl on Windows/Linux, Cmd on macOS, or Shift to select a range). All selected files will be processed together.
File selection window for uploading certificate PDFs or image files Once you upload a file using Upload with AI, the certificate appears in the data table and AI processing begins immediately. The table shows the current progress of each upload as it moves through extraction.
Data table showing a certificate upload in progress with AI processing status Use the refresh button at the top right of the data table to check the latest processing status. The status column updates as the certificate moves through each stage. Once processing is complete, a chevron appears next to the line item — click it to expand the row and view the heat codes extracted from the report.
Refresh button at the top right of the data table for checking upload progress View Certificate Details and Export When processing is complete, the Actions button on the line item gives you access to the full range of actions for that certificate: view details, edit and approve the output, and download in several formats.
Actions button on a completed certificate line item in the data table Click View Details to open the certificate details page. This page shows everything extracted from the report laid out alongside the original uploaded file, so you can compare extracted values directly with the source document.
Certificate details page showing extracted data alongside the uploaded source file From the details page, click the Export button to download the processed output in a range of formats, including a version with your own company branding applied.
Export button on the certificate details page for downloading in multiple formats Edit and Review the Output The Actions button at the top right of the details page provides the options to edit the extracted output and submit a review.
Actions button at the top right of the certificate details page Select Edit to make all fields in the report editable. Extraction is generally accurate, but factors such as smudged scans, handwritten entries, or poor page condition can cause mismatches. Edit mode lets you correct any extraction errors field by field before the certificate is reviewed and locked.
Certificate details page in edit mode with all extracted fields editable Once you have reviewed the report and made any corrections, return to the Actions dropdown and select Review. The review window lets you either approve the output or flag it as needing further attention.
Review window with options to approve the certificate output or flag it for attention After you approve a certificate, the output is locked and cannot be edited without opening a new review and setting the status back to Issue. The approval date appears on the details page as a permanent record.
Certificate details page showing the approval date after the output has been approved and locked Manual Entry If you selected Manual Entry at the start, you are taken to a blank version of the details page. The uploaded file appears alongside the form so you can reference the source document as you fill in each field by hand. You can change your mind at any point and click Extract with AI at the top of the page to have the system take over extraction from your uploaded file.
Manual Entry page with blank data fields and the source file displayed alongside Download Certificates To create copies for your records or to share with others, use the Actions dropdown against a certificate’s line item and choose a download format. Several formats are available depending on what you need.
Actions dropdown on a certificate line item showing available download format options You can download certificates with your company branding applied. Make sure your company profile is complete and includes your logo — see Getting Started With GoSmarter for details on configuring company information.
Example of a certificate downloaded with company branding applied Manage Tags The Actions dropdown for any certificate line item also includes a Manage Tags option. Clicking it opens the Manage Tags window, where you can see any auto-generated tags applied to the certificate and toggle any manual tags that have been set up in the Mill Certs tab of the Tags page. See the Tags and Tag Rules guide for details on setting up and managing tag rules.
Manage Tags window showing auto tags and toggles for manual tags on a mill certificate Mill certificate reference What is a mill certificate? A mill certificate, also called an MTR, records the material identity and traceability details for a heat or lot, including the information needed to connect received stock to its supporting documentation and test results.
Accepted file types You can upload PDFs and image files for AI processing, or work entirely in Manual Entry without uploading a file.
Search, filter, and downloads Use search and filters to narrow the certificate list by the details you need to review. From the certificate views, you can also download data as CSV, download the certificates shown on the current page as a ZIP, or download certificates grouped per heat code as a ZIP when available.
Heat-code linking rules Heat-code matching is case-insensitive. Certificates are linked automatically when a matching heat code is found during certificate upload, and matching can also occur when inventory is loaded later for the same heat code.
Editing and deleting certificates You can edit certificate details to correct metadata and maintain traceability records. Deleting a certificate removes it from the certificate list and any linked workflow views that depend on that stored certificate record.
Certificate statuses Processing: the uploaded certificate is still being read or indexed. Complete: the certificate finished processing and is available for normal review and linking. Error: the certificate could not be processed successfully and may need to be checked or uploaded again. Common questions Why is a certificate not linked yet? Check that the heat code matches exactly apart from letter casing, and confirm the inventory or uploaded document contains the expected heat code. Why are some certificates unavailable for download grouping? Grouped ZIP downloads depend on the certificate and heat-code relationships available in the current results. What happens if inventory is loaded after the certificate? Matching heat codes can still be linked automatically when inventory data is loaded. Best practices Use consistent heat-code formatting in source documents and inventory records. Review certificates that remain in Processing or Error before relying on them for traceability. Use filters before exporting so CSV and ZIP downloads reflect the exact working set you want to share or audit. Keep company profile data and logo up to date so branded certificate downloads display correctly. 

---
### Incident Response

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/content/incident-response/
Description: How GoSmarter detects, responds to, and communicates about security incidents.

Incident response GoSmarter maintains a documented incident response process designed for dual use:
operational execution by our internal team evidence for customer and auditor due diligence The process is aligned to common expectations from ISO 27001 incident management controls and UK Cyber Essentials principles.
Scope and objectives This plan covers security incidents affecting:
customer data confidentiality, integrity, or availability the GoSmarter API, frontend, AI processing services, database, storage, and message infrastructure authentication and authorisation controls (Entra ID, RBAC, managed identity) Objectives:
detect and contain incidents quickly reduce customer and business impact meet legal and contractual notification obligations learn from incidents and improve controls What we monitor The following monitoring is configured and verified in our infrastructure:
SQL audit logging: Authentication attempts (successful and failed), permission changes, schema changes, and backup/restore operations are logged to Azure Log Analytics Application telemetry: Request performance, errors, and exceptions tracked via Azure Application Insights Threat detection: Microsoft Defender for SQL is enabled in production: detects SQL injection attempts, anomalous access patterns, and potential vulnerabilities Budget and capacity alerts: Budget and capacity alerts detect unusual resource consumption These signals are triaged as potential incidents when they indicate unauthorised access, data exposure risk, service compromise, or sustained service degradation.
Detection capabilities Signal Source What it detects Failed logins SQL audit logs Brute-force attempts, credential stuffing Permission changes SQL audit logs Unauthorised privilege escalation Anomalous queries Defender for SQL SQL injection, unusual data access patterns Application errors Application Insights Service failures, unexpected exceptions Resource anomalies Azure cost alerts Unusual compute or storage usage Roles and responsibilities Incident response is coordinated through the following roles:
Incident Owner (Primary): Chief Product Officer Technical Responders: engineering staff responsible for impacted components Communications Lead: coordinates customer and stakeholder messaging via email Approver for regulator contact: Incident Owner with leadership/legal input as required If the primary owner is unavailable, the most senior available engineering leader assumes incident command and records handover decisions.
Severity classification GoSmarter uses four severity levels:
Severity Definition Typical examples Critical Active or confirmed high-impact security event with material customer impact Confirmed data breach, active compromise, widespread outage from malicious activity High Significant security risk or service impact requiring urgent response Credible unauthorised access attempt, major security control failure Medium Contained or limited-impact incident with no evidence of broad compromise Isolated suspicious activity, limited component disruption Low Security-relevant event requiring tracking and remediation but minimal impact Policy violation, low-risk alert requiring investigation Response time SLAs GoSmarter tracks incident handling against the following internal SLAs.
Severity Acknowledge and assign owner Begin technical triage Target containment Customer update cadence Critical 15 minutes 30 minutes 4 hours Initial customer update within 4 hours, then every 4 hours until stable High 1 hour 2 hours 1 business day Initial customer update within 1 business day, then daily Medium 4 business hours 1 business day 3 business days Updates at major milestones or at least every 3 business days Low 1 business day 2 business days 10 business days Included in standard support/compliance reporting unless risk changes Because GoSmarter currently operates without a formal 24/7 on-call rota, incidents raised outside business hours follow a lightweight emergency escalation path. Critical incidents still target acknowledgement within 60 minutes out of hours.
Incident response lifecycle Identify: Validate alerts, open an incident record, assign an owner, and classify severity. Contain: Restrict access, isolate affected components, rotate credentials/tokens, and block malicious traffic or workflows. Eradicate: Remove root cause (code/configuration vulnerability, compromised credential, misconfiguration). Recover: Restore normal operation with heightened monitoring and validation. Review: Complete root cause analysis, corrective actions, and evidence package. Notification and communication Customer communication channels: direct email notifications to affected customers Internal communication channels: internal incident coordination channel and internal email updates Status page: not currently used as a primary incident communication channel For confirmed personal data breaches, GoSmarter targets customer notification within 72 hours of confirmation.
For confirmed personal data breaches that meet UK GDPR notification thresholds, GoSmarter targets regulator notification within 72 hours of becoming aware.
Regulatory escalation (UK GDPR / ICO) GoSmarter assesses each confirmed personal data breach for regulatory notification requirements. Where UK GDPR thresholds are met, notification to the UK ICO is prepared without undue delay and, where applicable, within 72 hours of becoming aware.
The Incident Owner approves regulator escalation and coordinates final submission with leadership/legal review.
Evidence and retention Standard operational telemetry retention is 30 days in Log Analytics unless configured otherwise Incident-specific evidence (exported logs, timelines, decisions, customer communications, corrective actions) is retained for 24 months Evidence is stored in controlled-access repositories for audit support Incident notification GoSmarter operates a documented incident response process with defined severity levels, ownership, escalation, and communication expectations.
For confirmed personal data breaches, we target customer notification within 72 hours of confirmation. Where legal thresholds are met, we escalate for regulator notification in line with UK GDPR requirements.
Customer incident communications are sent via direct email.
Post-incident For High and Critical incidents, GoSmarter performs a post-incident review that includes:
timeline of events and response decisions root cause analysis impact assessment (customers, data, services) corrective and preventive actions with owners and target dates customer-facing summary where relevant Post-incident actions are tracked to completion.
Testing and continual improvement Incident response tabletop exercise cadence: yearly minimum Lessons learned are incorporated into runbooks, monitoring, and preventive controls Material updates to the response process are reflected in this trust centre documentation Alignment to common standards This process is designed to align with common expectations from:
ISO 27001 incident management control areas (policy, reporting, assessment, response, and learning) Cyber Essentials themes of secure configuration, access control, malware protection, and monitoring-based response Key points for your security team SQL auditing enabled: Audit groups track authentication, permissions, schema changes, and data access Defender for SQL in production: Active threat detection for SQL injection and anomalous access Application-level monitoring: Full telemetry via Application Insights Incident evidence retention: 24 months for case evidence and investigation artifacts Incident notification target: 72 hours from confirmed personal data breach Request evidence If you need details on our incident response procedures for your security assessment, please contact us directly.
Email us, contact us online, or book a compliance call.


---
### Privacy & Data Protection

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/content/privacy/
Description: How GoSmarter handles personal data under GDPR - data processing practices, subject rights, and Microsoft's DPA.

Privacy and data protection GoSmarter processes data on behalf of our customers. This page describes our data protection practices and how we support your GDPR obligations.
This page provides a high-level overview. Detailed privacy control documentation is available on request under NDA.
Our role under GDPR You (the customer) are the data controller: you decide what data is uploaded and processed GoSmarter acts as a data processor: we process data according to your instructions via the platform Microsoft Azure acts as a sub-processor: they host the infrastructure and provide AI services What personal data does GoSmarter process? GoSmarter is a B2B platform. The personal data we process is limited to what is required for account access, platform authorisation, and business-document workflows.
GoSmarter does not collect or process sensitive personal data (health, biometric, financial) as part of its core functionality.
Data Processing Agreement We provide a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) that covers:
The scope and purpose of data processing Technical and organisational security measures Sub-processor obligations (Microsoft Azure) Data subject rights support Breach notification commitments Data deletion on contract termination Data Processing Agreement available on request via talktous@gosmarter.ai
Microsoft’s data processing commitments As our infrastructure provider, Microsoft’s processing commitments apply:
Microsoft Products and Services DPA Microsoft Trust Center AI services: Your data is not used to train Microsoft AI models (Azure AI data privacy) Data subject rights If your users or data subjects exercise their rights (access, rectification, erasure, portability), we support you by:
Providing access to data stored in GoSmarter through the platform or on request Deleting user accounts and associated data when requested Supporting data export in standard formats Data can be accessed and managed through the GoSmarter application or by contacting us directly.
Data retention Active data: Retained for the duration of your subscription Uploaded documents: Stored in Azure Blob Storage for the duration of your subscription Audit logs: Retained in line with our operational and compliance requirements On contract termination: Data handling and deletion are managed according to contractual terms International transfers Core persistent data is hosted in UK regions. Where supporting processing uses EU regions, it remains within UK/EU operating boundaries. See Data Residency for more detail.
Key points for your security team Data processor role: GoSmarter processes data under your instructions as controller Limited personal data: Primarily user accounts and names on business documents DPA available: Covers processing scope, security measures, breach notification, and deletion Microsoft sub-processor: Covered by Microsoft’s Products and Services DPA No AI model training: Contractual commitment from Microsoft UK/EU only: No international transfers outside UK GDPR adequacy framework Detailed information under NDA Additional privacy and data protection evidence can be shared under mutual NDA, including:
Data flow and processing context documentation Retention and deletion process details Sub-processor and transfer assurance information Operational control evidence relevant to due diligence Request evidence Email us, contact us online, or book a compliance call to request the NDA pack.


---
### Managing Orders

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/orders/
Description: Create and manage customer orders, track requirements and allocations

The Orders section is where you create and manage customer orders. Each order holds multiple line items, and you can reserve specific inventory against individual line items to prevent stock being consumed by another order. You can also bulk-upload orders via CSV and download views of your order data.
Open Orders Reach the Orders page from the Dashboard shortcut or by expanding Production Planning in the left navbar and selecting Orders.
Left navbar with Production Planning expanded and Orders highlighted The Orders page presents all customer orders in a central data table. From here you can view existing records, create new orders, bulk-upload via CSV, and download views of your order data.
Orders page showing the orders data table with toolbar options including Add Order Create a New Order Click New Order in the top right of the Orders page to open the Add Order window. Fill in the details required for the new order record, including customer, dates, and any relevant reference information.
New Order button highlighted in the top right of the Orders page Scroll down within the window to access all available fields. Once you have entered everything required, click New Order to save the record.
Add Order form scrolled to show additional fields with the Add Order submit button at the bottom Order Actions Once saved, the order appears in the Orders data table. Select Actions on any order row to access the full set of operations for that record:
View Details — open the full order record Edit — amend order details Duplicate — reuse the same structure for a similar order Download Certificate Pack — generate an own-branded certificate pack for the order Manage Tags — view auto-tags and toggle manual tags assigned to the order View History — see the full audit trail for the record Orders data table with the Actions dropdown open on one row, showing all available options including Certificate Pack and Manage Tags View Order Details Selecting View Details opens the Order Details page. The top section shows the key header fields — customer, dates, status, and other overview information. Scrolling down reveals a line item summary followed by each individual line of the order in its own section.
Order Details page showing header fields at the top and a line items summary below Work with Line Items Each line item in the Order Details table has its own Actions button at the far right of the row. From there you can edit the line item or open Manage Stock to reserve inventory against it. The Go to Reserved Inventory button in that same Actions menu remains inactive until stock has been reserved against the line item.
Line item Actions menu open showing Edit, Manage Stock, and the inactive Go to Reserved Inventory option Reserve Stock for a Line Item Selecting Manage Stock from the line item’s Actions menu opens the Manage Stock window. Use the search and filter options to find inventory items that match the order’s requirements.
Manage Stock window with search and filter options for finding matching inventory items When you select an inventory item to reserve, an additional field appears below the selection. Enter the quantity to reserve and choose whether to split the items into a separate row so they are clearly identifiable as reserved. Submit the form to confirm the reservation.
Manage Stock window with an inventory item selected and quantity and split fields visible below Once the reservation saves, the amount reserved appears in the Reserved column of the line items table.
Line items table with the Reserved column showing the newly reserved quantity With stock reserved, the Go to Reserved Inventory button in the line item’s Actions menu becomes active.
Line item Actions menu with Go to Reserved Inventory now active after a reservation has been made View Reserved Inventory Clicking Go to Reserved Inventory takes you to the Inventory page with filters pre-applied to show only the reserved items for that line item. The Linked Orders column in the table is a clickable link that takes you back to the Order Details page.
Inventory page filtered to show only reserved items, with the Linked Orders column visible and highlighted Manage Tags on an Order The Manage Tags option in the order’s Actions dropdown opens the Manage Tags window. Here you can view any auto-tags applied to the order and toggle manual tags that have been configured for orders in the Tags page. For more detail on setting up and using tags, see the Tags and Tag Rules guide.
Manage Tags window showing auto-tags and toggleable manual tags for the selected order View Order History Selecting View History from the order’s Actions dropdown shows the complete audit history of the order — every change made, who made it, and when.
Order audit history view showing a chronological log of all changes made to the order 

---
### Managing Inventory and Daily Operations with GoSmarter

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/managing-inventory-operations/
Description: Complete guide for inventory managers and operations teams on using GoSmarter's Metals Manager capabilities to track materials, suppliers, and orders in real-time

This guide is designed for inventory managers, store personnel, and operations managers responsible for stock control and daily operational data. Learn how to use GoSmarter’s Metals Manager capabilities to track materials, suppliers, and orders in one place, replacing manual inventory spreadsheets with GoSmarter’s simpler, real-time interface.
Overview The Challenge Managing inventory in metals manufacturing traditionally involves juggling multiple spreadsheets, manual stocktakes, and disconnected systems. Finding out what raw materials are on hand, where they are located, and allocating them to jobs can be time-consuming and error-prone.
How GoSmarter Helps GoSmarter provides a centralised, real-time inventory management system that:
Tracks all materials, suppliers, and orders in one place Provides instant visibility into current stock levels Links mill certificates to inventory items for full traceability Enables multiple team members to access data simultaneously Reduces inventory errors and saves time compared to manual checking Key Benefits
GoSmarter can be used standalone or alongside existing systems. Benefits include less inventory error, significant time savings vs. manual checking, and improved traceability for compliance. Navigating the Inventory Module When you open the Inventory section, you’ll see the Inventory dashboard - your central hub for all stock management activities.
Adding and Updating Stock Items Adding New Stock When new materials arrive at your facility, you can add them to your inventory:
Click the + New Item button at the top right of the Inventory page.
Complete the fields in the Add Inventory Item form:
Name* — A clear item name (e.g., S355 Plate 10mm or Rebar 12mm). Heat Code — Enter the heat/batch number if available. Material* — Select the material grade (e.g., A36, S355, Aluminium 6061). Type — Choose the product type (e.g., Plate, Bar, Rebar, Coil). Supplier — Select an existing supplier from the list. Stock Location — Choose where the item will be stored. Unit Price — Optional price per piece or per unit weight. Quantity* — Number of pieces. Dimensions (mm) — Fill in whichever are relevant: Length (mm) Width (mm) Depth (mm) Diameter (mm) Weight (kg) — Enter if known; otherwise leave as zero. Click Add Item to save the new inventory record.
Example: Adding Steel Plates Suppose you receive a delivery of 50 steel plates:
Name: S355 Steel Plate 10mm Heat Code: AB12345678 Material: S355 Type: Plate Supplier: ABC Steel Supplies Stock Location: Bay 3, Rack A Unit Price: (optional) Quantity: 50 Length (mm): 2400 Width (mm): 1200 Depth (mm): 10 Weight (kg): Enter total or per‑piece if known Enter these details and click Add Item. The inventory updates immediately and becomes visible to all users.
Reordering / Duplicating Stock If you regularly order the same items, you can quickly duplicate an existing stock item:
Find the item in your inventory list. Click the Actions > Duplicate button (two overlapping squares icon) on that row. Bulk Upload for Multiple Items When you have many items to add (for example, after a large delivery or during initial setup):
Click the Bulk Upload button Download the CSV template Fill in your spreadsheet with inventory details: One row per inventory item Include all required columns (material type, dimensions, quantity, etc.) Upload your completed file Review the preview to verify data looks correct Click Confirm to add all items Data Accuracy
Always double-check your bulk upload data before confirming. It’s easier to correct errors in the spreadsheet than to edit individual items afterward. Updating Existing Stock To update stock when materials are used in production or adjustments are needed. We offer a couple of ways to do this based on how you want to work.
Method 1: Direct Edit Find the item in your inventory list (use search or filters) Click the Actions > Edit button (pencil icon) on that row Update the relevant information: Quantity - Reduce after usage, increase if more arrives Location - If material has been moved Status - Mark as allocated, in-use, or available Click Save Method 2: Drawdown Usage Find the item in your inventory list Click the Actions > Drawdown Usage button (downward arrow icon) on that row Enter the quantity or weight used in production Click Save Method 3: Split Stock If you cut long products into smaller pieces and want to track the offcuts:
Find the item in your inventory list Click the Actions > Split Stock button (scissors icon) on that row Enter the quantity or weight of material being cut Specify the dimensions of the new offcut pieces Click Save Best Practice
Update inventory immediately after cutting or using material (perhaps via a tablet on the shop floor) to keep data current. Real-time updates ensure everyone has accurate information. Linking Mill Certificates to Inventory One of GoSmarter’s unique features for metals manufacturing is the ability to link mill test certificates directly to inventory items, ensuring full traceability and compliance.
Why Link Certificates? Linking certificates to inventory provides:
Instant verification of material properties (chemistry, grade, strength) Product lineage - Full traceability from mill to finished product Compliance assurance - Easy to prove materials meet specifications Quick access - View certificate data without searching through files How to Link a Certificate After digitising a mill certificate using GoSmarter’s MillCert Reader AI (see the Digitising Mill Certificates Guide):
Open the inventory item you want to link Click Edit In the Heat code field simply enter the value associated with the items. NOTE: You may need to breakdown bulk deliveries into the relevant bundles or pieces first to ensure each inventory item has the correct heat code. this is easy to do with the Split option. GoSmarter will automatically suggest matching certificates based on heat number Viewing Certificate Data Once linked, you can:
Click on Actions > View mill certificate option See key properties (grade, chemical composition, mechanical properties) directly in the inventory view Download the original certificate PDF Verify compliance requirements instantly Traceability Best Practice
Always link mill certificates to inventory items as soon as materials arrive. This ensures complete traceability and makes compliance audits much easier - you can pull records by date, supplier, or specification in seconds. Managing Suppliers and Orders Supplier Management Keep track of who supplies your materials for better procurement and quality management.
Adding a Supplier Go to Company core data > Organisations section in the navigation menu Click + New Organisation Enter supplier details: Company name Contact person and details Address Select the Supplier role Click Save Linking Suppliers to Inventory When adding inventory items, always select the correct supplier. This allows you to:
See which materials came from which supplier Filter inventory by supplier Track supplier quality and reliability Quickly contact suppliers about specific batches Order Management GoSmarter helps you manage both customer orders and internal work orders that draw from inventory.
Creating a New Order Navigate to Orders section Click + New Order Enter order details: Customer name or internal project Required materials and quantities Delivery date Any special requirements Example: Order for Cut Rebar You receive an order for 100 pieces of cut rebar, 4m length, grade B500C:
Create new order with customer details Specify: 100 pieces, 4m, B500C rebar in the order line items Using Inventory Data Day-to-Day Best Practices for Daily Operations Real-time updates - Update usage immediately after cutting or consuming material
Use tablets or mobile devices on the shop floor for instant updates This keeps data current for all team members Multi-user access - Take advantage of cloud-based simultaneous access
Unlike single-user Excel files, multiple team members can view and update inventory at the same time Production staff, managers, and office staff all see the same real-time data Regular reconciliation - Perform periodic physical stock checks
Compare physical count with system data Make adjustments as needed Investigate significant discrepancies Use filters and search - Find what you need quickly
Filter by material type, supplier, location, or availability Search by heat number, batch number, or dimensions Save frequently-used filter combinations Q: Can I undo a mistaken stock entry? A: Yes:
For recent entries (within current session): Click Edit and correct the data, or click Delete if the entry shouldn’t exist For older entries: Use Inventory Adjustment to correct quantities, adding notes about the error All changes are logged, so there’s always an audit trail Q: What happens when inventory is allocated to an order but not yet used?
A:
Allocated inventory is marked as “Reserved” in the system It still shows in inventory but is flagged as not available for other orders If the order is cancelled, the allocation is released and inventory becomes available again You can see allocated vs. available quantities in the inventory view –> Q: How do I handle materials from multiple locations or warehouses? A:
Use the Location field when adding inventory Create consistent location naming (e.g., “Warehouse A - Bay 3”, “Yard 2 - Section C”) Filter inventory by location to see what’s in each area You can transfer materials between locations using inventory adjustments with location notes Q: Can I import existing inventory data from Excel?
A: Yes, use the bulk upload feature:
Export your current Excel data Download GoSmarter’s CSV template Map your Excel columns to the template columns Upload the completed CSV Review and confirm For large or complex migrations, contact GoSmarter support for assistance.
You're Ready!
With GoSmarter as your inventory management system, you’re free from juggling spreadsheets. You now have real-time visibility, better traceability, and a foundation for optimising your entire production process. 

---
### Certifications & Attestations

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/content/certifications/
Description: Azure platform certifications that apply to GoSmarter's deployment, and how to request compliance evidence.

Certifications and attestations GoSmarter runs on Microsoft Azure, which holds a broad set of compliance certifications. This page explains which certifications apply to our deployment and how to request evidence.
This page provides a high-level summary. Detailed assurance evidence can be shared under mutual NDA where appropriate.
GoSmarter application-level certifications We are progressing our application-level assurance roadmap to provide additional independent validation of our security controls and operating practices.
Azure platform certifications Microsoft Azure maintains certifications and attestations that cover the core managed services GoSmarter depends on.
Standard Status Scope ISO 27001 Certified Azure platform — information security management ISO 27017 Certified Azure platform — cloud security controls ISO 27018 Certified Azure platform — protection of personal data in the cloud SOC 1 Type II Attested Azure platform — financial reporting controls SOC 2 Type II Attested Azure platform — security, availability, processing integrity SOC 3 Attested Azure platform — publicly available summary CSA STAR Certified Azure platform — cloud security Cyber Essentials Plus Certified Azure platform — UK government scheme GDPR Compliant Azure platform — EU data protection Full details: Microsoft Azure Compliance Offerings
How to request compliance evidence We can provide the following for your security review:
Azure compliance reports: Available through the Microsoft Service Trust Portal (SOC reports, ISO certificates, pen test summaries) GoSmarter security documentation: This trust centre and supporting high-level material Data Processing Agreement information: Available on request Compliance call: A conversation with our team to answer specific questions Requesting reports under NDA Some compliance evidence is shared under a mutual NDA. To request it:
Contact us at talktous@gosmarter.ai Specify which reports or information you need We’ll arrange NDA execution if required and provide the reports Key points for your security team Azure platform certifications: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001/27017/27018, Cyber Essentials Plus, and more Service Trust Portal: Self-service access to Azure compliance reports Application-level assurance roadmap: Additional independent validation is in progress Evidence available under NDA: Information that is not publicly available can be shared under a mutual NDA Request evidence Email us, contact us online, or book a compliance call to request the NDA pack.


---
### Calculating Scrap Rates

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/scrap-calculator/
Description: Calculate scrap rates instantly. Enter your bar length and cut dimensions to see waste percentage, pieces per bar, and how to minimise steel cutting waste.

The Scrap Rate Calculator helps you model the financial impact of scrap using your own production and pricing figures. Instead of guessing what scrap costs you, you can enter your baseline numbers, set a target scrap ratio, and quickly see what improving scrap performance could return.
Open the Calculator from Utilities Start by opening Utilities in the GoSmarter sidebar and selecting the Scrap Rate Calculator.
Scrap Rate Calculator input panel and calculate action This view contains the full Input Parameters area and the calculate action. The calculator is designed to work from your actual values so the outputs reflect your real operating context.
What the Calculator Measures The calculator uses the material you purchase, the scrap you generate, and the value of both to show the cost of current scrap and the effect of reducing it.
It also supports target-based planning. You can set a target scrap ratio and compare that target to current performance. That gives you a concrete way to estimate the return from process improvements that lower scrap.
Complete the Input Parameters The left panel is where you enter the assumptions and baseline values for the calculation.
Use these fields:
Target Scrap Ratio The percentage of scrap you want to reach. Lower values represent lower waste. Annual Volume (tonnes) The total material volume processed each year. Scrap Volume (tonnes) The total scrap or waste material generated each year. Purchase Value per tonne Your raw material purchase cost per tonne. Use the Currency setting in the form for the unit. Resale Value per tonne The value recovered when scrap is sold. This is usually lower than the purchase value. As you complete the form, the Current Scrap Rate metric updates to reflect the inputs you have provided.
When your values are in place, select Calculate.
Review the Results Pane Scrap Rate Calculator results pane with summary and breakdown table After calculation, the Results pane appears and shows the impact of the changes defined in your Input Parameters.
At the top of the pane, you get a summary view of the projected outcome.
Below the summary, a detailed table breaks down the result values in more depth.
At the bottom of the pane, export actions let you:
Download a PDF report Download a CSV file for Excel Generate a shareable link These outputs make it easier to communicate the expected effect of scrap improvements with colleagues and stakeholders.
Use This as a Decision Support Tool This calculator gives fast insight into the likely impact of planned changes to scrap performance and helps you produce a clean report for review and discussion. The guide demo also notes an important boundary: this is a calculator, not the workflow for recording scrap transactions. For scrap logging and operational tracking, use the Scrap Management guide.


---
### Digitising Mill Certificates and Ensuring Compliance

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/digitising-mill-certificates/
Description: Complete guide for quality assurance managers and compliance officers on using GoSmarter's MillCert Reader AI to digitise mill test certificates and ensure material compliance

This guide is designed for quality assurance managers, compliance officers, and anyone who handles Mill Test Certificates (MTCs) or material test reports (MTRs). Learn how to use GoSmarter’s Compliant Metals feature with its MillCert Reader AI to turn piles of certificate PDFs into searchable, actionable data.
Overview The Problem Manufacturers often receive material certificates as scanned PDFs or emails. Finding the right certificate later or extracting specific details can take hours of manual searching through files or different mill portals. This creates bottlenecks in:
Verifying material specifications before use Responding to customer requests for certificates Conducting compliance audits Ensuring traceability for safety-critical applications How GoSmarter Solves This GoSmarter digitises mill test certificates in seconds using AI technology:
Automated extraction - Upload a PDF, get structured data instantly Searchable database - Find any certificate by heat number, batch, supplier, or specifications Full traceability - Link certificates to inventory for complete product lineage Compliance ready - Generate reports and documents for audits with one click Time Savings
One manager saved 120 hours per year by automating certificate handling with GoSmarter. Instead of manually searching through binders or typing data from PDFs, certificates are digitised and searchable in seconds. Why This Matters for Safety and ISO Compliance In metals manufacturing, using the correct grade material is critical:
Welding applications - Wrong grade can compromise structural integrity ISO compliance - Traceability requirements for quality management systems Customer requirements - Many customers require certificates with deliveries Legal liability - Documentation proves materials meet specifications GoSmarter ensures you can verify any material’s specifications instantly, reducing compliance risk and improving quality assurance.
Uploading Certificates Single Certificate Upload To digitise a new mill test certificate:
Navigate to Compliant Metals → Mill Certificates in the main menu Click +Upload Certificate Click Choose File and select your PDF Click Upload GoSmarter’s AI begins processing immediately File Quality
For best results, use clear, high-resolution scans or original digital PDFs. The AI can handle most mill certificate formats, including handwritten or lower-quality scans, but clarity improves accuracy. AI Extraction Process How It Works GoSmarter uses advanced AI trained on mill certificates from suppliers worldwide. When you upload a certificate:
Document analysis - AI identifies the certificate type and format Data extraction - Key fields are automatically extracted: Heat number / Batch number Steel grade / specification Chemical composition (C, Si, Mn, P, S, etc.) Mechanical properties (yield strength, tensile strength, elongation) Dimensions (diameter, length, thickness) Manufacturer/mill information Validation - AI checks that extracted values are logical and consistent Structured storage - Data is saved in searchable database format This process typically takes 5-15 seconds per certificate page.
Viewing Extraction Results Once processing is complete, you’ll see the extracted data. The interface displays:
Certificate metadata - Supplier, date, certificate number Material identification - Heat number, grade, dimensions Chemical composition table - All elements with percentages Mechanical properties - Strength values, elongation, hardness Test results - Any additional test data Original PDF - Link to view the source document Growing coverage
GoSmarter’s AI is trained on mill certificates from suppliers our customers use, we train it continuously as we onboard more customers. As part of onboarding, we’ll ask you about your common suppliers to prioritise training data. Getting certificates for use elsewhere After uploading, data is available exported as a CSV or as zip files of PDFs. The reason for the PDFs is to enable you to access the certificate PDFs for integration in other systems or for producing traceability packs.
Downbloading by page will give you a PDF per page and it will be named with all the heat numbers found on that page. Downloading by heat code will give you a PDF per heat code, named with the heat number.
By making copies of the PDFs available with metadata filenames, you can easily integrate them into other systems or produce traceability packs for customers.
Viewing and Searching Certificate Data Finding Certificates Quickly The power of digitised certificates is instant searchability. To find a certificate:
Navigate to Mill Certificates main page Use the Filter area to search based on a range factors, including for a specific head code. Results appear instantly, showing matching certificates with key information.
Viewing from Inventory You can also access certificate data directly from inventory items (see Managing Inventory Guide).
On an inventory item, select Actions → View Certificate if the heat number is available View the full certificate data linked to that material Download the original PDF if needed This provides instant verification when allocating materials to orders or checking specifications before use.
This relies on heat codes being entered against inventory items and the mill certificates being uploaded. Linking is automatic and requires no extra work once both sides are in the system.
Ensuring Traceability Best Practice Workflow For complete traceability, follow this workflow:
Material arrives → Upload mill certificate immediately Certificate digitised → Verify key data extracted correctly Add heatcodes to inventory → Make sure inventory items have correct heat numbers when added during Goods In / REceivable Material used → Certificate data follows material through production Delivery to customer → Certificate included automatically This ensures every piece of material has verified, traceable properties from mill to final delivery.
Compliance Checks in Production Pre-Production Verification Before starting a job, production managers can verify materials meet specifications:
Review job requirements - What grade/properties are needed? Check allocated inventory - What materials are assigned to this job? View certificate data - Click certificate icons in inventory Verify compliance - Confirm grade, properties meet requirements Example: Before cutting steel for a job requiring B500C rebar:
Job specs require: B500C, minimum yield strength 500 MPa Allocated stock: Inventory item #1234 View certificate for item #1234: Grade: B500C ✓ Yield strength: 545 MPa ✓ Certificate valid ✓ Proceed with confidence This verification takes seconds with digitised certificates vs. potentially hours of searching with paper systems.
FAQ / Troubleshooting Common Questions and Solutions Q: What if the AI misreads a value?
A: The AI is highly accurate but not perfect. To correct:
Click Edit on the field with the incorrect value View the original PDF side-by-side for reference Enter the correct value manually Click Save All edits are logged. Over time, you can report persistent issues to GoSmarter support to improve the AI.
Q: What if a certificate is not in English or uses unusual formatting?
A:
GoSmarter handles many languages and formats automatically For very unusual formats (rare regional mill formats), the AI may struggle If extraction fails or is very inaccurate: Contact GoSmarter support with a sample Meanwhile, manually enter key fields while keeping the original PDF in the system Support can update the AI to recognise similar formats in future Q: How do I handle multi-page certificates?
A:
Upload the entire multi-page PDF as one file The AI processes all pages and combines the data Q: Can I edit a certificate after it’s been uploaded?
A: Yes:
Click Edit on any certificate Modify any extracted field You cannot edit the original PDF (it’s read-only), but you can upload a replacement if needed All changes are tracked in the audit log Q: How do I export certificate data for use in other systems?
A:
Select the certificates you need Click Export Choose format: CSV (for Excel/database) or a PDF option Download the export file Q: Are my certificates secure?
A: Yes:
All data is encrypted in transit and at rest Access is controlled by user permissions (only authorised users can view) Audit logs track who accessed what and when Data is backed up regularly GoSmarter complies with relevant data protection standards See the Security section below for more details.
Security Note Data Protection for Sensitive Documents Mill test certificates often contain sensitive information:
Chemical analysis (proprietary blends) Supplier relationships Pricing information (sometimes) Test results that could be commercially sensitive GoSmarter protects your data:
Encryption:
All data transmitted over HTTPS/TLS Database encryption at rest Certificate PDFs stored in encrypted storage Access Control:
Role-based permissions (define who can view/edit certificates) Multi-factor authentication available User activity audit logs Compliance:
Designed to support ISO 9001 quality management requirements GDPR-compliant data handling Backup and Recovery:
Automated daily backups Point-in-time recovery available Disaster recovery procedures tested regularly Best Practices Summary Quick Reference for Success Certificate Management:
✅ Upload certificates immediately when materials arrive ✅ Verify AI-extracted data for critical fields ✅ Use consistent naming for certificate files ✅ Configure compliance rules for automatic checking Quality Assurance:
✅ Always verify grade and key properties before using material ✅ Generate certificate packages for customer deliveries ✅ Keep original PDFs even though data is extracted (for legal/audit backup) Team Workflow:
✅ Define roles: who uploads, who verifies, who can edit ✅ Train all relevant staff on search and verification ✅ Establish SOP for certificate receipt and digitisation ✅ Review extracted data quality quarterly with GoSmarter support ✅ Continuously improve process based on team feedback Welcome to Digital Compliance
You’re now ready to move to a near-paperless system for mill test certificates. Upload, verify, search, and share certificates at the click of a button - saving tremendous time and ensuring compliance with minimal effort. 

---
### Compliance Standards

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/content/compliance-standards/
Description: How GoSmarter aligns with SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, and other compliance frameworks - what applies and what we can demonstrate.

Compliance standards GoSmarter runs on Microsoft Azure, which is certified against a broad set of compliance frameworks. This page maps the most commonly requested standards to our deployment.
Standards relevance Standard Relevant? How GoSmarter aligns GDPR Yes All persistent data in UK South. DPA available. Microsoft sub-processor DPA applies. No AI model training on customer data. See Privacy. UK GDPR / Data Protection Act 2018 Yes UK South data residency. EU processing (Sweden Central) within adequacy framework. See Data Residency. SOC 2 Type II Azure platform certified Azure holds SOC 2 Type II. No current plans to attain this. ISO 27001 Azure platform certified Azure holds ISO 27001. Planning to attain GoSmarter application-level certification. ISO 27017 Azure platform certified Cloud-specific security controls — covered by Azure certification. ISO 27018 Azure platform certified PII protection in cloud — covered by Azure certification. Cyber Essentials Plus Azure platform certified UK government security scheme — Azure is certified. Planning to attain GoSmarter application-level certification. PCI DSS Not applicable GoSmarter does not process, store, or transmit payment card data. HIPAA Not applicable GoSmarter does not process protected health information. CCPA Limited relevance GoSmarter is B2B with minimal personal data. No California consumer data processing. What “Azure platform certified” means When we say Azure is certified, it means:
Microsoft has undergone independent third-party audits for the services GoSmarter uses (Azure SQL, Blob Storage, Container Apps, Key Vault, Service Bus, AI services) Audit reports are available through the Microsoft Service Trust Portal These certifications cover the infrastructure, physical security, and platform-level controls GoSmarter’s application-level controls (authentication, tenant isolation, encryption configuration, AI data handling) are described throughout this trust centre and verified against our infrastructure code.
GDPR alignment summary GDPR requirement GoSmarter implementation Lawful basis for processing Contractual necessity — processing to deliver the service Data minimisation Limited personal data: user accounts, audit logs, and document contents Storage limitation Data retained for subscription duration; deletion on termination [VERIFY — process] Data subject rights Access, rectification, erasure supported [VERIFY — specific process] Data protection by design Encryption at rest and in transit, managed identity, tenant isolation International transfers UK/EU only — no transfers outside adequacy framework Breach notification For confirmed personal data breaches, customer notification target is within 72 hours of confirmation. UK GDPR/ICO escalation is assessed and, where required, actioned within applicable statutory timelines. Data Processing Agreement Available on request [VERIFY — process] Sub-processor disclosure Microsoft Azure is the primary sub-processor Compliance matrix For a detailed control-by-control mapping, see the compliance matrix (CSV).
Key points for your security team GDPR / UK GDPR: Fully aligned: UK South residency, DPA available, no international transfers outside adequacy SOC 2 / ISO 27001: Azure platform certified; GoSmarter has no current SOC 2 attestation plan and is planning application-level ISO 27001 certification Incident response notification target: 72 hours for confirmed personal data breaches, with UK GDPR/ICO escalation criteria applied Availability target: 99.99% monthly availability target for the production service PCI DSS / HIPAA: Not applicable: GoSmarter doesn’t handle payment or health data Evidence available: Azure compliance reports via Service Trust Portal; GoSmarter-specific detail in this trust centre Request evidence Email us, contact us online, or book a compliance call.


---
### The GoSmarter UI

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/gosmarter-ui/
Description: Using the GoSmarter UI to filter, sort, search, see tutorials, and more.

This guide shows you how to use GoSmarter’s user interface (UI) features to work faster with your data across tools.
What This Guide Covers In this guide, you will learn how to use GoSmarter UI tools to get the most out of your data and all GoSmarter tools.
Using Bulk Actions The Bulk Actions button lets you upload and download larger amounts of data in one go.
It will also often provide a comma-separated values (CSV) template that you can download and open in Excel before uploading your data.
The Bulk Actions button in GoSmarter Working with Data Tables Most tools include a data table. This table shows all records relevant to the current tool.
You can sort and filter the table to find what you need.
Keep in mind that you may need to scroll right to access all columns. You can use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the page, or hold Shift while using your mouse wheel.
A GoSmarter data table with sortable and filterable columns Filtering Records Click the Filters button to open filter controls and narrow the table to the records you need.
Filtering is the fastest way to cut through long lists and focus on the right items.
Filters panel opened from the Filters button Sorting Records An arrow in a column header shows which column currently controls sort order.
To sort by a different column, click that column name.
Sort indicator arrow shown in a table column header Using Row Actions Inside a data table, click the Actions button on a row to open actions for that specific record.
This is where you can run record-level tasks quickly without leaving the table.
Actions dropdown for a record in the data table Add/Edit Side Panels When you use row actions such as Add or Edit, GoSmarter opens a sidebar panel.
These panels include forms you can complete to add, edit, split, and otherwise manage a record.
Sidebar panel used to add or edit a record Viewing Record History Click View History from a row’s Actions menu to open a history window.
This shows a full record of changes made to that item over time.
View History window showing changes to a record Tutorial Mode All pages include tutorial information, and Tutorial Mode is on by default.
If tutorials are not showing:
Click your name in the bottom-left corner. Toggle Tutorial Mode on. With Tutorial Mode enabled, hover over a question mark icon to see an explanation of the field beside it.
Tutorial Mode toggle in the user menu Question mark help icon with inline field guidance Tutorial Panes Many pages also include a more detailed tutorial pane.
These panes explain how a tool works and include practical tips to help you get better results.
Detailed tutorial pane explaining how to use a GoSmarter tool Need a Change? If you want to request a feature or suggest a change, contact the support team and share what you need.


---
### GoSmarter.ai Implementation Project Plan

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/implementation-project-plan/
Description: Comprehensive roadmap for deploying GoSmarter across your metals manufacturing business with structured phases, best practices, and change management strategies

Purpose & Audience This implementation project plan is a roadmap document aimed at project managers or champion users at customer organisations (e.g., digital transformation leads or IT/operations managers responsible for deploying GoSmarter company-wide). Its purpose is to guide the rollout of GoSmarter in a structured way, increasing the likelihood of success by addressing upfront planning, resource allocation, change management, and timeline.
In essence, this is a customer success playbook for launching GoSmarter across a metals manufacturing business. It covers what needs to happen in the first few weeks or months, from kickoff to full adoption. A well-defined plan is crucial in manufacturing environments to avoid disruptions – it helps coordinate tasks like data migration from legacy systems, integration with existing processes, and staff training.
This document defines success criteria (KPIs like reduction in manual entry, percentage of processes using GoSmarter, scrap reduction rates, etc.) so the company can measure ROI post-implementation.
Implementation Strategy The implementation plan is structured in phases or steps, following best practices for SaaS deployment. We incorporate seven critical steps commonly recommended for SaaS rollout:
Assign an implementation owner Define goals and scope Plan rollout & training Leverage vendor support Migrate data Integrate with other systems Drive feature adoption Each phase of the plan is presented clearly with its objectives, tasks, responsible parties, and timeframe. The tone is action-oriented and reassuring – providing practical tips to minimise risk (e.g., test with a pilot group first, back up data) and highlighting GoSmarter’s “zero-disruption” approach (no heavy downtime or long maintenance windows needed, given its cloud SaaS nature).
1. Project Kickoff & Vision Alignment Objective Establish the project’s foundation. Ensure all stakeholders understand why the company is implementing GoSmarter and what success looks like.
Key Activities 1.1 Appoint the Implementation Owner/Project Lead Designate someone responsible for managing the rollout (often from IT or operations) Define roles of the core team: Sponsor from management Champions in each department IT/technical lead End-user representatives 1.2 Conduct a Kickoff Meeting Schedule a kickoff meeting with GoSmarter’s customer success manager (if available) and your internal team. In this meeting:
Review Current Pain Points:
Excessive manual paperwork Data scattered in PDFs and spreadsheets Time-consuming certificate processing Inefficient production planning Lack of traceability and compliance visibility Articulate the Vision and Goals:
Automate certificate processing Centralize inventory data Reduce scrap by X% Save Y hours per week Improve compliance traceability Support carbon reduction goals Define Scope:
Which sites or departments will use GoSmarter first? Which GoSmarter modules are in scope for phase 1? (e.g., Inventory and Certificates first, then Production Planning) Clarify anything out of scope to avoid scope creep 1.3 Create Project Charter Outcome of this step: A written Project Charter or summary listing:
Team members and their roles Timeline overview Success metrics and KPIs Commitments and expectations Business outcomes (efficiency, carbon reduction, etc.) Everyone should be aligned on expectations and enthusiastic about the benefits.
2. Define Success Metrics & Implementation Goals Objective Determine how you will measure the success of GoSmarter’s implementation and set clear targets.
Key Activities 2.1 Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Operational Efficiency Metrics:
Time to generate production plan: Target reduced from 2 hours to 10 minutes Certificate processing throughput: Target to double the number of certificates processed per week Hours saved on paperwork: Track weekly time savings Scrap rate reduction: Target to cut scrap in half after 3 months (GoSmarter’s planning can reduce scrap by 50%) Adoption Metrics:
Order coverage: “By end of Month 1, 80% of our active orders are planned through GoSmarter” User engagement: “By Month 2, all five plant supervisors are using GoSmarter daily for inventory checks” Data quality: “100% of mill certificates digitized and searchable within 6 weeks” Business Impact Metrics:
ROI calculation: Cost savings vs. subscription cost Compliance improvements: Reduction in audit preparation time Carbon footprint: Track emissions reduction through optimised cutting plans 2.2 Set Utilisation Goals Define milestones at 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months where these metrics should be evaluated:
Month 1: Pilot group fully onboarded, core features in daily use Month 3: Company-wide rollout complete, 80%+ adoption rate Month 6: Advanced features adopted, measurable ROI achieved 2.3 Determine Scope Boundaries Note if any processes will not move to GoSmarter immediately:
Perhaps the company will continue using its ERP for final invoicing but use GoSmarter for production planning Clarify these interfaces to manage expectations Document integration points and manual handoff processes 2.4 Documentation Document these goals in the implementation plan. This ensures everyone knows what “success” is – important for motivation and post-implementation review.
3. Rollout Strategy & Timeline Objective Plan how GoSmarter will be rolled out to the organisation, in what sequence, and who needs training when. A phased rollout minimises disruption.
Key Activities 3.1 Determine Deployment Phases Recommended Phased Approach:
Phase 1: Pilot Implementation (Weeks 1-4)
Implement Inventory & Mill Certificates in one production site Select a representative pilot group (5-10 users) Focus on core functionality Gather feedback and refine processes Phase 2: Module Expansion (Weeks 5-8)
Expand to Scrap Tracking and Production Planning in pilot site Add more users from the same site Test integration workflows Document best practices learned Phase 3: Company-Wide Rollout (Weeks 9-12)
Roll out to additional sites or departments Deploy to quality/compliance team Full feature set available Monitor adoption and support needs 3.2 Create Implementation Timeline Sample Timeline:
Week Phase Activities Responsible Party 1-2 Pilot Setup Environment configuration, data preparation, pilot user selection Implementation Owner, IT Team 3-4 Pilot Training Training sessions, initial usage, feedback collection Implementation Owner, Champions 5-6 Pilot Refinement Address feedback, optimize workflows, document processes Implementation Owner, Champions 7-8 Phase 2 Rollout Expand features, train additional users, test integrations Implementation Owner, Department Leads 9-10 Company-Wide Training Training sessions for all sites, support resources deployed Champions, HR/Training Team 11-12 Full Deployment Monitor usage, provide support, celebrate wins Implementation Owner, All Teams (Note: Actual timing will depend on company size and readiness. The key is sequencing steps to handle one area at a time and avoid chaos.)
3.3 Plan the Training Program Training Delivery Methods:
Live training sessions: In-person or via video conference Written documentation: For self-paced learning Guided on-screen tours: Interactive walkthroughs in the app Quick reference guides: Printable cheat sheets for each role Training Schedule Example:
Week 2: 2-hour training workshop for pilot users on GoSmarter’s core features Week 4: 1-hour refresher session and Q&A Week 9: Department-specific training sessions (operations, production, quality) Week 10: Advanced features training for power users Training Content:
Process-specific guides tailored to user roles Onboarding guide for new users Video demonstrations of common workflows FAQ document addressing anticipated questions Training Leaders:
Internal champion with support from GoSmarter’s team Department supervisors for role-specific training IT team for technical/integration topics 3.4 Stagger the Rollout Introduce GoSmarter to different groups sequentially:
Week 3: Operations team (handles inventory and ordering) Week 5: Shop floor supervisors (production planning tool) Week 7: Quality/compliance team (certificate management) Week 9: Management/reporting users (analytics and dashboards) This approach prevents overload and lets early adopters mentor others.
3.5 Plan Internal Communications Communication Strategy:
Pre-launch announcement: Email from leadership explaining the change and benefits Weekly updates during rollout: “This week we digitised 300 certs and saved 10 hours of manual work!” Success stories: Highlight early wins and positive user feedback Support information: Clear instructions on how to get help Change management messaging: Address “what’s in it for me” to preempt resistance Key Messages:
Why we’re making this change (current pain points) What benefits users will experience How the transition will be supported Timeline and what to expect when How to access training and support Output A detailed timeline with milestones for each phase, ensuring clear accountability and manageable pacing.
4. Leverage Vendor Support Objective Make the most of any assistance offered by Nightingale HQ (the provider of GoSmarter) to ensure a smooth implementation.
Key Activities 4.1 Identify Areas for Vendor Assistance Common Vendor Support Areas:
Data migration: Bulk conversion of mill cert PDFs through their AI Training: Expert-led webinars for your staff Custom integrations: API setup and configuration Best practices consultation: Implementation strategy review Technical troubleshooting: Resolution of complex issues 4.2 Schedule Sessions with GoSmarter Experts Recommended Consultations:
Week 1: Kickoff meeting and implementation planning review Week 2: Integration consultation (if needed) Week 3: Feature configuration review Week 4: Training webinar for pilot users Week 8: Mid-implementation check-in Week 12: Post-rollout review and optimization 4.3 Clarify Support Channels and SLAs Document Support Details:
Contact methods: Email, chat, phone Support hours: Business hours and time zones Response time SLAs: Expected turnaround for different severity levels Escalation procedures: How to escalate urgent issues Customer success manager: Dedicated contact if available Documentation resources: Knowledge base, user guides, API docs Example Support Structure:
Email support: support@gosmarter.ai Chat support (Coming soon): Available during UK business hours Response guarantee: 24 hours for standard issues, 4 hours for critical Dedicated CSM: Available for enterprise customers 4.4 Ensure Secure Data Sharing Security Considerations:
Review and sign NDA if handling sensitive data before the implementation Confirm data handling compliance (GDPR, industry standards) and security Document what data will be shared with vendor Ensure access is properly provisioned and revoked post-implementation 5. Data Migration & Preparation Objective Get all necessary data into GoSmarter safely and accurately, forming the foundation for using the platform.
Key Activities 5.1 Inventory Data Import Preparation Steps:
Gather master inventory list from current system (ERP or spreadsheets)
Clean the data:
Remove duplicates Ensure consistent material IDs Verify descriptions are accurate Standardise units of measure Validate pricing information Follow GoSmarter’s import process:
Review import template format Map your data fields to GoSmarter fields Perform test import with sample data Validate imported data matches expectations Execute full import Verify post-upload data integrity 5.2 Orders/Projects Data Import Preparation Steps:
Gather master order list from current system (ERP or spreadsheets)
Clean the data:
Remove duplicates Ensure consistent customer IDs Standardise units of measure Validate pricing information Follow GoSmarter’s import process:
Review import template format Map your data fields to GoSmarter fields Perform test import with sample data Validate imported data matches expectations Execute full import Verify post-upload data integrity 5.3 Mill Certificates Archive Ensure GoSmarter supports your certificate formats. GoSmarter builds custom parsers for each supplier to ensure you get the most accurate data extraction. Check our list of supported suppliers and give us samples from any suppliers not listed.
Certificate Migration Strategy:
Decision Point: Determine scope of historical certificate upload
Option A: Upload all historical certificates (comprehensive but time-intensive) Option B: Upload representative batch for training (faster, focused on recent data) Option C: Only process new certificates going forward (minimal migration) Recommended Approach:
Upload last 6-12 months of certificates to populate system This provides useful historical data for traceability Allows staff training with real-world examples Balances comprehensiveness with time investment Process:
Collect certificates from email archives, network drives, or filing cabinets Organise by date, material type, or supplier Use GoSmarter’s AI-powered certificate processing Verify extracted data accuracy through spot-checks Address any extraction errors or ambiguous data 5.4 Scrap/Rework Data Baseline Data Collection:
Gather historical scrap rates (last quarter or year) Document current offcut management practices Calculate current material utilisation percentage Track rework instances and causes Purpose: Establish baseline for measuring improvement after GoSmarter implementation
5.5 Data Mapping & Validation For migrations from another system:
Field mapping exercise: Ensure data maps correctly
Material heat numbers → GoSmarter certificate fields Product codes → GoSmarter inventory IDs Supplier names → Standardised vendor list Units of measure → Consistent measurement system Test and validate:
Small test import first Verify all critical fields populated correctly Check for data truncation or formatting issues Confirm relationships between data entities 5.6 Address Data Security & Backup Security Measures:
Pre-migration backup: Create complete backup of current system data Cloud security verification: Confirm GoSmarter’s security infrastructure Data encryption (in transit and at rest) Access controls and authentication Compliance certifications that are required to process your data, based on your own regulatory environment Access management: Limit who can view/edit sensitive data during migration Audit trail: Document what was migrated, when, and by whom Reassurance: GoSmarter runs on secure cloud infrastructure with enterprise-grade encryption and access controls, ensuring your manufacturing data is protected.
Output GoSmarter environment populated with real data – inventory items, live orders, initial certificates – ready for users to work with. This sets the stage so users log into a system that reflects their business, making training more realistic and impactful.
6. Integration with Existing Systems (if needed) Objective Connect GoSmarter with other tools in the company’s tech stack to ensure a seamless workflow (optional, depending on the company’s needs).
Key Activities 6.1 Identify Integration Points Common Integration Scenarios:
ERP/MRP Systems:
Order flow: ERP → GoSmarter (production planning) Inventory sync: GoSmarter ↔ ERP (material tracking) Completion data: GoSmarter → ERP (production actuals) Quality Management Systems:
Certificate data export to QMS Compliance reporting integration Non-conformance tracking Financial Systems:
Material usage for cost accounting Scrap value calculations Job costing data Other Systems:
CAD/CAM systems (cutting plans) Warehouse management (inventory locations) Customer portals (order status) 6.2 Develop or Configure Integrations Integration Methods:
API Integration:
Review GoSmarter API documentation Develop or configure API calls Set up authentication and security Implement error handling and logging File-Based Integration:
CSV/Excel export/import Scheduled batch transfers File format mapping Automated file pickup/delivery Manual Integration:
Interim process for low-volume data Weekly or daily manual syncs Clear procedures documented Example Implementation:
Schedule IT team to script a daily export of new inventory receipts from ERP to GoSmarter Set up automated import of cutting plans from GoSmarter to CAD system Configure weekly export of scrap data to accounting system 6.3 Test Integrations Testing Protocol:
Unit testing: Test each integration point individually Integration testing: Test end-to-end workflows Data validation: Verify data accuracy and completeness Error handling: Test failure scenarios and recovery Performance testing: Ensure adequate speed and reliability Example Test Scenario:
Create a new order in the ERP Verify it appears in GoSmarter (or can be imported without issue) Generate a cutting plan in GoSmarter Confirm the plan can be fed back to production systems if needed Validate all data fields are correctly transferred Allow time for:
Troubleshooting data mismatches Resolving technical glitches Refining mapping rules User acceptance testing 6.4 Phased Integration Approach Integration Prioritisation:
Phase 1 (Initial Rollout):
Minimal or no integrations Manual data exchange if needed Focus on standalone GoSmarter adoption Prove value before adding complexity Phase 2 (Post-Adoption):
Implement highest-value integrations Start with read-only integrations (safer) Add write-back capabilities once proven Expand to nice-to-have integrations Benefits of Phased Approach:
Show quick results without integration delays Learn system before adding integration complexity Reduce risk of implementation failure Allow time to secure integration resources Key Principle: Since GoSmarter is meant to be zero-disruption and can run standalone, only integrate if it truly adds value. Keep the initial implementation lean to demonstrate results quickly, then expand.
Output If chosen, key systems are talking to each other, reducing double data entry. If integrations are not done in initial rollout, the plan documents how data will be managed manually in the interim.
7. Adoption, Monitoring, and Ongoing Optimisation Objective Ensure that after GoSmarter is rolled out, users actually use it as intended and the company realises the projected benefits. Also set up a feedback loop for continuous improvement.
Key Activities 7.1 User Adoption Tracking Monitoring Methods:
Activity metrics: Certificates processed, plans generated, inventory transactions Feature utilisation: Which features are used most/least Identify Adoption Gaps:
Departments or users with low adoption rates Reach out to understand barriers or issues Provide additional training or support Address any technical or workflow obstacles 7.2 Feature Phasing Strategy Progressive Feature Introduction:
Weeks 1-4 (Core Features):
Digital certificate management Basic inventory tracking Simple production planning User gets comfortable with fundamentals Weeks 5-8 (Intermediate Features):
Advanced search and filtering Scrap tracking and reporting Multi-site inventory management Custom reports Weeks 9+ (Advanced Features):
Cutting plan optimiser (if applicable) Process automation features Integration capabilities Rationale: Gradual expansion prevents overwhelm and builds user confidence. Master basics before introducing advanced functionality.
7.3 Gather Feedback Feedback Collection Methods:
Formal Check-ins:
End of Month 1: Structured feedback session End of Month 3: Mid-implementation review End of Month 6: Comprehensive evaluation Continuous Feedback:
In-app feedback mechanism Regular champion meetings Help desk ticket analysis User surveys (quarterly) Key Questions to Ask:
What features do you use most? Why? What features are you not using? Why? What difficulties have you encountered? What additional training would help? What would make the system more useful? What processes have improved? How much? Feedback Response:
Document all feedback systematically Prioritise issues by impact and frequency Create action plans for significant concerns Communicate back to users what’s being addressed Request GoSmarter product improvements if needed Example Action: “Someone finds the interface for scrap logging confusing – note this, provide additional guidance, ask GoSmarter for improvements. Continuous feedback helps tailor the tool to shop floor reality and increases user buy-in (they feel heard).”
7.4 Celebrate Quick Wins Recognition Strategy:
Communicate Milestones:
“In the first month, we processed 100% of mill certs through GoSmarter, saving an estimated 20 hours of data entry. Great job!” “Production planning time reduced from 2 hours to 15 minutes!” “Zero compliance issues in recent audit thanks to complete certificate traceability” Recognition Activities:
Email announcements of achievements Team meetings highlighting success stories Recognition for champion users who helped others Share before/after metrics showing improvement Build Success Stories:
Document specific examples of impact Capture user testimonials Create case studies for internal use Use success stories to motivate broader adoption Positive Reinforcement: This encourages ongoing use and builds internal momentum for the change initiative.
7.5 Support & Maintenance Plan Ongoing Support Structure:
Internal Support:
Champions: Designated power users in each department Help desk: Internal contact for first-line support Documentation: Keep user guides updated as processes evolve Training: Onboarding for new employees Vendor Support:
Technical issues: Direct to GoSmarter support Feature requests: Channel through customer success manager Updates: Monitor GoSmarter release notes for new features Best practices: Participate in user community or webinars Maintenance Activities:
Data quality: Regular audits of data accuracy User management: Add/remove users as staff changes Configuration updates: Adjust settings as business needs evolve Performance monitoring: Track system performance and responsiveness Key Advantage: GoSmarter is cloud-based and updates automatically (no heavy maintenance needed from IT). Internal admins should stay aware of new features by:
Subscribing to GoSmarter’s change log or newsletter Checking the guides/documentation site for “What’s New” Attending vendor webinars on new capabilities Participating in user groups or forums 7.6 Post-Implementation Review Timing: 3-6 months after full rollout
Review Components:
1. Metrics Assessment:
Compare actual results vs. targets set in Phase 2 Document all quantitative improvements: Scrap reduction percentage Time savings (hours per week) Production planning speed improvement Certificate processing throughput increase Compliance documentation time reduction 2. ROI Analysis:
Calculate total cost (subscription + implementation time) Calculate total benefits (time savings × hourly rate, material savings, efficiency gains) Determine payback period and ongoing ROI 3. User Satisfaction:
Survey user satisfaction scores Assess ease of use ratings Evaluate training effectiveness Measure support satisfaction 4. Process Improvements:
Document workflow changes Identify best practices developed Note process standardisation achieved Recognise efficiency gains 5. Lessons Learned:
What went well? What could have been done better? What would we do differently next time? What unexpected benefits were realised? What challenges were encountered and how were they resolved? 6. Next Steps:
For targets met: Plan to leverage success (expand features, add more users) For targets not met: Identify why and adjust processes: Additional training needed? Process refinement required? Integration gaps to address? Change management interventions needed? Output: Comprehensive post-implementation report documenting the journey, results, and future recommendations.
Key Message: Implementation isn’t a one-time event but an ongoing journey – much like continuous improvement in manufacturing. Regular review and adjustment ensure you maximise the value of your GoSmarter investment.
8. Appendix 8.21Risk Log A proactive risk assessment and mitigation plan:
Risk Impact Likelihood Mitigation Strategy User Resistance: Operators revert to old spreadsheet habits High Medium • Ensure ease of use with guides and cheat sheets
• Get supervisor support for new process
• Demonstrate time-saving benefits early
• Recognise early adopters Data Import Errors: Data corruption or loss during migration High Low • Perform test imports first
• Maintain backups of all data
• Validate data post-import
• Have rollback plan Integration Failures: Systems don’t communicate properly Medium Medium • Thorough testing before go-live
• Phased integration approach
• Have manual backup procedures
• Engage vendor support early Insufficient Training: Users don’t understand how to use features High Medium • Comprehensive training program
• Multiple training formats (live, video, written)
• Champions available for support
• Ongoing training for new features Project Timeline Delays: Implementation takes longer than planned Medium Medium • Build buffer into timeline
• Clear milestone tracking
• Weekly progress reviews
• Escalation procedures for blockers Scope Creep: Project expands beyond original plan Medium High • Clear project charter with defined scope
• Change request process
• Regular scope reviews
• Executive sponsor approval for changes Technical Issues: System performance or availability problems Medium Low • Test system before full rollout
• Understand SLA with vendor
• Have support escalation path
• Monitor system performance Key Person Dependency: Implementation relies too heavily on one person Medium Medium • Document all processes and decisions
• Cross-train team members
• Distribute knowledge across champions
• Have backup leads identified 8.2 Change Management Best Practices Do’s:
✓ Involve end-users early in the process ✓ Communicate benefits clearly and frequently ✓ Provide comprehensive training in multiple formats ✓ Celebrate early wins and successes ✓ Listen to feedback and act on it ✓ Support users through the transition with available help ✓ Start with pilot groups to prove value ✓ Have executive sponsorship and visible support ✓ Be patient – adoption takes time Don’ts:
✗ Drop the new tool on users without explanation ✗ Ignore user concerns or resistance ✗ Provide inadequate training or support ✗ Rush the rollout without proper preparation ✗ Assume everyone will embrace change immediately ✗ Forget to communicate progress and wins ✗ Leave users to figure it out on their own ✗ Implement everything at once without phasing ✗ Declare victory at go-live – adoption is ongoing Change Management Principles for Manufacturing:
Respect existing processes: Understand why things are done the current way before changing them Show don’t tell: Demonstrate concrete time/cost savings rather than just promising them Shop floor input: Get input from people who actually do the work daily Make it easy: The new way should be easier than the old way, not harder Support is critical: Users need to know help is available when they need it Cultural sensitivity: Acknowledge that change is hard, especially for long-tenured staff Management alignment: Supervisors and managers must model and reinforce the new behaviors 8.3 Sample Communication Templates Pre-Launch Announcement Email Subject: Introducing GoSmarter – A New Tool to Make Our Work Easier
Dear Team,
I’m excited to announce that we will be implementing GoSmarter, a new cloud-based platform designed to streamline our manufacturing operations.
Why are we doing this? Currently, we spend too much time on manual paperwork, searching for certificates, and managing data across multiple spreadsheets. GoSmarter will help us:
Automate certificate processing and management Centralise our inventory data Optimise production planning to reduce scrap Save time on administrative tasks Improve our compliance and traceability What does this mean for you? Over the next [X] weeks, we’ll be rolling out GoSmarter in phases. [Department/Team] will be our pilot group, starting [date]. You’ll receive training and support to help you get comfortable with the new system.
Timeline:
[Date]: Pilot group begins [Date]: Company-wide training starts [Date]: Full rollout complete Training and Support: We’re committed to making this transition smooth. You’ll have access to:
Live training sessions Video tutorials Quick reference guides Champion users in your department for help Questions? Contact [Implementation Owner] at [email/phone]
We’re confident that GoSmarter will make your work easier and help us operate more efficiently. Thank you for your support of this important initiative.
[Executive Sponsor Name] [Title]
Weekly Progress Update Template Subject: GoSmarter Implementation Update – Week [X]
This Week’s Highlights:
[Number] mill certificates processed through GoSmarter [Number] cutting plans generated [X hours] of manual work saved [Number] new users trained Key Accomplishments:
[Specific achievement 1] [Specific achievement 2] [Specific achievement 3] User Feedback: “[Positive quote from user]” – [Name, Role]
Next Week:
[Planned activities for next week] [Training sessions scheduled] [Milestones to achieve] Need Help? Contact your department champion or [support email]
Thank you for your continued support!
[Implementation Owner]
Success Story Template Subject: Success Story: How [Department] Saved [X] Hours with GoSmarter
The Challenge: [Describe the problem they were facing]
The Solution: [Describe how they used GoSmarter to address it]
The Results:
Time saved: [X hours per week] Process improvement: [Specific metric] User feedback: “[Quote]” What We Learned: [Key takeaways or best practices]
Congratulations to [Team/Individual] for this great success!
Conclusion By following this implementation plan, a metals manufacturer can systematically adopt GoSmarter, mitigate common challenges (like employee resistance or data integration issues), and track the impact on their business. The structured approach aligns with SaaS best practices and is tailored to the manufacturing context for minimal disruption and maximum uptake.
Key Success Factors:
Strong executive sponsorship and visible support Clear goals and measurable success metrics Comprehensive training and change management Phased rollout with pilot validation Continuous feedback and improvement Celebration of wins to build momentum Patience and persistence through adoption curve Remember: Implementation is not just a technical project – it’s a change management initiative. Success requires attention to people, processes, and technology in equal measure.
Ready to get started? Use this plan as your roadmap, adapt it to your specific context, and embark on your GoSmarter journey with confidence. The result will be a more efficient, data-driven, and competitive manufacturing operation.
For questions or support with your GoSmarter implementation, contact your Customer Success Manager or visit the GoSmarter support portal.
Document Version: 1.0
Last Updated: January 2026
Owner: GoSmarter Customer Success Team


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### Tracking and Reducing Scrap with GoSmarter

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/tracking-reducing-scrap/
Description: Guide for production managers on using GoSmarter's scrap management features to track, analyse, and minimise waste in metals manufacturing.

This guide is designed for production managers, shop supervisors, and continuous improvement teams focusing on minimising scrap and waste in the manufacturing process. Learn how to use GoSmarter’s Scrap Calculator, Scrap Logger, and Offcut Manager to reduce costs, improve sustainability, and drive data-driven process improvements.
Overview Why Scrap Reduction Matters Every bit of scrap represents:
Lost money - Wasted material cost plus labor spent processing it Environmental impact - Unnecessary production, energy use, and CO2 emissions Inefficiency - Opportunities for process improvement Competitive disadvantage - Higher costs vs. competitors with lower waste Real Results: In a trial, Midland Steel reduced scrap rates by 50% using GoSmarter’s planning optimisation tools. This directly improved profitability and sustainability.
How GoSmarter Helps GoSmarter provides comprehensive scrap management tools:
Scrap Logger - Record and categorise all waste Scrap Calculator - Assess the financial impact of improving scrap rates Inventory Offcut Manager - Reusable remnants are first-class citizens to prevent waste Production Planning Integration - Optimise cuts to minimise scrap automatically This guide shows you how to log scrap, analyse it, and use that data to take action that reduces waste.
Cost Savings & Sustainability
Reducing scrap directly improves your bottom line and environmental footprint. GoSmarter makes scrap reduction a measurable, data-driven process rather than guesswork. Logging Scrap and Offcuts Recording Scrap After Production At the end of each production run or cutting session, log the scrap produced:
Navigate to Production → Scrap Click + Add entry Fill in the scrap entry form: Date/Time - When scrap was produced/measured bin/Skip reference - Where the scrap is Opening weight - The bin weight before the latest batch of scrap Closing weight - The bin weight including the latest batch of scrap Click Save Real-Time Logging
Update scrap data immediately after each job (via tablet on shop floor if possible). This keeps data current and ensures nothing is forgotten. Regular logging builds a comprehensive dataset for analysis. Managing offcuts in inventory Not all remnants are waste - many can be reused. Tracking offcuts in inventory helps you track reusable pieces:
After a cutting operation, identify usable offcuts (pieces long/large enough for future use) Navigate to Production planning → Inventory Identify the relevant inventory item the offcut is from If the offcut is the remainder of the inventory, edit the item and chane the type to “Offcut” and update the new dimensions If only part of the inventory item was used to make an offcut, Split the original item and say what quantity or weight was originally picked to make the cut. This discounts the original inventory item and creates a new offcut item with the remaining quantity or weight. You can then edit the properties to reflect the new dimensions of the offcut. The offcut is now available in your inventory for future orders requiring shorter lengths.
Example: Managing Rebar Offcuts You cut 10 x 12m rebar bars into 10m pieces for an order:
Ordered: 10 pieces @ 10m Source: 10 bars @ 12m Result: 10 offcuts @ 2m each Instead of scrapping the 2m pieces:
Add to Offcut Manager: 10 pieces, 2m long, grade B500C, 12mm diameter Link to original heat’s certificate Store in designated offcut area Later, when an order needs 1.5m pieces, these offcuts can be used Result: What would have been 20m of scrap becomes useful inventory, reducing both waste and future material costs.
Reuse = Waste Reduction
Systematically tracking and reusing offcuts can reduce scrap by 10-20% in typical operations. GoSmarter ensures these remnants don’t get lost or forgotten. 

---
### Troubleshooting Guide

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/troubleshooting/
Description: Solutions to common problems and error messages in GoSmarter

Having problems? This guide helps you solve common issues. Try the solutions in the order listed.
Login Issues Can’t Log In - “Invalid Username or Password” Try these steps:
Check your email address Make sure you typed it correctly No extra spaces before or after Check CAPS LOCK is off Check your password Passwords are case-sensitive Make sure CAPS LOCK is off Try retyping it carefully Reset your password Click “Forgot Password” link Follow the email instructions Create a new password Contact your administrator They can verify your account is active They can reset your password if needed Page Says “Not Authorized” After Login This means:
Your account exists but doesn’t have permission You may not be assigned to a company What to do:
Contact your system administrator They need to assign you to your company They’ll set up your permissions Navigation Problems Can’t See the Sidebar Menu Try these:
Look for the menu icon Top left corner Sidebar icon (a square with a rectangle in it) Click it to show the menu Browser window too small Make your browser window wider Zoom out if too zoomed in (Ctrl+Minus or Cmd+Minus) Clicked Something and Nothing Happened Possible causes:
Page still loading
Wait a few seconds Look for a loading spinner Need to save first
Click Save button if editing something Then try navigating again Internet connection issue
Check your internet connection Refresh the page (F5) Data Display Issues Can’t See Any Data / Empty Lists Common causes and fixes Wrong company selected Look at company selector in sidebar Click it and select the correct company Data will reload automatically Wrong Company
Having the wrong company selected is the #1 cause of “missing data”! Filters are active Look for active filter indicators Click “Clear Filters” or “Reset” All data should appear Search box has text Look at the search box at the top Clear any text in it Press Enter or click X No data exists yet If you’re new to the system, lists start empty You need to add data first Data Looks Wrong or Outdated Try these:
Refresh the page
Press F5 Or click browser refresh button Or navigate away and back Check you’re on right company
Verify company selector Switch if needed Clear your browser cache
Ctrl+Shift+Delete (Windows) Cmd+Shift+Delete (Mac) Select “Cached images and files” Click Clear Saving and Editing Problems “Save” Button Doesn’t Work Check these:
Required fields missing
Look for red outlines on fields Look for error messages in red text Fill in all required fields (often marked with *) Invalid data entered
Numbers in wrong format Dates in wrong format Check error messages for guidance Internet connection lost
Check your connection Try saving again Changes Disappeared After Saving This usually means:
The save didn’t actually work Look for error messages Check required fields were filled Try again more carefully Prevention:
Wait for “Saved successfully” message before leaving page Don’t click browser back button while saving Can’t Edit or Delete Something Possible reasons:
Item is being used elsewhere
Example: Can’t delete inventory that’s in an optimization Example: Can’t delete order that’s linked to a cutting plan You may need to remove links first Don’t have permission
Contact your administrator Your account may need different permissions Item is locked
Some completed items can’t be edited Create a new one instead Upload Problems Upload Button Does Nothing Try these:
Check file type
Make sure it’s an accepted format PDF for certificates Excel (.xlsx) for data uploads Images (JPG, PNG) for photos File too large
Maximum is usually 10MB Compress or resize the file Try again Browser popup blocker
Allow popups from GoSmarter Check browser settings Upload Failed with Error Common errors “Invalid file format” Wrong file type Use the correct format (PDF, Excel, etc.) “Missing required columns” For data uploads (inventory, orders) Download the template again Don’t change column names Fill it correctly “Duplicate entries” Some items already exist Check for duplicates in your file Or in the existing data Template Download Not Working Popup blocked
Allow popups for this site Try downloading again Download to wrong location
Check your Downloads folder Check browser download settings Optimization Problems Optimization Won’t Run Check these:
No inventory selected
You must select inventory bars Click inventory selector Choose material and diameter No orders selected
You must select at least one order Check order checkboxes Make sure they match the inventory material Inventory and orders don’t match
Material types must match Diameters must match Select matching items Optimization Failed or Gave No Results Common causes “Not enough inventory” Orders need more material than you have Add more inventory Or reduce order quantities “No compatible matches” Order lengths too long for inventory bars Order material/diameter doesn’t match inventory Check specifications match “Calculation timeout” Very complex optimization Try selecting fewer orders Run multiple smaller optimizations Cutting Plan Results Don’t Make Sense Review these:
Check the cutting patterns carefully
Read each pattern Verify the math Check units (should be mm) High waste percentage
May be unavoidable for these lengths Try the scrap calculator to verify Consider different inventory bars Download and review offline
Sometimes easier to review in Excel Print and check manually Search and Filter Problems Search Not Finding Items Try these:
Check spelling
Type carefully Try partial matches (e.g., “Grade” instead of “Grade 250”) Clear other filters
Active filters might hide the item Clear all filters first Then search again Different company
Verify correct company selected Item might be in different company’s data Too Many Results Narrow it down Use filters together with search Be more specific in search Sort by relevant column Performance Problems Page Loading Slowly Try these:
Check internet speed
Run a speed test Contact IT if very slow Close other browser tabs
Each tab uses memory Close unnecessary ones Clear browser cache
See instructions under “Data Looks Wrong” above Try different browser
Chrome, Edge, or Firefox work best Update to latest version System Feels Sluggish Quick fixes:
Logout and login again
Clears temporary data Refreshes connection Restart your browser
Close completely Open again Restart your computer
If problem persists Clears all caches Certificate Problems Can’t View Certificate PDF Try these:
Download it first
Don’t try to view in browser Download and open with PDF reader Install PDF reader
Adobe Reader (free) Browser PDF viewer Windows/Mac built-in viewers File corrupted
Ask for original certificate Upload again Certificate Won’t Link to Inventory Check these:
Material types match
Certificate grade matches inventory grade Can’t link Grade 250 cert to Grade 500 inventory Already linked elsewhere
One certificate can link to multiple items But check if it’s already linked correctly Browser Compatibility GoSmarter Works Best With ✅ Google Chrome (recommended) ✅ Microsoft Edge (recommended) ✅ Mozilla Firefox ✅ Safari (Mac/iOS) ⚠️ Internet Explorer - IE is no longer supported in general, and will not function correctly Update your browser:
Use the latest version for best experience Auto-updates usually handle this When All Else Fails If you’ve tried everything and still have problems:
Step 1: Document the Issue Write down:
What you were trying to do What you clicked Exact error message (take screenshot) What company you’re working with What time it happened Step 2: Try These General Fixes Logout completely
Click your name → Sign Out Close browser completely Open browser again Login again Try incognito/private window
Ctrl+Shift+N (Chrome/Edge) Cmd+Shift+N (Safari) Tests without cache/cookies Try different browser
If Chrome doesn’t work, try Edge Helps identify if it’s browser-specific Try different computer
If available Helps identify if it’s your device Step 3: Contact Support Reach out to:
Your system administrator IT support desk Provide all documentation from Step 1 They’ll need to know:
Your username/email Which company you’re working with What you were doing when the problem occurred Error messages (screenshots help!) Steps you’ve already tried Preventing Problems Good habits to avoid issues:
✅ Always verify correct company is selected ✅ Save work regularly ✅ Clear filters when done ✅ Keep browser updated ✅ Don’t use browser Back button while editing ✅ Wait for “Save successful” messages ✅ Double-check data before clicking Delete ✅ Keep paper backups of important information ✅ Download important results (cutting plans, etc.) ✅ Log out when leaving for the day Quick Diagnostic Checklist Use this to troubleshoot any problem:
Is the correct company selected? Are any filters or searches active? Is my internet connection working? Have I tried refreshing the page? Have I tried logging out and back in? Is my browser up to date? Are there any error messages on screen? Have I checked for required fields? Did I wait for save confirmation? Have I tried a different browser? Error Messages Explained Error Message What It Means How to Fix “Unauthorized” No permission to access Contact administrator “Not Found” Item doesn’t exist or was deleted Check company selection “Invalid Input” Data format wrong Check field requirements “Connection Failed” Internet problem Check connection, try again “Session Expired” Been idle too long Log in again “Duplicate Entry” Item already exists Check existing data Still Stuck?
Don’t hesitate to ask your administrator for help. That’s what they’re there for! 

---
### FAQ

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/content/faq/
Description: Frequently asked security and compliance questions about GoSmarter - data residency, AI, encryption, and access control.

Frequently asked questions Data residency Where is my data stored? Core persistent customer data is hosted in Azure UK regions. See Data Residency.
Can I choose a different region? GoSmarter follows a standard hosted model. Region options can be discussed as part of enterprise scoping.
Does any data leave the UK? Some supporting processing may use EU regions where required by platform capability. We do not transfer customer data outside UK/EU operating boundaries for service delivery.
Is my data subject to US law / the CLOUD Act? GoSmarter is delivered on Microsoft Azure under Microsoft’s contractual and compliance framework. Data residency and transfer controls are documented in Data Residency.
AI and document processing Does GoSmarter use AI? Yes. AI is used for defined document-processing tasks. Non-AI algorithmic processing is also used where appropriate. See AI Security.
Is my data used to train AI models? No. Microsoft contractually commits that your data is not used to train, retrain, or improve their AI models. See Microsoft’s data privacy commitments.
What AI services does GoSmarter use? GoSmarter uses Microsoft Azure AI services appropriate to the workload. Service-level and regional details can be shared under NDA during a security review.
Does the optimisation solver use AI? No. The cutting optimisation service is a pure algorithmic solver using heuristic and genetic algorithm techniques. It makes no external AI or API calls.
Authentication and access How do users sign in? Via GoSmarter’s Microsoft Entra External ID. Supported sign-in options include organisational and consumer identity methods.
Does GoSmarter support MFA? Yes. MFA is supported and can be enforced in line with our access control policy.
Can a user in Company A see Company B’s data? No. Every API request validates that the authenticated user’s Entra ID group claims include the target company. Requests for companies the user doesn’t belong to are rejected.
Encryption Is data encrypted at rest? Yes. AES-256 encryption on all storage (Azure SQL with TDE, Blob Storage with SSE, Key Vault).
Is data encrypted in transit? Yes. TLS 1.2 minimum enforced on all services. HTTP connections are rejected.
Can I bring my own encryption keys? Not currently. All encryption uses platform-managed keys. Customer-managed keys (BYOK/CMK) are not available.
Infrastructure Do you use shared or dedicated infrastructure? GoSmarter runs on managed Azure platform services with isolation controls between workloads.
Is there a public status page? Service status and incident communications are handled through customer support and account channels.
What is your uptime SLA? Availability commitments are provided contractually based on your service agreement.
Compliance Do you have SOC 2 Type II? GoSmarter runs on Azure, which maintains SOC 2 Type II attestation for relevant platform services. Azure reports are available via the Microsoft Service Trust Portal.
Do you have ISO 27001? Azure maintains ISO 27001 certification for relevant platform services. See Certifications.
Do you conduct penetration testing? Security testing is performed as part of our security programme. High-level outcomes and evidence can be shared under NDA where appropriate.
Can I get a copy of your DPA? Yes. DPA information is available on request.
Can we get detailed architecture and control evidence? Yes. Detailed technical documentation and assurance artefacts are available under mutual NDA.
Still have questions? Email us, contact us online, or book a compliance call to request the NDA pack.


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### Generating Optimised Production Plans (Cutting & Scheduling)

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/optimised-production-plans/
Description: Production planners' guide to GoSmarter's Long Product Planning feature: create efficient first-draft cutting plans that minimise waste and meet order requirements.

This guide is designed for production planners, scheduling managers, and operations leads who organize the daily or weekly manufacturing schedule - particularly those planning cutting of long products (rebar, beams, pipes, etc.). Learn how to use GoSmarter’s Long Product Production Planning feature to create first-draft cutting plans that minimise waste and meet order requirements efficiently.
Overview The Challenge Planning cutting sequences to fulfill orders with minimal scrap is complex:
Manual planning takes hours - Calculating optimal combinations of cuts from available stock Suboptimal patterns waste material - Without optimisation, scrap rates can be unnecessarily high Changing requirements complicate planning - Late orders, stock changes, or rush jobs disrupt carefully planned schedules Difficult to balance competing goals - Minimise scrap, meet deadlines, use available stock efficiently How GoSmarter Automates This GoSmarter’s AI-powered Cutting Plans:
Computes optimal plans in minutes - What might take hours manually is done automatically Minimises scrap - Intelligent algorithms find the most efficient cutting patterns Handles complexity - Manages multiple orders, different stock lengths, and various constraints simultaneously Provides flexibility - Planners can review, adjust, and re-optimise as needed Proven Results
In trials, users achieved 50% scrap reduction when using GoSmarter’s automated planning vs. manual planning. This demonstrates the optimisation is not just faster, but significantly more effective. Scope This tool is specifically designed for long products - materials where length is a primary dimension:
Rebar (reinforcing steel bars) Structural beams (I-beams, H-beams, etc.) Pipes and tubes Bar stock Profiles and sections The tool creates a suggested cutting schedule which planners can review and adjust before execution.
Preparing Input Data Before generating a production plan, ensure the required data is in GoSmarter:
1. Open Orders The planner needs to know what you need to produce:
Navigate to Orders (see Orders Management Guide) Verify all orders for the planning period are entered: Required lengths and quantities Material specifications (grade, diameter, etc.) Due dates Any special requirements Mark orders as “Ready for Planning” or similar status Tip: If you have many orders to enter, use the bulk upload feature (CSV import) to save time.
2. Available Stock Inventory The planner needs to know what raw materials are available:
Navigate to Inventory (see Inventory Management Guide) Ensure current stock levels are accurate: Stock lengths available (e.g., how many 12m bars you have) Material types and grades Quantities on hand Update any recent deliveries or usage Data Quality Matters
The plan’s quality directly depends on accurate input data. If inventory levels or order details are wrong, the plan will be suboptimal. Make it a practice to verify data accuracy before running the planner. Running the Plan Generation Once input data is ready:
Step-by-Step: Generate a Production Plan Navigate to Production Planning → Cut long products Click + New Plan or Generate Plan Configure plan parameters: Date range - Which orders to include (e.g., “Orders due this week”) Stock selection - Which inventory to consider (e.g., “All available rebar stock”) Optimisation goal - Minimise scrap (default), minimise cuts, or balanced Constraints - Any special rules or priorities Click Generate Plan Wait for processing (typically 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on complexity) Processing Time
Large or complex plans (many orders, many stock options) may take a couple of minutes to compute. This is still dramatically faster than manual planning, which could take hours for the same work. The system is doing thousands of calculations to find the optimal solution. What Happens During Generation GoSmarter’s AI:
Analyses all orders - Understands required lengths, quantities, materials Evaluates stock options - Considers all available stock items Calculates combinations - Determines how to cut each stock piece to fulfill orders Optimises for minimal waste - Finds patterns that minimise leftover scrap Handles constraints - Respects priorities, deadlines, material requirements Produces cutting instructions - Generates a detailed plan of which cuts to make The result is a comprehensive cutting schedule optimised for efficiency.
Viewing Details Click on any line in the plan to see:
Visual representation of the cut pattern Specific order details for each piece Alternative patterns considered (if available) Certificate information for the stock (if linked) –>
Reviewing and Editing the Plan The Planner as a Suggestion Tool Important: GoSmarter provides an optimised suggestion. Experienced planners should review and can adjust based on:
Shop floor realities (machine availability, operator skills) Material considerations (prefer using older stock first, etc.) Schedule constraints (certain orders need to go first) Quality requirements (specific heats for certain customers) The AI handles the complex maths; you add the practical expertise.
Handling Deviations What if something goes wrong?
Issue: A stock bar is found to be defective when operators start cutting.
Action:
Mark that stock item as “Unable to use” In GoSmarter, click Replan for affected orders System suggests alternative stock to use Print revised instructions for those cuts Issue: An urgent order comes in after the plan is finalized.
Action:
Add the new order to GoSmarter Either: Run a separate plan just for this order (quick, simple) Re-run the full plan to re-optimize with the new order included (better overall efficiency) Adjust shop floor schedule to accommodate Flexibility
Manufacturing is dynamic. The planner is fast enough that you can re-run it when conditions change, rather than being locked into a plan that no longer fits reality. Inventory Updates After cuts are completed:
GoSmarter can automatically: Reduce used stock from inventory Mark orders as fulfilled or partially fulfilled Add offcuts to offcut inventory (if configured) Verify updates are correct Any manual adjustments can be made This keeps inventory data current for the next planning cycle.
–>
Best Practices for Production Planning 1. Run the Planner Consistently Recommendation: Run the planner at the same time each day (or week) with the latest data.
Benefits:
Establishes a routine Ensures plans are based on current orders and stock Allows production team to expect and prepare for new plans Example Schedule:
Every morning at 8 AM: Review new orders, update inventory 8:30 AM: Run planner for the day’s production 9 AM: Distribute plan to shop floor, production starts at 9:30 AM 2. Maintain Accurate Stock Data The plan is only as good as the inventory data:
Update stock levels immediately when new deliveries arrive Record usage after each production run Regular physical stocktakes to verify data accuracy Investigate and correct discrepancies quickly See: Inventory Management Guide for best practices.
3. Use Actual Scrap Data to Improve After executing plans:
Compare planned scrap vs. actual scrap If actual is consistently higher than planned, investigate: Are there cutting inefficiencies (blade waste, operator practices)? Is stock quality causing more waste than expected? Are machines calibrated correctly? Use insights to: Improve shop floor processes Provide better input parameters to planner Adjust stock purchasing See: Scrap Reduction Guide for detailed scrap analysis.
4. Handle Late/Rush Orders Strategically Option A - Separate Quick Plan:
For a single urgent order, run a quick plan just for that order Use available stock, accept slightly higher scrap if necessary for speed Execute immediately Option B - Re-Optimise Full Plan:
Add the urgent order to the full order list Re-run the complete plan to re-optimise everything including the rush job Better overall efficiency, but takes a bit more time Choose based on urgency vs. efficiency trade-off.
5. Communicate Changes Clearly If a plan changes after distribution:
Clearly mark changes - Highlight what’s different (new plan version number, change notes) Notify affected operators - Don’t assume they’ll notice the update Provide rationale - Brief explanation helps acceptance (“New order added for VIP customer”) 6. Review Plan Quality Periodically Monthly or quarterly, review planning performance:
Average scrap rate on plans vs. actual Percentage of plans executed as-is vs. modified Time saved vs. manual planning (if measurable) Material cost savings from optimized planning Use this data to:
Justify continued use of the tool to management Identify opportunities for further improvement Recognize and reward teams for effective planning and execution FAQ / Troubleshooting Common Questions Q: What if the plan doesn’t include all my orders?
A: Check:
Are all orders marked as “Ready for Planning”? Some might be in draft status. Is the date range correct? Orders outside the selected range won’t be included. Is there sufficient stock? If you don’t have stock that matches order material specs, those orders can’t be planned. Are filters applied? Ensure you haven’t inadvertently filtered out certain orders. If an order still isn’t included, review its details - there may be a data issue preventing it from being planned.
Q: The suggested scrap is still high, what can I do?
A:
Review stock lengths - The available stock may not match well with order requirements. Consider ordering different standard lengths. Combine with offcuts - Ensure the planner has access to available offcut inventory; using offcuts can reduce scrap. Check for small orders - Very small or odd-sized orders may be inherently wasteful. See if they can be combined with future orders or if customer can accept standard sizes. Re-optimise with different constraints - Try allowing the planner to use different stock, or adjusting priorities. If scrap remains high, use the Scrap Calculator (see Scrap Guide) to analyze and understand why.
Q: Does the planner account for machine capacities or multiple machines?
A:
Current version primarily optimises cutting patterns, not machine scheduling If you have multiple cutting machines, you may need to: Manually split the plan across machines based on capacity Run separate plans for each machine’s workload For complex multi-machine scheduling, contact GoSmarter support about advanced features or integrations Q: Can I save and reuse plans?
A: Yes:
Approved plans are saved in the system You can view past plans under Plans → History Plans can be duplicated/reused if you have similar repeating orders This is useful for regular production runs (e.g., weekly standing orders) Q: What if I need to plan for different products (not just one material type)?
A:
The planner can handle multiple material types in a single run It will keep materials separate (won’t suggest cutting rebar from beam stock, for example) For very diverse product mixes, you might run separate plans per product category for clarity Q: How do I give feedback to improve the planner?
A:
GoSmarter continuously improves the AI based on real-world usage If you notice patterns that aren’t optimal, or have suggestions: Document specific examples (save the plan, note the issue) Contact GoSmarter support with your feedback Your input helps improve the system for everyone Q: Can I override the AI completely and plan manually in the system?
A: Yes:
You can enter a plan manually without using the optimiser This might be useful for very special cases or small jobs However, you’ll miss the optimisation benefits Most users find the best approach is: let AI suggest, then manually adjust as needed Advanced Tips & Tricks Power User Techniques 1. Planning Strategies for Different Scenarios:
High-Mix, Low-Volume:
Many different orders, small quantities each Strategy: Group orders by material grade/size, run separate plans per group Reduces plan complexity while still optimising each group Low-Mix, High-Volume:
Few order types, large quantities Strategy: Run full optimisation across all orders; savings from efficiency multiply with volume Rush Jobs Mixed with Regular:
Some urgent, some standard schedule Strategy: Plan urgent separately for speed, then plan regular jobs optimally 2. Using Historical Plans:
Review past successful plans for similar order mixes If you have recurring orders, save high-performing plans as templates This can speed up planning for repeat business 3. Stock Management Insights:
After several planning cycles, analyse which stock lengths are most versatile Consider standardising on 2-3 stock lengths that handle 80% of your orders efficiently This simplifies inventory and improves optimisation potential 4. Collaborative Planning:
Have both planning team and shop floor supervisors review plans together periodically Shop floor can provide feedback on practicality; planners can explain optimisation rationale This builds mutual understanding and improves both planning and execution Integration with Other GoSmarter Features Complete Workflow Example End-to-End Use of GoSmarter for Production:
Orders received → Entered in Orders module Material arrives → Added to Inventory with linked Mill Certificates Planning time → Run Cutting Plans with orders and inventory Optimised plan generated → Review and approve Execute cutting → Shop floor follows plan Log actual scrap → Record real waste in Scrap Logger Update inventory → Used stock depleted, offcuts added Analyse performance → Review scrap reports, compare planned vs. actual Continuous improvement → Use insights to improve future planning and processes Linked Guides:
Metals Manager - Manage stock and offcuts Mill Certificates - Link certificates to materials for compliance Scrap Management - Log and analyse scrap Customising GoSmarter - Advanced features and configurations This integrated approach maximises the value of GoSmarter across your operation.
Plan Smarter, Not Harder
GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans does the complex optimisation math in minutes, freeing you to focus on strategy, quality, and continuous improvement. Start planning smarter today and watch your scrap rates - and costs - drop. 

---
### Tags and Tag Rules

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/tags-and-tag-rules/
Description: Understand and create Tags and Tag Rules, and see how they get automatically applied to your inventory.

This guide explains how to create and manage tags, build tag rules, and apply those rules to inventory so tags stay up to date without manual checking on every item.
What Tags and Tag Rules Do Tags let you group inventory items by conditions that matter to your team. For example, if you need to view all certified items together, you can give each of those items a Certified tag.
Tag Rules automate that process. Rather than applying tags manually to individual items, you define a rule once and GoSmarter applies the matching tag whenever an item meets the rule’s conditions. This reduces effort and the risk of missing items.
GoSmarter provides a range of ready-made tags, but you can create your own for anything those don’t cover.
The Tag Management page shows all your existing tags and is where you create new ones. The tabs above the data table let you switch between tags intended for Inventory, Mill Certificates, and Orders, so you can manage tags for each record type in one place. To add a new tag, select Add Tag.
Tag Management page with tabs for Inventory, Mill Certificates, and Orders, showing existing tags and the Add Tag button Create a New Tag The Add Tag panel lets you define your new tag. Colours make it easier to spot particular tags in tables and filters — choose from one of the default colours or set a custom one to match your team’s conventions.
Add Tag panel with fields for tag details and colour selection Search, Edit, and Delete Tags Once saved, your tag appears in the Tag Management data table. Use the tag search field at the top of the table to find it by name.
Tag Management data table with the tag search field used to find a created tag Each tag row has an Actions menu. From there you can edit the tag’s name, description, or colour; view the history of its creation and use; or delete it entirely.
Tag Management data table showing a tag row's Actions menu with edit, history, and delete options Automate Tag Assignment with Tag Rules Tags applied by Tag Rules are added automatically to any item that meets the rule’s conditions — you don’t need to touch each record. Navigate to Tag Rules under Company Core Data to reach the Rule Management page.
This page lists all existing rules, showing the tag each rule applies, its active status, and an optional description. Like the Tags page, it has type tabs above the data table so you can switch between rules for Inventory, Mill Certificates, and Orders.
To create a new rule, select Add Rule.
Tag Rules management page with type tabs and the Rule Management data table showing existing rules and the Add Rule button Configure the New Rule The Add Rule panel lets you give the rule a name, choose the tag it will apply, set whether the rule is currently active, and add an optional description.
Add Rule panel with fields for rule name, tag, active status, and description Set Rule Conditions A rule has no effect without Conditions. Use the Rule Conditions form to specify what criteria an item must meet for the tag to be applied. For each condition, choose the field to check (which can include fields taken from Mill Certificates and Material Test Reports), the comparison operator, and the value to compare against.
Rule Conditions form with fields for the field, operator, and value to compare against You can add single conditions or groups of conditions. Use AND to require all conditions, or OR to match on any of them. You can also nest conditions inside groups to model more complex logic — for example, the screenshot below shows a rule that tags items where the quantity is greater than 20 and the item type is either a coil or a bar.
Rule Conditions form showing nested AND and OR grouped conditions for quantity and item type Tag Rules in Action Once active, a Tag Rule applies automatically to any item that matches its conditions. Navigate to the relevant page — for example, Inventory under Production Planning — and use the page filters to find the items the rule affects and confirm the tags are being applied as expected.
Inventory page with filters applied to find items affected by a tag rule Filter by Tags Tags make it faster to find the items you need. Click on any tag in a data table to filter the data table and show only items with that tag assigned. You can also select multiple tags at once from the tags filter menu for a more specific filter.
Tag Management table with a tag selected, filtering the data table to show only tagged items Apply Tags Manually Some tags are meant to be applied by hand — for example, a tag that reflects a team decision or a context that can’t be expressed as a condition. For those, you don’t need a rule.
Open the Actions dropdown for any item and choose Manage Tags to add or remove tags directly. This only works for tags that do not have rules. It is the right approach for tags that are specifically intended for users to apply case by case.
Actions dropdown for an inventory item showing the Manage Tags option Automate Compliance Checks with Rule Packs Rule Packs are predefined sets of tag rules built around standards compliance checks across a range of areas. Select Rule Packs under Company Core Data to access them. Tabs at the top of the page let you switch between different sets of rule packs.
Rule Packs page with tabs for switching between different sets of rule packs Select Subscribe on a pack to add its associated rules to your items. Select View Rules to see the rules, tags, and flags a pack applies and which areas they cover.
Rule Pack card with Subscribe and View Rules options Once you’ve subscribed to a Rule Pack, use the System Tags filter on the associated pages to filter by the tags linked to your subscribed rules.
Inventory page with the System Tags filter applied to show items matching a subscribed rule pack That covers how to add and manage Tags and Tag Rules, and how to subscribe to Rule Packs for standards compliance. To see how tags integrate with your day-to-day work, see the Managing Inventory and Daily Operations, Orders, and Mill Certificates guides.


---
### Customising GoSmarter and Advanced Tips

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/customising-advanced-tips/
Description: Complete guide for system administrators and power users on configuring GoSmarter, using advanced features, and maximising ROI through customisation

This guide is designed for system administrators, power users, and anyone who wants to configure GoSmarter to fit their organisation’s specific needs and leverage advanced features. Learn how to customise settings, manage users, use advanced tools, and get the most out of GoSmarter beyond the basic process guides.
Overview Why Customise GoSmarter? While GoSmarter works well out-of-the-box, customisation allows you to:
Align with your workflows - Adapt the system to how your organisation operates Improve user experience - Configure what each team sees and can do Unlock advanced value - Use features like APIs and calculation tools Maximise ROI - Get more value by fully utilising all capabilities GoSmarter is built to be flexible. This guide helps you “make GoSmarter your own.”
What You’ll Learn This guide covers:
User management and permissions Custom fields and data organisation Integration and API usage Free calculation tools (Shape Code, Emissions, etc.) Staying updated with new features Advanced tips and power user techniques For Administrators
If you’re responsible for managing GoSmarter for your organisation, this guide will help you configure it optimally and support your users effectively. User Management & Permissions Currently users must be reviewed and assigned by GoSmarter support. Please contact support to manage users.
Once people are allocated to the organisation they can perform day-to-day activities within the application.
Billing and subscription management is handled separately via the GoSmarter sales team.
Integration & API Usage Why Integrate GoSmarter? GoSmarter may be one of several systems in your IT ecosystem. Integration allows:
Data sync - Keep GoSmarter data aligned with ERP, accounting, etc. Automated workflows - Trigger actions in other systems based on GoSmarter events Custom reporting - Pull GoSmarter data into business intelligence tools like Power BI Extended functionality - Build custom applications on top of GoSmarter API Overview GoSmarter provides a RESTful API for programmatic access:
Read data - Fetch inventory, orders, certificates, scrap logs, etc. Write data - Create or update records from external systems Real-time sync - Keep data current between systems Custom integrations - Build exactly what you need Technical Audience
API usage requires programming/scripting knowledge. If you’re not technical, work with your IT team or contact GoSmarter support for integration assistance. Getting Started with the API 1. API Documentation:
Access docs at api-docs.gosmarter.ai Review authentication, endpoints, request/response formats Documentation includes: Available endpoints (URLs for different data types) Request formats (how to query data) Response formats (what you’ll get back) Authentication methods (how to use your API key) Example code (Python, JavaScript, curl, etc.) Common Integration Use Cases 1. Sync with ERP System:
Automatically import new purchase orders from ERP into GoSmarter Orders Export production completion data from GoSmarter back to ERP for invoicing Keep inventory levels synchronized 2. Power BI Dashboards:
Daily automated pull of scrap data into Power BI Create executive dashboards showing scrap trends, production efficiency, etc. Combine GoSmarter data with financial data for comprehensive business intelligence 3. Automated Alerts:
Script checks GoSmarter API for low stock levels every hour Sends email or SMS alerts to purchasing team when stock is low More responsive than waiting for users to check the system 4. Custom Mobile App:
Build a simple mobile app for shop floor operators Uses GoSmarter API to display today’s production plan Allows operators to log scrap completion directly from phones/tablets Start Simple
Begin with read-only integrations (pulling data for reports) before attempting complex read-write sync. This minimizes risk while you learn the API. Utilising Free Tools GoSmarter provides several free calculation tools that add value even beyond the core platform:
Emissions Calculator Quantify the carbon footprint of your steel usage:
Navigate to Tools → Emissions Calculator Enter parameters: Material type (different steel grades have different footprints) Quantity (weight in kg/tons or number of pieces with dimensions) Production method (if known - virgin steel vs. recycled content) Click Calculate View estimated CO2 equivalent emissions Use Cases:
Sustainability Reporting:
Calculate total emissions from monthly/annual steel use Track progress on carbon reduction goals Report for ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) compliance Supplier Comparison:
Compare carbon footprint of steel from different suppliers Factor environmental impact into purchasing decisions Customer Communication:
Provide customers with carbon footprint data for their projects Support customers’ own sustainability reporting Scrap Reduction Benefits:
Quantify environmental benefit of reducing scrap Example: Reducing scrap by 10 tons/year = ~20 tons CO2 saved Makes the business case for efficiency investments even stronger Environmental Value
Use the Emissions Calculator alongside scrap tracking to demonstrate both financial and environmental benefits of GoSmarter. This supports sustainability initiatives and can be a differentiator in customer communications. How to Access Free Tools As a GoSmarter Customer:
Tools are integrated in the main menu: Utilities section As a Non-Customer:
Visit the GoSmarter app Access calculators without login Results are not saved Great for trying GoSmarter before committing Staying Updated with New Features GoSmarter is continuously evolving. New features and improvements are released regularly.
How to Stay Informed You can subscribe to release notes at change.gosmarter.ai/ or check the What’s new section in the application.
Proactive Feature Adoption Make it a practice to:
Monthly review - Spend 15 minutes reading latest release notes Identify relevance - Which new features apply to your operation? Test new features - Try them on non-critical data first Train users - Share relevant updates with your team Provide feedback - Let GoSmarter know what works and what could be better This ensures you’re continuously getting more value from the platform, not just using the same features year after year.
Advanced Tips & Tricks Power User Techniques 1. Bulk Operations:
For repetitive tasks, use bulk edit/update features Example: Select multiple inventory items and update their location at once Much faster than editing individually 2. Save Filters and Views:
Bookmark frequently-used filter combinations Example: “My urgent orders”, “Low stock items”, “Pending certificates” 3. Data Export/Import:
Use CSV export/import for bulk data operations Example: Export inventory, make bulk changes in Excel, re-import Faster than web forms for large datasets Be cautious: verify data before import to avoid errors 4. Multi-Tab Workflow:
Open GoSmarter in multiple browser tabs View reference data in one tab while entering new data in another Example: Have production plan in one tab, inventory in another, update both in parallel Admin Efficiency Tips 1. Regular Data Quality Audits:
Monthly: Run data quality reports (duplicates, missing data, etc.) Quarterly: Review and clean up old, inactive records Maintain high data quality for better system performance and user experience 2. User Training Schedule:
New user onboarding: Show them their role-specific features only (avoid overwhelming) Quarterly refresher: Share new features, best practices Just-in-time training: When a new feature launches, train relevant users immediately 3. Backup and Recovery Plan:
Understand GoSmarter’s backup procedures (ask support if unclear) Know how to request data restoration if needed Document your customisations (custom fields, roles, etc.) so they can be recreated if necessary 4. Performance Monitoring:
Watch for slow performance or errors Report issues to support promptly Keep track of system usage patterns (e.g., peak times) for planning 5. Change Management:
When making significant configuration changes, communicate to users beforehand Test changes in non-production environment if possible Have a rollback plan if a change causes issues FAQ / Troubleshooting Common Questions Q: Can GoSmarter do [specific feature]?
A:
Check documentation or see the in-app Help guides If not found, contact support with your specific use case GoSmarter is actively developed; even if a feature doesn’t exist, it might be planned Q: How do I request a new feature?
A:
Go to What’s new and navigate to the feedback section Describe your need and use case GoSmarter works closely with manufacturers; customer input heavily influences roadmap You may be contacted for more details or to participate in beta testing Q: What if my company’s process is slightly different from GoSmarter’s default workflow?
A: Two approaches:
Adapt GoSmarter: Use custom fields, tags, and configuration to bend the tool to your process Adapt your process: Sometimes the “GoSmarter way” may actually be a best practice; consider if adjusting your process makes sense Often a hybrid approach works best. Contact support for guidance specific to your situation.
Q: Can I access GoSmarter from multiple locations/devices?
A: Yes:
Cloud-based, accessible from anywhere with internet Use on desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile Login from office, shop floor, home office, etc. Data is synchronised in real-time Q: What if we have multiple plants/locations?
A:
GoSmarter supports multi-location organisations Can separate data by location or consolidate - depends on your preference Contact support to configure for your structure Q: Is multi-language support available?
A:
This is planned for future releases Q: How do I measure the ROI of GoSmarter for our organisation?
A: Track:
Time savings: Hours saved on manual tasks (planning, certificate searching, etc.) Material savings: Scrap reduction value Error reduction: Fewer mistakes, rework, customer complaints Compliance benefits: Faster audits, avoided penalties Quantify before and after using GoSmarter to calculate ROI. GoSmarter support can help with ROI analysis.
Making GoSmarter Your Own: Summary Key Takeaways Customisation - Use custom fields and tags to fit GoSmarter to your specific needs Integration - Leverage APIs to connect GoSmarter with your broader IT ecosystem Free Tools - Use Shape Code, Weight, and Emissions calculators for added value Stay Current - Regularly review new features and adopt those that benefit you Power User Practices - Employ advanced techniques to maximise efficiency By investing time in customisation and learning advanced features, you’ll get far more value from GoSmarter than just using it “as is.”
Your Platform, Your Way
GoSmarter provides the tools; you configure it to fit your unique operation. Take advantage of customisation options to maximise efficiency, improve user adoption, and drive better business results. 

---
### Integration Strategy

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/integration-strategy/
Description: Learn about GoSmarter's flexible integration approach: from independent use to full API integration, designed to work alongside your existing systems

At Nightingale HQ, we understand that every manufacturing business has unique systems and workflows. Our integration strategy is designed to meet you where you are and grow with your needs without forcing expensive system replacements or lengthy implementation projects.
The Crawl, Walk, Run Approach We believe in progressive integration that lets you start quickly and scale at your own pace.
Crawl: Independent Use Start using GoSmarter immediately through our intuitive web interface. No integration required, just log in and begin:
Access all core features through the browser-based platform Manage inventory, orders, and production planning independently Try features risk-free without touching your existing systems Perfect for testing, pilot projects, or departments starting digital transformation Best for: Getting started quickly, evaluating the platform, departmental use or small business use
Walk: Import & Export When you’re ready to connect data between systems, use our built-in import and export tools:
Import data from comma-separated values (CSV) files from other systems or spreadsheets Export results to share with other systems or teams Periodically update data with semi-manual synchronisation by importing/exporting within the platform Full control over what data moves and when No technical expertise required Best for: Periodic data sharing, maintaining data sovereignty, simple workflows
Run: API Integration Achieve full automation with real-time, bidirectional integration:
Connect GoSmarter directly to your ERP, MES, or other systems Automate data flows without manual intervention Build custom workflows tailored to your operations Access the complete platform programmatically Best for: High-volume operations, real-time requirements, complex workflows
Integration Tools & Resources Open APIs Our representational state transfer (REST) APIs provide comprehensive access to all platform features:
Available at no additional cost to all customers Complete documentation with examples Authentication and security best practices Rate limits designed for production use Access API Documentation →
Developer Centre A complete resource hub for technical teams:
Interactive API explorer and sandbox Integration guides and tutorials Best practices and design patterns Visit Developer Centre →
MCP Server For modern integration architectures, we offer a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server:
Standardised protocol for AI agent integration Enable conversational interfaces to GoSmarter data Build custom AI assistants for your operations Integrate with Claude, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible tools Learn about MCP Integration →
Our Integration Philosophy We Play Nicely The software landscape is diverse, and we respect that. Your business likely runs on a combination of:
Established ERP systems (SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, etc.) Industry-specific MES or production software Custom tools built for your specific needs Excel spreadsheets and specialized databases We don’t replace. We complement. Our goal isn’t to cost you hundreds or thousands of hours replacing critical systems that, while they may not meet all your needs, are essential to your operations.
Open by Design No integration fees: Our APIs are included with your subscription Vendor-neutral: We support integration with any system that can consume REST APIs Your data, your rules: Export your data anytime, in standard formats Partnership Approach As we work with more customers, we encounter different supplier systems and niche software. Our commitment:
Build integration kits for commonly requested systems Document integration patterns for similar tools Establish partnerships with your specific vendors when possible Support your IT team in building custom integrations We view integration as a partnership. If you need to connect with a specific vendor system, we’ll work with you to make it happen, whether that means providing extra documentation, building connector code, or coordinating directly with your vendors.
Questions to Ask Your ERP or System Vendor Your existing systems almost certainly support more than anyone configured them to do. Before you plan an integration, check what they actually provide. Many manufacturers find their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system has untapped capability. Others discover gaps they need to plan around.
Share your answers with your GoSmarter onboarding contact. It helps us recommend the right integration path from day one.
Data export Can you export orders, stock, customers, suppliers, and transactions to CSV or Excel? Which fields does each export include? Can you filter exports by date range, status, or category? Is there a scheduled or automated export option? API access Does our subscription include API access, or is it a paid add-on? Do you offer a REST API? Is there a sandbox or test environment available? What authentication method does the API use: API key, Open Authorisation (OAuth) 2.0, or something else? Do you enforce rate limits? If so, what are they? API documentation Is there customer-accessible API documentation? Do you publish an OpenAPI (Swagger) specification? Do the docs include code examples and sample requests? How do you communicate API changes? Is there a changelog or versioning policy? Data coverage Which entities are available via API: orders, inventory, customers, suppliers, production jobs? Can we write data back via API, or is access read-only? Are there entities only accessible through the user interface? Real-time updates Do you support webhooks or event-driven notifications? Which events can trigger a webhook (for example: new order, stock update, job completion)? If your system does not support webhooks, what alternatives avoid constant polling? Support and partnership Do you have a developer support team or integration specialists? Are there certified integration partners or pre-built connectors for GoSmarter? What is your process if we find a gap in your API coverage? Getting Started with Integration Let's Talk
Not sure which approach is right for you? Our team can help assess your needs and recommend the best integration path.
Reach out to us at support@gosmarter.ai
Quick Start Checklist Start with the interface - Get familiar with core features Test import/export - Move sample data in and out Review our API docs - Understand what’s possible Define your integration goals - What processes need automation? Connect with our team - We’ll help plan your integration journey Common Integration Scenarios Scenario 1: ERP → GoSmarter → Production Floor ERP pushes orders via API GoSmarter optimises cutting plans Results exported to production systems or displayed on tablets Scenario 2: Hybrid Manual/Automated Daily inventory import from your existing system Manual planning and optimisation in GoSmarter Export cutting lists and reports for your team Scenario 3: Full Automation Real-time bidirectional sync with ERP and MES Automated order intake and processing Production data flows back to business systems Webhook notifications for critical events Remember: There’s no wrong way to integrate with GoSmarter. Whether you use our interface standalone, sync data periodically, or build deep API integrations, we’re here to support your journey.


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### 30-Day Behaviour Change Playbook

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/30-day-behaviour-change-playbook/
Description: A practical guide to changing how your team works in the first month with GoSmarter — parallel vs. cut-over rollout, shop-floor champions, and first-month KPIs to track.

New software doesn’t fail at the technical level. It fails because people keep reaching for the spreadsheet. This playbook tells you how to stop that from happening, in the first 30 days, before habits re-form.
Use this alongside the technical guides
This playbook covers the people side of your rollout. Pair it with the Implementation Project Plan for the full technical and project management picture. The Core Challenge: Software vs. Habit Every production manager in metals has a personal spreadsheet. Some are masterpieces with years of accumulated logic, colour-coded tabs, formulas that nobody else understands. They work. That’s the problem.
GoSmarter needs to become the trusted source of truth before people stop cross-checking it against the spreadsheet. The first month is the window. Get it right and adoption sticks. Get it wrong and the spreadsheet wins.
The playbook is split into three parts:
Rollout approach: parallel or cut-over? Champion network: who leads the change on the floor? First-month KPIs: how do you know it’s working? Part 1: Parallel vs. Cut-Over Rollout What the Terms Mean Parallel running means operating GoSmarter and your existing process at the same time for a defined period. Every action that goes into GoSmarter also goes into the old system (or spreadsheet). You compare outputs. When you trust the new system, you stop the old one.
Cut-over means picking a date and switching. From that morning, GoSmarter is the only system. The old spreadsheet is archived. You don’t look back.
Neither approach is always right. The decision depends on your risk tolerance, your team size, and how different GoSmarter’s output is from your current process.
When to Run Parallel Choose parallel running if:
Your existing process has legal or audit obligations (e.g., mill certificate (also called a Material Test Report (MTR)) filing must remain unbroken during transition) You have a large team and can’t retrain everyone simultaneously GoSmarter is replacing a bespoke internal tool with unusual logic that needs validation Your production volume is high enough that a mistake has immediate commercial consequences Parallel period recommendation: two to four weeks. Longer than four weeks and people stop taking GoSmarter seriously as it becomes the “other” system rather than the real one.
How to run it well:
Designate a single person to compare GoSmarter’s output with the legacy output each day. This should take no more than 15 minutes. Log every discrepancy in a shared document. Categorise as: (a) GoSmarter is wrong, (b) legacy system is wrong, (c) the inputs were different, (d) both are right but show the same thing differently. Set a go/no-go date at the start. Don’t let it drift. If you reach the date and have unresolved category (a) discrepancies, escalate to GoSmarter support before extending the parallel period. Run parallel for mill certificates first
Even if you cut over on inventory and orders, consider a short parallel period for mill certificate uploads. Regulators and customers don’t care about your change management programme — they need the cert. Validate the extraction accuracy on real documents before you rely on it for compliance. When to Cut Over Choose a clean cut-over if:
You have a small team (fewer than 10 users) who can be trained in one session Your existing process is genuinely broken, parallel running would mean doubling up on broken work You’re starting fresh with GoSmarter before a new contract or site opens, so there’s no legacy data to compare against Your team has already piloted GoSmarter in a limited context and trusts it How to run it well:
Archive, don’t delete, the legacy spreadsheet or system. People need to know it still exists for reference. The goal is to reduce the psychological cost of switching: if they know they can look back, they’re less likely to keep both running in parallel anyway. Pick a Monday. Never cut over mid-week. You want a clean weekly boundary. Do a full data import check the Friday before. If anything looks wrong, you have the weekend to fix it without production pressure. Brief every user on the Friday. Not an email, have a conversation, even a five-minute stand-up at shift start. The Hybrid Approach Most medium-sized operations do this in practice: cut over on inventory and orders (low risk, easy to validate), run parallel on production planning for two weeks (higher stakes, needs confidence), and run parallel on mill certificates for four weeks (compliance-critical).
This is sensible. Document your approach explicitly so the whole team knows what’s live and what’s still being validated.
Part 2: Nominating Shop-Floor Champions Why Champions Matter You can brief a team once. A champion reinforces the message every day, answers the five-minute questions that nobody sends an email about, and spots when someone has quietly gone back to their spreadsheet.
The best champions aren’t always the most senior people. They’re the ones who other people ask when something doesn’t look right.
Who to Nominate Look for people who have:
Credibility on the floor: their colleagues trust their judgement, not just their job title Natural curiosity: they’ve already asked questions about GoSmarter or explored it without being asked A production task that GoSmarter directly improves: if the champion’s own day gets better, their advocacy is genuine Aim for one champion per shift if you run multiple shifts. If you have separate teams for inventory, production planning, and mill certificates, ideally nominate a champion in each area.
Avoid nominating: the most senior person in the room by default, anyone who openly resisted the rollout decision, or anyone with a workload that leaves no time to support colleagues.
What Champions Do The champion role is not a second job. Define it narrowly:
Task Time commitment Attend a 30-minute champion briefing before go-live Once Be the first point of contact for questions from their team As needed Do a five-minute daily check of GoSmarter during week one Week 1 only Flag recurring issues or confusion to the implementation lead Ongoing Join a brief weekly check-in call with the implementation lead Weeks 1–4 Champion briefings
GoSmarter’s customer success team can join your champion briefing to run a Q&A session. Contact us via the GoSmarter app or book a session through your account dashboard. Supporting Your Champions Champions need three things to succeed:
Authority: a clear message from the implementation lead (or site manager) that the champion’s guidance should be followed. Without this, champions get ignored. An escalation path: when a champion can’t answer a question, they need to know exactly who to ask and how quickly they’ll get a response. Document this on day one. Recognition: at the end of the first month, acknowledge what the champion did. It doesn’t need to be formal. A mention in a team meeting is enough. People remember these things. Part 3: First-Month KPIs You need to know whether the rollout is actually working, not just whether people are logging in. These three KPIs tell you what you need to know in the first 30 days.
KPI 1: Shadow Spreadsheet Usage What it measures: Whether your team is still maintaining parallel records outside GoSmarter.
How to track it: Ask each champion to do a 10-minute informal check at the end of weeks two and four. Are people keeping personal spreadsheets updated? Are separate tracking sheets still circulating via email or WhatsApp?
This is a behavioural signal, not a system metric. You won’t get it from a dashboard. You get it from asking.
What good looks like: By the end of week four, no active spreadsheets covering data that GoSmarter now holds. Legacy sheets exist for reference only and haven’t been updated in at least two weeks.
What to do if it’s not good: Don’t shame the spreadsheet users. Find out what GoSmarter isn’t doing that the spreadsheet was doing for them. Is it a missing field? An export they can’t get? A report format they need? Fix the root cause, not the behaviour.
KPI 2: AI-Plan Acceptance Rate What it measures: Whether planners are trusting GoSmarter’s optimised cutting plans or overriding them every time.
How to track it: GoSmarter logs plan acceptance and overrides in the optimisation output. Review this in your Dashboard at the end of weeks two and four. Look at the ratio of accepted plans to manual overrides.
What good looks like: An acceptance rate above 70% by the end of week four. 100% is not the goal. Experienced planners will correctly override the AI when they have information GoSmarter doesn’t (a machine is down, a customer has a specific preference). You want the AI to be the starting point, not something people discard without reading.
What to do if it’s not good: Low acceptance usually means one of three things:
The input data (stock levels, order details) is inaccurate, so the plan is generating wrong results Planners don’t understand what the plan is optimising for and don’t trust the logic The plan format is unfamiliar and the planner is defaulting to what they know Talk to your champion and sit with a planner for 30 minutes. You’ll identify the issue quickly.
Track this weekly, not just at the end of the month
If acceptance is low in week one, that’s normal. The AI is learning your data and your planners are learning the format. If it’s still low in week three with no upward trend, escalate early. KPI 3: Certificate Search Time What it measures: How long it takes a user to locate a specific mill certificate (MTR) in GoSmarter vs. how long it used to take.
How to track it: Ask three or four users who regularly retrieve certificates to time themselves on a real search in week one, then again in week four. You want before-and-after data from the same people on the same type of task.
A baseline search in a paper or folder-based system typically takes five to twenty minutes. GoSmarter search should return results in under 30 seconds once certificates are uploaded.
What good looks like: Search time under two minutes by week four, including any time spent interpreting the result. The two-minute target accounts for users who are still building familiarity with the interface.
What to do if it’s not good: The most common reason search is slow is that certificates haven’t been consistently uploaded or tagged. Check your upload completeness rate (what percentage of recent deliveries have a certificate in GoSmarter?) and address any gaps before assuming the search tool is the problem.
Week-by-Week Timeline Week Focus Champion actions Implementation lead actions Week 0 (pre-go-live) Champion briefing, data import check, archive legacy systems Attend briefing, read this playbook Confirm data imports, pick KPI baselines, brief site manager Week 1 Go-live, daily check-ins Five-minute daily check, answer questions, log issues Daily stand-up with champions, monitor plan acceptance Week 2 First KPI check, address blockers Shadow spreadsheet check, flag recurring issues Review acceptance rate, check search times, fix root causes Week 3 Normalisation Champion available for questions, not actively monitoring Confirm parallel period end date (if running parallel) Week 4 End-of-month review Final shadow spreadsheet check Review all three KPIs, document what worked, share with GoSmarter Escalation: What to Do When It’s Not Working If you reach the end of week four and adoption is poor, run through this checklist before concluding that the software isn’t right for your team:
Is the data accurate? Poor data produces poor outputs. If GoSmarter’s inventory doesn’t reflect actual stock, nobody will trust its plans. Did every user get a hands-on training session, not just a walkthrough? Watching a demo and doing the task are different. Require that every user completes at least one real task in GoSmarter before go-live. Has the implementation lead checked in with non-champions? The champions give you signal, but they’re also optimistic by nature. Speak directly to the most resistant users. Is there a specific feature gap? Log it with GoSmarter support. Many feature requests come from early adopters in the first month. GoSmarter support
If you’re struggling with adoption, contact us. We know change is hard and have worked with dozens of companies. Reach out to us via talktous@gosmarter.ai or reach out to the person currently supporting you. Summary: Your First-Month Checklist Decided on parallel vs. cut-over approach and documented it for the team Named at least one champion, confirmed their authority and escalation path Set a baseline for all three KPIs before go-live Archived (not deleted) all legacy spreadsheets and tools Completed week-two KPI check and addressed any blockers Completed week-four KPI check and shared results with GoSmarter 

---
### Rollout Packages by Business Type

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/archetype-rollout-packages/
Description: Your GoSmarter rollout plan based on your plant type, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) setup, and product mix — with clear milestones and outcome targets you can measure from day one.

No two metals businesses are identical. But the path from first login to measurable value tends to follow one of five well-worn routes, depending on your system setup, how you work, and what you’re trying to fix first.
These packages give you a clear, fixed-timeline plan with milestones and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you can track from day one — whether you’re running the rollout yourself or working with a GoSmarter partner.
Working with a partner?
If you’re implementing GoSmarter through a reseller or implementation partner, share this page with them before your first call. The packages are designed to give both sides shared language and clear expectations. Which package is right for you? Match yourself to a package based on three things:
Your current system — Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform, spreadsheets, or a mix of both How your business runs — single-site fabricator, service centre, stockholder, or multi-site group Your product mix — rebar-heavy, plate-heavy, mixed processing, or stock-and-ship If you fit more than one package, start with the one closest to your biggest current bottleneck. Add the next package as your next phase once you’re live and stable.
Package 1: Service Centre Epicor Sprint This package is for you if:
You run a mid-size steel service centre Epicor is your main system You deal with high order churn and constant replanning What you will achieve in 30 days:
Phase Target window How you know you are done Discovery and data map Days 1–5 Your order, stock, and certificate fields are mapped and agreed Core setup and pilot Days 6–15 One planner is running their daily workflow live in GoSmarter Parallel run and tuning Days 16–25 Your operations lead has approved the gap between old and new plans Cut-over and go-live Days 26–30 GoSmarter is your primary planning workflow Targets to hold yourself to:
30% reduction in planning cycle time by day 30 70%+ AI plan acceptance by day 30 20% reduction in urgent manual replans by day 45 Package 2: Fabricator Infor or Katana Fast-Track This package is for you if:
You run a fabrication business on Infor or Katana Your production planners still rely on side spreadsheets You regularly hit bottlenecks between sales orders and floor scheduling What you will achieve in 35 days:
Phase Target window How you know you are done Process walk-through Days 1–4 Your current-state workflow is documented and signed off Template-led configuration Days 5–12 Your shop defaults and planning rules are configured Live pilot shift Days 13–21 At least one shift is running on GoSmarter plans Team rollout Days 22–35 All shift planners are trained and active Targets to hold yourself to:
25% reduction in schedule adjustments caused by missing data 15% reduction in avoidable scrap in your pilot line 80% of active jobs planned inside GoSmarter by day 35 Package 3: Family-Owned Stockholder Excel Exit This package is for you if:
You run a family-owned stockholder business Your core process still runs on spreadsheet and email handoffs You do not have a large internal technical team What you will achieve in 30 days:
Phase Target window How you know you are done Spreadsheet audit Days 1–3 Your key sheets are catalogued and risk-ranked Data clean-up sprint Days 4–10 Your stock and order imports pass validation Controlled parallel run Days 11–24 Your spreadsheet is reference-only — no new data going in Spreadsheet retirement Days 25–30 Spreadsheet updates stopped and the file is archived Targets to hold yourself to:
90% reduction in duplicate manual data entry by day 30 Certificate retrieval time under two minutes by day 30 Zero active shadow spreadsheets by day 45 Package 4: Rebar Optimiser Production Ramp This package is for you if:
Your operation is rebar-focused Your core problem is cutting yield, not just administration Your team needs fast confidence in the optimisation output before they will trust it What you will achieve in 30 days:
Phase Target window How you know you are done Pattern baseline capture Days 1–4 Your baseline yield and scrap data is locked Optimiser configuration Days 5–11 Your product rules and constraints are validated Shift-level trial Days 12–20 Your trial shift has reached a stable run cadence Full-line go-live Days 21–30 Daily rebar plans are generated in GoSmarter Targets to hold yourself to:
10–15% scrap reduction by day 30 30% faster plan generation by day 21 80%+ planner trust score in your week-four review Package 5: Multi-Site Phased Rollout This package is for you if:
You operate multiple plants with mixed systems You need one consistent playbook with site-by-site sequencing You need central reporting across local workflows What you will achieve in 90 days:
Phase Target window How you know you are done Group blueprint Days 1–10 Your common data standard and decision rules are agreed Site one pilot Days 11–30 Your first site meets its KPI baseline targets Site two and three replication Days 31–70 Later sites are live using the same package with only local adjustments Group operating rhythm Days 71–90 Your monthly cross-site KPI review is running Targets to hold yourself to:
Each replication site live in less than 50% of your pilot lead time A consistent reporting pack across all live sites Measurable reduction in planning-quality variance between sites Weekly rhythm — the same for every package Whichever package you are on, keep the same weekly review cadence:
Monday checkpoint: where are you against the milestone? What is blocked? Midweek configuration review: is your data accurate? Are people actually using the system? Friday outcomes review: KPI trend, risks, and next-week actions agreed before the meeting closes Use the Implementation Toolkit for the discovery checklist, configuration template, and Return on Investment (ROI) calculator that go with your package.
Not sure which package fits?
Email talktous@gosmarter.ai and describe your setup in two sentences. We will point you at the right package or tell you if your situation calls for something different. 

---
### Implementation Toolkit by Business Type

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/archetype-implementation-toolkit/
Description: Your discovery checklist, configuration guide, and ROI calculator for a GoSmarter implementation — designed for customers and implementation partners using any of the five rollout packages.

This toolkit is your working document for the five Rollout Packages. It covers what to capture before you start, how to set up GoSmarter for your business type, how to calculate the value you are getting, and how to know when you are done.
If you are an implementation partner, use this alongside the package guide at every customer project. If you are running the rollout yourself, work through each section in order.
Start here if you are a partner
Run the discovery checklist before your first configuration call. Completed answers let you set up GoSmarter in a single session rather than going back and forth for missing data. 1) Discovery checklist Fill this in before any configuration work starts. The more complete your answers, the faster you will be live.
Your business objectives What is your commercial priority for the next 90 days — margin, throughput, compliance, or service level? What are your top three workflow bottlenecks, ranked by how much time they cost you per week? Who owns each of your current operational reports, and how often do they run? Your current systems What is your main system right now — an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, a spreadsheet, or a mix? What file formats can your current system export (CSV, Excel, XML, direct API)? Where are the data quality risks — stock accuracy, order completeness, or certificate gaps? Your operations What type of plant do you run and how many shifts per day? Which product families account for most of your volume — long products, flat, or mixed? Who needs to sign off any change to your live planning workflow before you can switch? Your change readiness Who is your named implementation owner? Who will be the shop-floor champion on each shift? What training windows do you have in the next 30 days? Have you had a failed software rollout before? If yes, what went wrong? 2) Configuration guide by business type Each business type uses the same five setup areas. The questions and defaults change depending on which package you are on.
Area What you decide What gets produced Data model Material grades, stock dimensions, order structure Agreed data mapping Workflow rules Planning constraints, backup rules, who to escalate to Approved workflow matrix User roles Who plans, who supervises, who reads-only Role and permission map Reporting views What you need to see daily and weekly Your standard dashboard layout Integrations How data moves in and out and how often Integration step-by-step guide Service Centre Epicor Sprint — configuration priorities Get order ingestion and replanning running first Turn on planner-facing variance alerts from day one so your team can see what changed and why Set up cycle-time and override-rate reporting before you go live so you have a baseline to beat Fabricator Infor or Katana Fast-Track — configuration priorities Make the shift-level job queue the first thing your planners see when they log in Configure job-priority rules for your bottleneck machines before your pilot shift Set up a daily handoff report between your sales team and production team Family-Owned Stockholder Excel Exit — configuration priorities Start with the minimum fields you need to replace your spreadsheet — add more after week two Add strict validation on imports so your old data does not pollute the new system Set up certificate retrieval as the first thing you demonstrate to your team Rebar Optimiser Production Ramp — configuration priorities Add your scrap reason codes at setup, not after go-live — you will need them for reporting Configure your cut pattern constraints before your first trial shift Turn on daily optimisation acceptance tracking so you can coach your planners on what to override and why Multi-Site Phased Rollout — configuration priorities Agree the group-level common fields before you configure any individual site Allow each site to have optional local fields, but keep them in a separate layer Standardise your weekly cross-site report before you add site-specific variations 3) ROI calculator Use this to calculate the value GoSmarter delivers — and to show it to your finance team or board.
The four levers Labour time savings — hours saved per week, multiplied by blended hourly cost Scrap cost reduction — baseline scrap percentage minus current scrap percentage, multiplied by monthly material spend Error and rework reduction — baseline rework incidents minus current incidents, multiplied by average rework cost Audit and compliance time savings — baseline certificate retrieval time minus current time, multiplied by request volume What you need to fill it in Gather these before your day-zero review:
Last 8–12 weeks of planning cycle times Last 8–12 weeks of scrap rates by product family Hours per week your team spends on stock, order, and certificate handling Cost assumptions reviewed and agreed with your finance or operations lead When to review Review point What to produce Day 0 Baseline pack with assumptions signed off by your operations lead Day 30 Early value report — is the trend moving in the right direction? Day 60 Confirmed actual savings and any blockers to address Day 90 Full value report and your recommendation for the next phase 4) Weekly review checklist Use this at every Monday checkpoint:
Each milestone is marked green, amber, or red, with one named owner per risk Data quality issues are logged with a fix date and an owner Adoption is measured by real workflow usage, not just login counts Key Performance Indicator (KPI) movement is tracked against your package targets Next-week actions are written down and owned before the meeting ends 5) How you know you are done Your implementation is complete when these five conditions are met:
Your primary workflow runs in GoSmarter as the operational default — not alongside a spreadsheet Your agreed 30-day KPI targets are met, or you have a documented recovery plan with a named owner Your shop-floor champion can run the core workflow without any help from your implementation team or from GoSmarter Your Return on Investment (ROI) tracker has a signed baseline, your day-30 actuals, and a forward forecast You know which package comes next Need support?
If you are stuck at any point, reach out to us at talktous@gosmarter.ai. We have worked through all five packages with real businesses and can usually unblock a rollout in one call. 

---
### API and MCP Access

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/api-and-mcp-access/
Description: GoSmarter provides a REST API and MCP server for third-party integrations, custom workflows, and AI agent connections.

GoSmarter provides a REST Application Programming Interface (API) and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server so you can connect the platform to other systems, automate workflows, and build AI-powered tools on top of your operational data.
What the API Lets You Do The GoSmarter REST API gives you programmatic access to the platform. With it you can:
Read data — pull inventory, orders, mill certificates, scrap logs, and production records into external systems or reports Write data — create or update records from your ERP, MES, or custom applications Automate workflows — trigger actions in response to events rather than relying on manual data entry Build custom integrations — connect GoSmarter to any system that can make HTTP requests The API is included with your GoSmarter subscription at no extra cost.
What MCP Access Lets You Do The MCP server exposes GoSmarter data and actions through the Model Context Protocol — a standard that lets AI agents and tools interact with external services in a structured way.
With MCP access you can:
Connect GoSmarter to AI assistants such as Claude Build conversational interfaces over your inventory, orders, and certificates Run automated agents that query or update GoSmarter as part of a broader AI workflow Integrate with MCP-compatible tools including VS Code extensions and custom agent frameworks Technical Audience
API and MCP access requires programming knowledge or an integration specialist. If you need help, contact us at support@gosmarter.ai and we can advise on the right approach for your setup. Full API Documentation All endpoint references, authentication guides, request and response formats, MCP setup instructions, and code examples are in the GoSmarter Developer Docs:
View API Documentation →


---
### GoSmarter Glossary

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/glossary/
Description: Plain-English definitions of steel industry terms and software concepts: mill certificates, EN 10204, heat numbers, cutting optimisation, yield rate, AI, cloud platforms, and more.

This glossary is your quick reference for metals manufacturing terminology, AI and data concepts, and GoSmarter platform terms. Browse by category at the Glossary section index or use the A–Z below. For the full shop-floor-focused metals reference, see the Metals Manufacturing Glossary.
GoSmarter Platform Terminology A AI (Artificial Intelligence) AI is the broad field of computer science concerned with building programs that can think and learn in a human-like way. In manufacturing, AI powers predictive scheduling, quality inspection, demand forecasting, and optimisation tools like GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans.
→ Read more about AI
Allowance Extra length added to calculations to account for saw blade width when cutting. Usually 5-10mm per cut.
AWS (Amazon Web Services) Amazon’s cloud computing platform. Provides the infrastructure for storage, databases, and compute workloads used by modern manufacturing software. GoSmarter runs on cloud infrastructure compatible with AWS services.
→ Read more about AWS
Azure Microsoft’s cloud computing platform. Azure services including Azure Data Factory, Azure Batch, and Azure Cognitive Services are commonly used in manufacturing analytics and automation projects.
→ Read more about Azure
B Bar A long piece of steel. Also called “stick” or “length.” Typically 6 or 12 meters long.
Batch Number See Heat Number.
Bulk Upload Uploading multiple items at once using a spreadsheet file instead of entering them one by one.
C Certificate See Mill Certificate.
Company Selector The dropdown menu in the sidebar that lets you choose which company location you’re working with.
Cut Length The length of pieces you need to cut from longer bars.
Cutting Optimisation The process of calculating the most efficient way to cut standard-length stock into the lengths your orders require — minimising waste. The underlying maths problem is called the cutting stock problem. GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans solves it automatically, reducing scrap by up to 50%.
→ Read more about Cutting Optimisation
Cutting Pattern A plan showing which pieces to cut from a bar and in what order. The output produced by cutting optimisation.
D Dashboard The main starting page that shows a summary of your operation.
Diameter The thickness of a steel bar, measured across its circular cross-section. Usually measured in millimeters (mm).
Download Saving a file from GoSmarter to your computer. Click the download button, and the file saves to your Downloads folder.
E EN 10204 The European standard that defines the types of material test certificates (MTCs). There are four types: 2.1 (declaration of compliance), 2.2 (test report), 3.1 (manufacturer’s inspection certificate for your specific batch), and 3.2 (co-signed by an independent inspector). When a customer’s purchase order says “3.1 certs required,” they mean EN 10204:3.1.
→ Read more about EN 10204 and the four certificate types
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Software that manages core business functions in one system — finance, procurement, inventory, HR, sales. Common examples: SAP, Sage, Epicor, Dynamics. ERPs are built for every industry, which means they’re not built for the specifics of metals manufacturing: heat numbers, EN 10204 types, cut-to-length yield tracking, or off-cut management. Many metals manufacturers use a specialist tool like GoSmarter alongside their ERP.
→ Read more about ERP in Metals Manufacturing
Excel Spreadsheet program used for data uploads and downloads. Files end in .xlsx.
F Filter A way to narrow down a long list to show only items matching certain criteria. Like searching, but more specific.
G Grade The type or classification of steel based on its strength and properties. Examples: Grade 250, Grade 500. Also called “material grade.”
H Heat Number A unique code from the steel mill identifying the batch of steel — essentially a batch ID for a single melt. Every piece of metal cut from that melt shares the same heat number. It links the physical material to its mill certificate and is the foundation of traceability. Also called “batch number.”
→ Read more about Heat Numbers in Steel
I Inventory All the steel bars you currently have in stock at your facility.
→ Read more about Metals Inventory Management
J Jupyter An open-source tool used by data scientists and analysts to write and run code interactively. Widely used for Python-based data analysis and machine learning. Relevant if you’re evaluating analytics or AI vendors.
→ Read more about Jupyter
K Kerf The width of material removed by a saw blade when cutting. Usually 3-5mm. Use the “allowance” field to account for this.
L Length How long a steel bar is, measured in millimeters (mm). Common lengths: 6,000mm (6 meters) or 12,000mm (12 meters).
Login Entering your username and password to access the system.
Long Products Steel produced in linear cross-sections: bars, rods, rebar, angles, channels, beams, and tube. They come in standard lengths and are cut to customer-specified lengths. The key challenges are cutting optimisation and off-cut management. Contrasts with flat products (plate, sheet, coil).
→ Read more about Long Products in Steel
M Material The type or grade of steel. Used interchangeably with “grade.”
Mill Certificate (MTC) An official quality document from the steel manufacturer showing chemical composition, mechanical properties, and test results. Also called “Mill Test Certificate,” “Test Certificate,” or “Quality Certificate.” Mill certificates are issued to the EN 10204 standard and tie back to the heat number.
→ Read more about Mill Test Certificates
Millimeter (mm) Unit of measurement used for all lengths in the system. 1,000mm = 1 meter.
O Optimization See Cutting Optimisation.
Order A customer’s request for specific steel pieces. Includes specifications like material, diameter, length, and quantity.
P Pattern See Cutting Pattern.
PDF A file format for documents. Used for mill certificates and printable cutting plans. You need a PDF reader to view these files.
Pending Status indicating something hasn’t been started yet. Example: “Pending order” means the order hasn’t been worked on.
Piece An individual cut length of steel. When you cut a bar, you produce multiple pieces.
Q Quantity How many pieces or bars. Can mean:
How many bars in inventory How many pieces a customer ordered How many times to repeat a cutting pattern R Rebar (Reinforcing Bar) Ribbed steel bar embedded in concrete structures to add tensile strength. Typically specified to BS 4449 (UK) or EN 10080 (Europe). Traceability is critical for rebar — once concrete is poured, the paperwork is the only proof the steel met spec. Cut-and-bend operations are common.
→ Read more about Rebar
Reference Data Standard information used throughout the system, like material grades and types. This data is pre-loaded and doesn’t usually change.
S Scrap Material that’s left over after cutting and is too short to use. Also called “waste” or “drops.” Minimising scrap is a core function of cutting optimisation.
Scrap Rate The percentage of material that becomes waste when cutting. Lower is better. Formula: (waste ÷ total length) × 100.
Sidebar The menu panel on the left side of the screen. Use it to navigate between different sections.
Specification (Spec) The detailed requirements for steel: material grade, diameter, length, and any special properties.
Status The current state of something. Examples:
Order Status: Pending, In Progress, Complete Certificate Status: Uploaded, Verified, Linked T Template A pre-formatted spreadsheet file for uploading data. Download it, fill it in, then upload it back to the system.
Traceability The ability to track steel from the mill through your facility to the customer — and prove it at any point. It means knowing which certificate a bar came in on, which heat number it carries, and which sales order it’s going out on. Required by ISO 9001, construction regulations, and most large-buyer contracts.
→ Read more about Steel Traceability
Type A category or classification for steel. Different from grade — refers to intended use or form.
U Upload Sending a file from your computer into GoSmarter. Opposite of download.
Utilization How much of your material is actually used vs. wasted. High utilization = less waste = better efficiency.
V Verification Checking that information is accurate and correct. For example, verifying mill certificate details against the actual document.
W Waste See Scrap.
Y Yield Rate The percentage of input material that ends up in saleable output. Formula: (Output Weight ÷ Input Weight) × 100%. For cut-to-length steel distribution, benchmarks run 85–92%. A 1% improvement on a £2 million material spend is worth £20,000.
→ Read more about Yield Rate in Steel Manufacturing
Common Abbreviations Abbreviation Meaning mm Millimeters (unit of length) m Meters (unit of length, 1m = 1,000mm) kg Kilograms (unit of weight) MTC Mill Test Certificate PDF Portable Document Format (file type) ID Identification or Identifier % Percent Common Phrases “In stock” Material you currently have available in your inventory.
“On order” Material you’ve ordered from suppliers but haven’t received yet.
“Run an optimization” Creating a new cutting plan to find the most efficient way to cut bars.
“Link to inventory” Connecting a mill certificate to specific bars in your inventory for traceability.
“Upload a template” Filling in the provided spreadsheet and sending it to the system to add multiple items at once.
“Download results” Saving the optimization cutting plan to your computer so you can print it or share it.
Units of Measurement All measurements in GoSmarter use the metric system:
Item Length 1 millimeter (mm) = 0.001 meters 1,000 millimeters = 1 meter 6,000mm = 6 meters 12,000mm = 12 meters Why millimeters? More precise than meters for steel work. Avoids decimal points (12,000mm instead of 12.0m).
Converting Meters to millimeters: multiply by 1,000 (6m × 1,000 = 6,000mm) Millimeters to meters: divide by 1,000 (6,000mm ÷ 1,000 = 6m) Question Words What to ask when confused about a term:
What is it? - Definition/explanation Why does it matter? - Purpose/importance When do I use it? - Situations/applications Where do I find it? - Location in the system How do I use it? - Instructions/steps Don’t hesitate to ask your administrator if you need clarification on any term!
Tip
This glossary is your quick reference for GoSmarter terminology. Bookmark this page! 

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### How everything hangs together: customer product flows and influence map

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/docs/content/customer-product-flows/
Description: A functional design document covering product flows, influence mapping, traceability, and buyer expectations.

This document describes the product flows in GoSmarter and the functional capabilities you will want to review. It is written for potential customers, operations teams, quality teams, and commercial stakeholders who want to understand how the product works end to end before adoption.
What This Document Is For This is not a technical implementation spec. It is a functional design document that explains:
what you can do in the frontend how the major areas connect together how inventory, orders, mill certificates, and planning work as a joined-up workflow what business outcomes the product is designed to support Influence Map The influence map shows how your actions in one area affect other parts of the business.
Its purpose is to make the product logic easier to understand for you. Instead of describing screens in isolation, the map shows how actions like updating inventory, approving a mill certificate, or reserving stock influence traceability, audit readiness, planning quality, and customer confidence.
mindmap root((GoSmarter)) Public Visitor Explore calculators Read product updates Learn product fit Result Confidence to trial Faster onboarding Signed-in Customer User Use dashboard Use help and tutorial mode Work on the move Result Faster adoption Cleaner task focus Better mobile usage Operational Data Foundation Company details Organisations Materials and inventory types Stock locations Order statuses Tags and rules Result Clean master data Fewer downstream errors Production Planning Inventory Orders Cut planning Scrap tracking Result Better planning quality Lower waste Improved throughput Compliance and Traceability Mill certificates Certificate approval AI output correction Inventory to order joins Inventory to certificate joins Result End-to-end traceability Stronger audit readiness Faster customer assurance responses Cross-Workflow Outcomes One connected operational view Better decisions from linked context Higher service reliability Stronger customer trust Customer Roles Public Visitor You do not need a login to get a feel for what we do. Without giving even your email address, you can use a number of tools that help make your day easier and show how the platform works.
Signed-in Customer User A signed-in customer can move from exploring to doing real work. They can use the dashboard, follow guided help, and start managing the day-to-day tasks that keep operations moving.
Operations and Planning User This is the person who keeps stock, orders, and planning aligned. They use the system to see what is available, reserve the right material, reduce waste, and keep production on track.
Quality and Traceability User This user cares about proof, not just data entry. They upload and review mill certificates, correct extracted values when needed, and make sure the evidence behind the material is ready for audits and customer questions.
Product Areas 1. Public Product Evaluation Prospective buyers can use practical calculators and read product updates to understand the value of the platform before committing.
Buyers typically want to see:
calculators for business and production decisions clear product messaging about traceability and planning guided help and onboarding content 2. Operational Master Data This is the operational foundation buyers rely on to keep the rest of the system usable.
Buyers expect to maintain:
company details organisations and locations, including structured, geocoded addresses with address-suggestion support materials and inventory types order statuses tags and tag rules 3. Inventory and Order Execution Buyers use this area to understand what stock is available, reserve stock against an order, and see how execution changes availability.
4. Mill Certificate and Compliance Workflows Buyers use this area to upload certificates (PDF or image: JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, HEIC, HEIF), review extracted information, correct AI output when needed, and confirm approval status for audit purposes.
5. Planning and Waste Reduction Buyers use cut planning, scrap tracking, and optimisation views to reduce waste and improve material utilisation.
Core Customer Flows Flow 1: New Buyer Evaluation flowchart TD A[Visitor lands on GoSmarter] --> B[Explores calculators and product updates] B --> C[Reviews fit for planning, inventory, and traceability] C --> D[Signs in or requests access] D --> E[Uses dashboard and guided help] E --> F[Starts working with operational data] Flow 2: Inventory to Order Join-Up flowchart TD A[Receive or inspect stock] --> B[Add or update inventory] B --> C[Review available stock] C --> D[Select stock for an order] D --> E[Reserve stock] E --> F[Stock is linked to the order] F --> G[Order view shows related inventory] G --> H[Customer can trace usage and availability] Flow 3: Mill Certificate to Inventory Join-Up flowchart TD A[Receive mill certificate] --> B[Upload certificate - PDF or image] B --> C[AI extracts certificate data] C --> D[User reviews and corrects output if needed] D --> E[User approves or marks issues] E --> F[Link certificate to inventory] F --> G[Inventory shows certificate evidence] G --> H[Order and traceability views can reference the same evidence] Flow 4: Planning and Fulfilment flowchart TD A[Customer demand arrives] --> B[Orders are created or updated] B --> C[Available inventory is reviewed] C --> D[Stock is reserved against the order] D --> E[Cut planning or optimisation is run if needed] E --> F[Scrap and waste are tracked] F --> G[Results are reviewed and adjusted] G --> H[Customer gets a better planned fulfilment outcome] How The Areas Connect People don’t usually think in isolated screens. They think in questions:
Which stock can I use for this order? Which certificate proves this material is compliant? Which order consumed this inventory? What changed when stock was reserved? Can I correct AI-extracted certificate data without losing audit history? GoSmarter answers those questions by connecting the data across the frontend:
inventory can be linked to mill certificates order lines can be linked to inventory certificate status can be reviewed and locked down after approval tags can help identify stock properties and operational status planning tools can reuse the same operational data instead of duplicating it Functional Expectations Buyers Typically Ask About Traceability You can see how a piece of stock was received, what certificate supports it, whether it was reserved for an order, and how it moved through the process.
Audit Control You can expect approved certificate data to be protected, with a clear review path for corrections and issues.
Data Quality You can expect validation, consistent labels, and clear joins between records so teams can trust what they see.
Ease of Use You can expect a clean interface, responsive layout, guided help, and mobile-friendly usage for warehouse and shop-floor contexts.
Planning Confidence You can expect stock visibility, order context, and optimisation results to support better decisions and reduce waste.
Typical Outcomes The product is intended to help metals manufacturers and distributors:
improve stock utilisation reserve the right material for the right order keep certificate evidence attached to the material record respond faster to quality questions reduce manual cross-checking between systems plan cuts and usage with more confidence Non-Functional Expectations People often also care about how the product behaves, not only what it does.
Usability The interface should be understandable without specialist training and should support fast task completion.
Responsiveness You should be able to use the product on laptop, tablet, and mobile in warehouse and operations settings.
Reliability You can expect the data you enter or review to remain consistent and recoverable.
Auditability You can expect important changes, especially around certificates and traceability, to remain explainable.
Assumptions You are operating in a production or distribution environment where traceability matters. You want one connected view of inventory, orders, and quality evidence. You expect practical workflows rather than abstract software features. You may need both office and mobile use cases. Summary GoSmarter is designed as a connected operational system. The value comes from joining the workflow across inventory, orders, mill certificates, planning, and traceability so you can make better decisions with less manual effort.


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## Case Studies

### Helping Manufacturers Grow through Digitalisation - Case Studies

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/helping-manufacturers-grow-through-digitalisation-case-studies/
Date: 2025-10-14
Description: Explore our portfolio of manufacturing digitalisation case studies featuring UK and European steel, metals, and precision engineering companies

We are a UK-based tech scale-up founded by Steph Locke and Ruth Kearney, recognised leaders in helping manufacturers across the UK and Europe digitalise their operations. Building on this expertise, we are developing GoSmarter AI Production Assistant designed specifically for metals manufacturers. Our tools deliver value in days, not months. On this page you will find a wide portfolio of manufacturing work that we have delivered over the years. Explore our case studies and please reach out if you want to drive faster growth in your manufacturing business.
Metals and Steel Sector Midland Steel future-proofed operations with a digital roadmap that unlocked efficiencies and funding. Read more Midland Steel Digital Review case study.pdf
Halving rebar scrap rates to achieve industry gold standard; Optimisation tools halved scrap rates, cutting costs and carbon emissions. Read more Midland Steel Rebar Optimiser case study.pdf
Improved product lineage achieved and 100s hours saved with steel mill certificate AI process; AI automation of mill certificates saved 120+ hours a year and improved accuracy. Read more
Midland Steel MillCert case study.pdf
Digitalisation to support growth for precision engineering manufacturer; MAAS used a digital roadmap to optimise systems and upskill teams for growth. Read more MAAS Machining Digitalisation case study.pdf
Electronic manufacturer advances digital agenda; Philtronics built a clear digital roadmap to align systems and people for expansion. Read more Philtronics CEM Digitalisation case study.pdf
Electronics components producer optimises back-office operations; TMD Technologies modernised workflows with no-code tools and training. Read more TMD Back Office Optimisation case study.pdf
Improved resource and waste management through tracking; Digital scrap tracking boosted reuse, transparency, and sustainability. Read more Midland Steel Waste Management case study.pdf
Leaner Cut & Bent production and finance with dashboards; Real-time dashboards turned manual reporting into fast, data-driven decisions. Read more Midland Steel Finance Dashboards case study.pdfand Midland Steel Production Dashboards case study.pdf
Agriculture, Materials and Renewables Renewables group speeds up digitalisation to support growth; Galetech Group accelerated shared services with a focused digital strategy. Read more Gaeltech Renewables Digitalisation case study.pdf
Pallet manufacturer ready to accelerate digitalisation; CJ Sheeran streamlined operations and set a clear ERP strategy for growth. Read more CJSheeran Pallets Digitalisation case study.pdf
Cosmetics company expanding its operations globally; Drigate Manufacturing created a digital roadmap to modernise systems and scale internationally. Read more Drigate Manufacturing Digitalisation case study.pdf
Logistics Digitalisation is the key to Decarbonisation; A carbon-saving algorithm helped FLS optimise routes and cut emissions. Read more FLS Logistics Decarbonisation case study.pdf
Logistics company develops data hub within weeks; Freight Logistics Solutions built a central data hub, halving manual work and saving £120k. Read more FLS Logistics Data Hub case study.pdf
Platform for Sharing Data on Respiratory Diseases; Helmholtz launched global data platforms for influenza and RSV to enable collaboration. Read more Helmholtz Germany Data Sharing case study.pdf
Data sharing platform for Influenza; Open research hubs scaled influenza and RSV collaboration with automated PubMed integration. Read more Helmholtz Germany Data Platform case study.pdf
Image reference: Photo by Francesco Gallarotti on Unsplash


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### Accelerating Digitalisation with Philtronics Limited

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/accelerating-digitalisation-with-uk-electronics-manufacturer-philtronics-limited/
Date: 2023-03-09
Description: Accelerating digitalisation with electronics manufacturer Philtronics Limited

 “We have gone through an extended period of growth and with the support of NHQ we are able to accelerate our digitalisation efforts (developing a strategy and roadmap) to match this success. We know exactly what we have to do in terms of investing in our systems, processes and most importantly our people in order to drive exciting change within the next 12 -18 months and NHQ are a core part of this journey”. Simon Pritchard, CEO, Philtronics
Philtronics are a Wales-based contract electronic manufacturer (CEM), offering outsourced electronic manufacturing services (EMS) to a range of customers. They have experienced aggressive growth over the past 24 months, doubling in both factory space and staff numbers. Revenue grew 20% over the global pandemic and they are ready invest in their core systems, processes and their people. They partnered with NHQ to evaluate their current position and understand what direction and steps they should take regarding technology solutions and their broader digitalisation strategy.
APPROACH The NHQ team worked with the leadership team to map key business processes and identify areas of improvement. They evaluated current systems and where efficiencies could be delivered with integrations and new tools.
OBJECTIVES Map core business process in order to consolidate knowledge and identify areas for digitalisation Review existing systems and primary service providersMake recommendations for new technologies including document management system (DMS) Reduce paper-based processes on the factory floor via monitors, barcoding and PDAs Evaluate the level of digital literacy within the company and assess training needs Advise on skill and hiring requirements to support successful digitalisation ACHIEVEMENTS Developed a comprehensive workflow for core business processes DMS recommendations aligned with business objectives and existing systems Identified under-utilised solutions and where they could deliver quick efficiencies Identified ’quick-win’ process automations across the business to save time Improvements to operating and security infrastructure Profiling for hiring of digitalisation team Digital skills training and upskilling recommendations Identify funding and support mechanisms to support implementation KEY RESULTS Map key business process in preparation for digitalisation Recommend appropriate DMS to improve operations Delivered digital roadmap and action plan for implementation Why It Worked Philtronics didn’t just need new software. They needed to understand where they actually were before deciding where to go.
That’s the most common mistake manufacturers make. They buy a tool before they’ve mapped the problem. Then the tool doesn’t fit, nobody uses it properly, and the investment sits gathering dust.
The NHQ team started by mapping core business processes. Every key workflow. Every handoff. Every place where someone was using a spreadsheet or a piece of paper when they didn’t need to. That groundwork made the DMS recommendation meaningful — because it was built on real evidence, not a vendor’s sales pitch.
Leadership buy-in made the difference Simon Pritchard, CEO, was involved from the start. That matters. Digital transformation stalls when it’s treated as an IT project rather than a leadership priority. When the person at the top is visibly committed, the rest of the organisation pays attention.
Philtronics had also just been through a period of exceptional growth — doubling factory space and staff in 24 months, with revenue growing 20% during the pandemic. That kind of growth creates growing pains. Processes that worked with 10 people start to creak with 20. Manual workarounds that felt manageable become bottlenecks.
The timing was right. The growth had created urgency. The leadership had the appetite. The job was to channel that into a structured plan rather than a shopping list of new tools.
Why DMS selection matters A Document Management System isn’t glamorous. But for a contract electronics manufacturer, it’s fundamental.
Think about what a CEM deals with every day: customer specifications, revision-controlled drawings, supplier quality records, test reports, and non-conformance records. If any of those are on paper, buried in someone’s inbox, or saved in an uncontrolled shared folder — you have a compliance risk and an operational bottleneck.
The right DMS ties all of that together. It gives you version control, audit trails, and the ability to find any document in seconds rather than minutes. For ISO-certified manufacturers, that’s not a nice-to-have. It’s table stakes.
Getting the DMS wrong is expensive. Getting it right — matched to your existing systems, your team’s digital literacy, and your growth plans — is one of the highest-value infrastructure decisions a growing manufacturer can make.
FAQs What is a Document Management System (DMS) and why does it matter for electronics manufacturers? A Document Management System is exactly what it sounds like: a central, controlled place to store, manage, and retrieve business documents. For electronics manufacturers, that means revision-controlled engineering drawings, customer specifications, quality records, test reports, and supplier documentation.
Paper-based or uncontrolled document management creates three problems. First, version control breaks down — people work from old drawings and mistakes happen. Second, audit trails disappear — when your ISO auditor asks to see change history, you’re scrambling through email threads. Third, you lose time — finding a document should take seconds, not ten minutes of digging through shared folders.
For ISO 9001-certified manufacturers, a properly implemented DMS is the backbone of your quality management system. It makes compliance audits faster, reduces the risk of non-conformance, and gives every team member access to the right version of the right document at the right time.
How do you evaluate digital literacy before recommending tools? Recommending a tool without understanding the team’s current skill level is how you end up with expensive software nobody uses.
The NHQ approach starts with an honest assessment of where the team actually is. That means talking to people on the shop floor and in the office, understanding which tools they currently use (and which ones they’re supposed to use but don’t), and identifying where the gaps are.
From there, training recommendations are grounded in reality. If staff need basic upskilling before a more advanced tool will stick, that goes into the plan. If there’s a need for a dedicated digital hire, that gets scoped too. The goal is sustainable adoption — not a flashy tool that collects dust because nobody was set up to use it properly.
What funding mechanisms are available for UK manufacturers looking to digitalise? There are several funding routes worth exploring, depending on your location and stage of growth.
Made Smarter is the most directly relevant programme for UK manufacturers. It offers subsidised digital technology adoption support, match-funded grants, and access to technology specialists. It’s primarily aimed at small and medium-sized manufacturers in England, with regional programmes across the North West, Midlands, and other areas.
Innovate UK offers grant funding for innovation projects, including digitalisation. It’s competition-based, so applications need to be robust — but for manufacturers with a credible case for productivity improvement, the funding can be substantial.
In Wales specifically — where Philtronics is based — Business Wales and programmes such as the Flexible Skills Programme offer additional support for digital skills development.
GoSmarter helps clients identify which funding mechanisms apply to their situation, put together credible applications, and structure the project scope to meet funder requirements. The goal is to reduce the net cost of digitalisation — not just map out what’s needed, but help you pay for it.
Go deeper No-Code Workflows for Metals SMEs — how to digitalise without an IT department AI for Metals Manufacturing — a plain-English guide to AI in manufacturing Investing in digital technology lowers future operating costs 

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### Midland Steel Manufacturing

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/midland-steel/
Date: 2022-02-24
Description: A company-wide digital review for Midland Steel delivered a transformation roadmap for rebar supply operations across Ireland and the UK.

Manufacturer drives growth with digital review Midland Steel is a market-leading reinforcing steel supplier in Ireland and the UK. They offer a diverse range of prefabricated rebar solutions. We completed a company-wide digital review looking at processes and technologies used across the business and delivered a comprehensive roadmap and action plan for implementation. ​
Approach We reviewed processes and systems across the business (Production, Finance, R&D and IT). We met with key individuals, evaluated technologies and reviewed documentation.
Objectives Assess existing systems and processes Identify opportunities to go paperless and automate workflows to improve efficiency Recommend cost-effective technical solutions that scale with the business Evaluate the level of digital literacy within the company and assess future upskilling and training needs Identify key technology hires to support implementation Achievements Provided a roadmap with actionable recommendations, priorities, costings and owners to support digitalisation Recommended a Data Hub project to consolidate data from different systems, delivering greater insight into the business Identified high-value, quick-win projects including business reporting and automating work instructions Built a skills map and identified areas of improvement Delivered a plan to achieve longer-term near-real-time data analytics and increased process automation Identified support and funding mechanisms for implementation Key results Reviewed of company-wide processes and systems Delivered digital roadmap and action plan for implementation Identified funding and support mechanisms for next steps FAQs Why does digital transformation in steel manufacturing require a holistic review? Midland Steel is not a typical technology case study subject — it is a market-leading reinforcing steel supplier with decades of operational knowledge and established processes. The challenge of digital transformation for a business like Midland Steel is not a lack of capability or ambition. It is the complexity of understanding which processes to change, which technologies to adopt, and in what order to implement them without disrupting the operations that customers depend on.
The digital roadmap that GoSmarter delivered addressed this complexity directly. By reviewing processes across Production, Finance, R&D, and IT, and by engaging with key individuals across the business rather than just IT leadership, the review captured a realistic picture of where digital tools would deliver the most value and where implementation would be most straightforward.
What is the Data Hub recommendation? One of the key recommendations from the Midland Steel review was a Data Hub project — a centralised system to consolidate data from different operational systems into a single source of truth. This is a common pattern in manufacturing businesses that have grown over time, accumulating separate systems for production, finance, and logistics that do not communicate easily with each other.
A Data Hub does not replace these systems. It connects them, making it possible to run cross-functional analysis and reports that would otherwise require manual data extraction and reconciliation. For Midland Steel, the long-term vision of near-real-time data analytics and increased process automation starts with this foundational data infrastructure.
What funding and support mechanisms are available? Part of GoSmarter’s value in the Irish manufacturing market is knowledge of the funding and support landscape. The digital review for Midland Steel included identification of specific funding and support mechanisms for the implementation phase — reducing the financial risk of acting on the roadmap and accelerating the timeline for adoption. Go deeper Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation — how GoSmarter’s Cutting Plans reduces scrap rates for long product manufacturers Spreadsheet-to-System Planning for Metals — the live planning transformation behind the Midland Steel results AI for Metals Manufacturing — how AI applies across every role in a metals business 

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### MAAS Case Study

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/maas-case-study/
Date: 2023-02-16
Description: Machining manufacturer takes on NHQ for Digital Review

 NHQ nailed it! Their understanding of our company, where we are at and how digitalisation can support our growth was excellent. They were extremely efficient in gathering all the necessary info from us both from a business perspective and the management team and as result were able to generate a very comprehensive report and practical roadmap to guide us into a more productive digital world.
Tadhg Hurley, Managing Director, MAAS
Streamlining operations and system integrations MAAS has an ambitious growth target for the next 12 months and will invest in their core processes and systems to support this. Priorities for the business include the installation of a new DNC system, and the optimisation of existing EPR and finance systems. Training and upskilling of the core management team is also a key factor to their digitalisation success.
Approach The NHQ team completed a company-wide digital review, looking at processes and technologies used across the business, and delivered a comprehensive digital roadmap to support growth.
Objectives Review existing ERP and financial systems Evaluate requirements for a new DNC system Recommend CRM system to support sales activities Identify areas where paper-based and manual processes could be reduced Review compliance system requirements for a Document Management System (DMS) Evaluate the level of digital literacy within the company and assess training needs Recommend next steps in terms of priorities and funding support. Achievements Recommendations on DNC system that aligned with MAAS business requirements Identification of under-utilised ERP and finance modules to deliver efficiencies Operating and security infrastructure improvements Identified ’quick-win’ process automations in finance to save time Recommendations around digitalising compliance processes and setup of a Microsoft Sharepoint DMS to support Digital skills training and upskilling recommendations Identified funding and support mechanisms to support implementation. Key Results Reviewed of company-wide processes and systems Delivered digital roadmap and action plan for implementation Identified areas where system integrations and cloud save costs. Why machining precision manufacturers need digital infrastructure MAAS manufactures precision machined parts for some of the world’s most demanding customers: Apple, Stryker, Alcon, Abbott. These customers set exacting standards for quality, traceability, and supply chain reliability. Meeting those standards consistently, at scale, with ambitious growth targets, requires a digital infrastructure that can keep pace.
The priorities identified in the MAAS digital review — DNC system installation, ERP optimisation, CRM deployment, compliance documentation — are not isolated IT projects. They are interconnected investments in the operational foundation that precision manufacturing growth requires. Getting the sequence right matters: a new DNC system delivers more value when it is connected to an optimised ERP. A CRM delivers more value when the operational data it draws on is reliable.
The value of a comprehensive digital review Tadhg Hurley’s quote captures something important about the value GoSmarter delivers through digital reviews: “Their understanding of our company, where we are at and how digitalisation can support our growth.” This is not a generic technology assessment — it is a diagnosis of where a specific business is in its digital maturity, what its specific growth constraints are, and what investments will deliver the most value in the right sequence.
For precision manufacturing businesses like MAAS, the digital review provides a roadmap that is credible to management, actionable for IT teams, and fundable through identified support mechanisms. It turns a complex, potentially overwhelming set of decisions into a structured plan with clear priorities and owners.
About MAAS MAAS is a leading Irish manufacturer of precision machined parts and components, supplying major multinational customers in medical devices, consumer electronics, and energy sectors. Based in Ireland, the company combines advanced CNC machining capabilities with a commitment to quality and continuous improvement. The engagement with GoSmarter was part of a broader strategic investment in the digital and operational capabilities needed to support ambitious growth plans.


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### German research centre shares COVID-19 data globally

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/sharing-covid-19-data-globally/
Date: 2021-05-05
Description: To support data sharing and knowledge dissemination, the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research partnered with NHQ to create a global COVID-19 study platform.

As a response to the worldwide pandemic, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Germany required a fast and secure way for researchers to share COVID-19 data.
The result was Serohub, a platform to accelerate research about the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2. We delivered a platform to enable researchers, government, and industry partners to contribute knowledge and tools and ultimately improve evidence-based decision-making on COVID-19.
Approach The overall approach was to support the increased use of data-driven approaches for infection research and drive greater collaboration. The project had four primary aims:
be a community space for researchers allow for critical appraisal of diagnostic trials host study-related documents be a cloud-based, meta-analysis platform Objectives Build a centralised platform where researchers can share studies, publications, and data easily Incorporate four key platform elements: community, trial summary, document, and meta-analysis Train and support staff in adopting and maintaining the platform to ensure long-term sustainability Achievements Align with research, management, and technical teams on data infrastructure and content Built a sharing facility using the Netlify CMS to allow easy study management Used GitHub to enable greater levels of collaboration in a cost-effective way Delivered a general public website and a service environment for researchers Trained and onboarded staff to use and maintain the platform effectively ensuring scalability Key results Serohub platform launched 105 Publications uploaded 6 major research studies shared Collaborations across 3 continents FAQs What is the challenge of data sharing in crisis science? When COVID-19 emerged as a global pandemic in early 2020, one of the most critical bottlenecks to effective public health response was data. Seroprevalence studies — research measuring the proportion of a population that has antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, indicating prior infection — were being conducted by research institutions around the world. But the results were scattered across institutions, published at different times, using different methodologies, and often inaccessible to researchers and policymakers who needed them most.
The Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research’s vision for Serohub addressed this directly: a centralised, open platform where seroprevalence studies, publications, and data could be shared, reviewed, and built upon. The challenge was building this platform quickly enough to be useful during the pandemic, with a technology architecture that would be sustainable and maintainable by the research institution’s own team long after the initial build.
Why open infrastructure mattered? The decision to use Netlify CMS for study management and GitHub for collaboration was not just a technical choice — it was a commitment to transparency and accessibility. These tools are open, widely understood, and do not create dependency on commercial platforms that could become expensive or unavailable. For a research institution sharing data that needs to be accessible to researchers globally, on an ongoing basis, this kind of infrastructure choice matters.
The result — 105 publications uploaded, six major research studies shared, and collaborations across three continents — demonstrates what is possible when the right infrastructure is in place and the right team builds it quickly. Nightingale HQ’s ability to understand both the technical requirements and the research mission was key to delivering a platform that worked for its intended users.
How did the pandemic response evolve into long-term capability? Beyond the immediate pandemic response, the Serohub project demonstrates GoSmarter’s capability in building data platforms for complex, high-stakes applications. The same principles that made Serohub effective — centralised data, open infrastructure, trained internal teams — apply to manufacturing businesses managing complex operational data. The context is different; the approach is the same. 

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### TMD Technologies Manufacturing Case Study

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/tmd-technologies/
Date: 2022-02-25
Description: How TMD Technologies streamlined back-office operations with no-code digital tools and technical training — with measurable quick wins from day one.

Electronics components manufacturer streamline back office ​ TMD Technologies Limited (TMD) is among the world’s leading manufacturers of microwave tubes, high voltage power supplies, and transmitters for radar and communications applications. We helped them improve their back-office operations by deploying no code digital tools and delivering technical training. ​
Defence and aerospace manufacturing demands precision. Not just in the components — in the systems that surround them too. When your products end up in radar systems and military communications equipment, there is no room for administrative errors. Supplier documentation that can’t be traced. Time records that don’t add up. Reports that take hours to pull together manually. These aren’t just inefficiencies. In this sector, they’re risks.
TMD understood that. The engagement focused on targeted, practical improvements to back-office operations — time tracking, supplier management, and data visualisation — without touching the core manufacturing processes that are already working.
Why incremental improvement beats a big-bang overhaul The temptation with digital transformation is to treat it like a building project. Knock everything down and start fresh. New ERP. New everything. Six months of disruption.
That approach fails more often than it succeeds. For manufacturers operating in high-precision, high-stakes environments, the risk of disrupting core operations is too high. You don’t want your supplier management process to go dark for three months while a new system beds in.
The smarter approach is incremental. Identify the processes causing the most friction. Fix those. Build capability. Move to the next one.
For TMD, that meant three focused interventions: time tracking, supplier onboarding, and Power BI upskilling. Each one delivered standalone value. Together, they created a more visible, more efficient back-office operation — without requiring a single moment of downtime in manufacturing.
Quick wins that create lasting change Helen Anderson captured it well: “sometimes it’s the incremental improvements and quick wins that can be hugely valuable.” That’s not a consolation prize. It’s a strategy.
When you give a team a tool that saves them real time — a time tracking system that takes two minutes instead of twenty, a supplier onboarding flow that runs itself — you build trust in digital tools. That trust makes the next improvement easier to adopt. And the one after that.
This is how digital maturity actually develops in manufacturing businesses. Not through a single transformational project, but through a series of well-chosen, well-implemented improvements that compound over time.
Approach Reviewed operational processes relating to business wide productivity. Worked closely with key individuals from Operations providing technical specialism & industry best practise.
Objectives Provide greater transparency to projects with time management tools;​ Streamline supplier management processes to save time; Upskill core staff so new tools are sustained within the firm. Achievements Enabled a time tracking tool, facilitating employees to record time spent on tasks or projects; Reviewed supplier onboarding processes and recommended tools for automation around quotations and order acknowledgement; Provided upskilling for technical staff on Power BI to maintain solutions in-house. Key results Implemented a time management tool;​ Reviewed supplier management process;​ Upskilled team’s digital skills.​ FAQs Why does back-office efficiency matter in precision manufacturing? TMD Technologies operates in one of the most demanding sectors in electronics manufacturing: microwave tubes and high-power RF components for defence and aerospace applications. The precision required in the core manufacturing process is mirrored in the demands placed on back-office operations — supplier management, time tracking, and compliance documentation all need to work reliably and consistently in an environment where errors have significant consequences.
Deploying no-code digital tools in this context demonstrates that digital transformation does not require a complete system overhaul. Targeted improvements to specific processes — time tracking, supplier onboarding, data visualisation — can deliver meaningful value without disrupting the core manufacturing operation that the business depends on.
Helen Anderson’s testimonial captures the GoSmarter approach well: understanding that incremental improvements and quick wins are often the right starting point, and that upskilling the internal team to sustain solutions is as important as the technical implementation itself. Leaving a team with better tools and better capabilities is the outcome that creates lasting value.
What is the value of upskilling alongside implementation? One of the key deliverables in this engagement was training TMD’s technical staff on Power BI to maintain their solutions in-house. This reflects a deliberate philosophy: technology implementations that create dependency on the implementing partner are less valuable than those that build internal capability. GoSmarter’s goal is always to leave clients more self-sufficient, not more dependent. What is the difference between no-code tools and custom software development for manufacturers? Custom software development means hiring developers to build something from scratch. It’s expensive, slow, and creates an ongoing dependency — every change, every bug fix, every new feature requires a developer.
No-code tools like Power BI and the GoSmarter platform are built to be configured by the people who actually use them. A production manager can build a dashboard. A quality manager can create a report. An operations team can automate a workflow — without writing a single line of code.
That changes the economics completely. Configuration replaces development. The team that owns the process owns the tool. Ongoing maintenance doesn’t require a retainer with a software house.
For manufacturers like TMD, this means targeted improvements can be deployed quickly, maintained internally, and adapted as processes change — without the overhead of a full IT function or an external development agency.
Go deeper No-Code Workflows for Metals SMEs — how to digitalise without an IT department AI for Metals Manufacturing — a plain-English guide to AI in manufacturing 10 signs your metal shop needs process automation 

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### Accelerating digitalisation in pallet manufacturing

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/accelerating-digitalisation-in-pallet-manufacturing/
Date: 2023-08-17
Description: Find out how Nightingale HQ worked with CJS Group, the largest manufacturer of timber packaging and pallets in Ireland

 Nightingale HQ have identified digital quick wins that improve operations in the short term. But equally they supported us in setting our digitalisation strategy. The experience has given us the confidence to form a team to support implementation. Their pragmatic approach has been hugely supportive to our business. Ashleigh Doyle, Director, CJ Sheeran Group
Accelerating digitalisation in pallet manufacturing CJS Group are the largest manufacturer of timber packaging and pallets in Ireland, with 350 staff across 10 locations. The company has a history of M&A activity, which has resulted in different operational approaches and systems from site to site, which has lead to a need to optimise through consolidation in order to scale further.
Approach NHQ worked with the CJS leadership team to evaluate their current systems to facilitate growth. Investigate the flow of data between core business processes and support requirements gathering for new systems.
Objectives Review and map existing systems, licenses, and processes Identified ’quick-win’ process automations across the business to save time Support initial requirement gathering and scoping for appropriate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions
Recommendations for ERP solutions and modules which align with business objectives Evaluate the level of digital literacy within the company and assess training needs Advise on senior hiring requirements to support ERP implementation, cloud migration, and move to modern work technologies Review business KPI dashboards work in production, finance, energy to facilitate growth. Achievements Evaluate current systems, vendors and costings Support ERP demo and business alignment Improvements in IT policy updates Profiling for hiring of digitalisation team Digital skills training and upskilling recommendations Identify funding and support mechanisms to support implementation. Results Identify digital quick wins to improve operations in the short term Support creation of a technology acquisition strategy for the business Provided technical expertise on ERP requirements gathering and demos Delivered a digital roadmap with action plan for implementation. 

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### Data sharing platforms for Influenza and RSV

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/creating-influenza-and-rsv-data-platforms/
Date: 2022-03-23
Description: How the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research built open data platforms for RSV and influenza surveillance, following the success of serohub.net.

Approach The aim of the project was to build two additional data platforms modelling the key driving factors of serohub. Our approach had to support four primary aims: be a community space for researchers, allow for critical appraisal of diagnostic trials, host study-related documents and be a cloud-based, meta-analysis platform.
Objectives Build a centralised platform where researchers can share studies, publications, and data easily Incorporate four key platform elements: community, trial summary, document, and meta-analysis Build internal capabilities with core documentation and training Connect with the PubMed research library so that articles could be automatically published on the platform. Achievements Aligned with research, management and technical teams on data infrastructure Built a platform using the Netlify CMS to easily manage content Used cost effective tools like GitHub and Hugo to enable greater levels of collaboration and scalability Delivered a public website and a service environment for researchers Created extensive users guides and project documentation Delivered digital training and Q&A sessions to staff to ensure scalability. Key results New platforms live for Influenza & RSV Shortcode integration with PubMed to deliver journal articles FAQs How do you build on the serohub success? The Influenza and RSV platforms represent the second phase of GoSmarter’s partnership with the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research. The success of serohub — built during the COVID-19 crisis to enable global seroprevalence data sharing — provided a proven model that could be replicated and extended for related respiratory diseases.
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Influenza are significant public health concerns in their own right, particularly for paediatric populations. Understanding their seroprevalence — how widely they have circulated in a population — requires the same kind of collaborative data infrastructure that proved so valuable for COVID-19 research. By extending the serohub model to these diseases, the Helmholtz Centre is building a persistent infrastructure for respiratory disease research that will remain valuable long after the pandemic recedes.
What is the PubMed integration? One of the distinctive technical achievements in this project was the PubMed shortcode integration — enabling journal articles from the PubMed research library to be automatically published on the platform. This removes a significant manual step from the research community’s workflow: instead of researchers having to manually add publications to the platform, the system can pull them directly from the world’s largest biomedical research library.
This kind of integration reflects GoSmarter’s approach to data platforms: look for the manual steps that researchers and users spend the most time on, and automate them where the data infrastructure makes it possible.
What is the value of open source and sustainable architecture? The decision to use GitHub and Hugo — open-source tools widely used in the developer community — reflects a commitment to sustainability and transparency. Research institutions need platforms that will still work in five or ten years, that can be maintained by future teams who were not involved in the original build, and that do not create dependency on commercial platforms with unpredictable cost trajectories. GoSmarter’s architecture choices consistently prioritise these long-term considerations alongside the immediate technical requirements. 

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### Freight Logistics Green Mile Case Study

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/freight-logistics-green-mile-case-study/
Date: 2022-07-12
Description: How FLS Logistics used data and analytics to reduce transport emissions, cut costs, and help customers understand their environmental footprint.

It’s widespread practice for freight carriers to provide a vehicle that is just ‘available’ and not consider its proximity to the collection point, or if there is a load available to fill its return journey leading to a waste of energy resources. Freight Logistics Solutions (FLS) have developed a Green Mile Carbon Saver Calculator using a transport matching algorithm that selects the closest carrier vehicle to the freight collection point (rather than the closest haulier depot) saving customers on cost and reducing carbon emissions.
“Working with Nightingale HQ we have developed a data-driven approach to source and control vehicles more efficiently. We want our customers to benefit from getting the right size vehicle from the best location possible, optimising the route. Also return journeys get considered, planned further and reduce empty mileage, costs, and carbon emissions” Paul Cleverley, Marketing & Communications Director, FLS
Approach A technology and data driven approach reduces transport emissions. This tool is a practical approach to support FLS’ sustainability goals, reduce costs and help change commercial behaviours by using data and analytics to help customers understand their environmental footprint.
Objectives Combine emission data with vehicle locations and route data to produce carbon savings calculations ​ Plan return journey to further reduce empty mileage and reduce costs for the end customer.​ Develop a Carbon Dashboard for the end customer to keep track of carbon savings​ Use data to deliver practical results to reduce supply chain Scope 3 emissions. Achievements Enables customers to see how much carbon the journey they are booking will produce and how much they will save on their planned journey. ​ Develop a transport matching algorithm that selects the closest carrier vehicle to the fright collection point rather than the closest haulier depot.​ Carbon Dashboard provides management reports to keep on top of data and make better decisions. Key Results Reduction in carbon footprint due to route optimisation Carbon Dashboard for data insights ​ More engaged customers.​ FAQs What is the Green Mile challenge in freight logistics? The freight and logistics sector faces a distinctive sustainability challenge: the environmental impact of road transport is large, measurable, and increasingly scrutinised by customers and regulators. At the same time, logistics businesses operate in highly competitive markets where margins are tight and the ability to win and retain customers depends increasingly on demonstrating environmental credentials alongside operational reliability.
The Green Mile initiative addresses this challenge by measuring and reducing the carbon footprint of logistics operations. Data is central to this: you cannot reduce what you cannot measure, and you cannot measure accurately without the right data infrastructure. GoSmarter’s role in the Green Mile project was to provide that data foundation — connecting the operational data that logistics companies already collect to the emissions reporting and analysis that the Green Mile programme requires.
What makes freight emissions data complex? Calculating the carbon footprint of a freight journey is not as simple as multiplying distance by an emissions factor. Vehicle type, fuel type, load factor, route efficiency, and the emissions intensity of the electricity grid (for electric vehicles) all affect the result. Getting accurate numbers requires connecting data from multiple sources — telematics, fuel records, vehicle specifications — and applying the right methodology.
GoSmarter’s experience with emissions calculation in manufacturing — where we help companies understand the carbon footprint of their steel procurement and production — translates directly to this challenge. The data engineering and emissions modelling skills are the same; the operational context is different.
Why logistics is part of manufacturing's carbon story? For metals manufacturers, logistics is a significant part of their carbon footprint. Steel is heavy and supply chains are long — the emissions from transporting raw material to the mill, processed material to the stockholder, and fabricated product to the construction site are not negligible. Understanding and reducing those logistics emissions is part of any credible sustainability strategy for a manufacturing business.
GoSmarter’s work in freight logistics emissions therefore connects directly to its work in manufacturing. The tools and methodology developed in the Green Mile project inform how GoSmarter approaches emissions reporting for its manufacturing customers.


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### Galetech Group

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/galetech-group/
Date: 2024-05-22
Description: Working with international renewables group to accelerate digitalisation

Renewables group speeds up digitalisation to support growth​ We recently engaged Nightingale HQ to conduct a comprehensive digital review for Galetech Group, and we are extremely pleased with the outcome. The approach taken by the consultancy was not only highly engaging but also deeply integrated with feedback from various levels within our organisation.From the outset, the team demonstrated a genuine commitment to understanding our business in detail. This thorough understanding was evident in the meticulously crafted roadmap they provided, which outlines a clear and actionable plan for a 24-month staged rollout. This roadmap is both comprehensive and tailored to our specific needs, ensuring that we are well-prepared for the future. Georgina Quigley, Group Business Integrator, Galetech Group
Galetech Group is a leading player in the renewable energy sector, offering a comprehensive set of solutions throughout the renewable energy lifecycle. The group has ambitious plans to expand over the next 24 months and is transitioning to a shared services model. To support its growth, the company understands the importance of a robust digitalisation strategy to consolidate and streamline its systems. Nightingale HQ conducted a digitalisation review to evaluate its current situation and make recommendations on where the group needs to invest in terms of systems, skills, and personnel.
APPROACH​ Evaluate existing systems and integrations across the group and provide recommendations on optimising and streamlining with appropriate technical solutions. Provide advisory around skills development and leadership to implement the digital roadmap. ​
OBJECTIVES​ Assess existing systems and processes across the identify areas of synergy and consolidation Recommend cost-effective technical solutions that scale across the group​ Evaluate the level of digital literacy within the company and assess future upskilling and training needs​ Identify key technology hires and funding to support implementation.​​ ACHIEVEMENTS​ Delivered a digitalisation roadmap with actionable recommendations, priorities, costings and owners​ Evaluated solutions for shared workspace and a centralised storage system​ Recommended single integrated financial system ​ Recommended self-service HR platform to support learning and skills development​ Assessed SCADA solutions for centralising and managing operational control data.​ Advised on upgrade of inventory system to avail of extra features and integrations​ Identified high-value, quick-win projects relating to automating work instructions and reporting​ Identify IT hiring requirements to oversee the digitalisation roadmap. ​ Identify funding opportunities to implement digital roadmap.​ KEY RESULTS​ Overall, the digitalisation review provided a comprehensive analysis and roadmap for the Galetech Group to support its growth. The adoption of recommended technical solutions will help drive productivity and their shared services model across the business.
Throughout the engagement, the entire team was exceptionally easy to work with. Their knowledge of the current digital landscape is impressive, and they effectively combined this expertise with a strong focus on the people aspect of transformational change. This balanced approach has given us confidence that our digital transformation will be both successful and sustainable.We would highly recommend Ruth and her team at Nightingale HQ for their professional, knowledgeable, and personable approach. Their ability to deeply understand our business and provide a detailed, actionable plan has been invaluable. Georgina Quigley, Group Business Integrator, Galetech Group
FAQs Why do renewable energy businesses need a strong digitalisation strategy? Growth is the easy part to celebrate. Managing that growth is where businesses run into trouble.
Galetech Group is expanding rapidly across multiple entities. Without a shared digital infrastructure, each part of the group ends up working differently. Different systems. Different data formats. Different ways of doing the same task. Sharing services — which is a core part of Galetech’s growth model — becomes almost impossible without a common digital foundation.
A strong digitalisation strategy means more than buying new software. It means building systems that can scale with the business. For a renewables group managing SCADA data from operational assets, HR across multiple entities, financial reporting from multiple companies, and a growing headcount, that digital infrastructure is what makes a shared services model actually work.
Done properly, it also provides the operational control data needed to run assets efficiently, identify underperformance early, and respond quickly to issues across the portfolio.
How does a digital roadmap differ from just buying new software? Buying new software without a roadmap is how you end up with five subscriptions, two of which nobody uses, and a team confused about which system is the source of truth.
A digital roadmap sequences your investments logically. It starts with the foundations — data storage, identity management, shared workspace — before layering in more specialised tools. It identifies dependencies: you can’t automate a process until the process is documented. You can’t implement a self-service HR platform until you know who’s responsible for maintaining it.
Galetech’s 24-month staged roadmap was built around this logic. Early-stage work focused on consolidation and quick wins — things that would deliver value immediately and build momentum. Later stages introduce more complex integrations as the team’s digital capability grows.
The roadmap also covers the human side: which skills need to be hired in, which need to be developed internally, and how change is managed so that new tools actually get used. A tool nobody adopts isn’t a digital transformation. It’s an expensive mistake.
Go deeper No-Code Workflows for Metals SMEs — how to digitalise without an IT department AI for Metals Manufacturing — a plain-English guide to AI in manufacturing GoSmarter for Metals Operations — built for the unique demands of metals and industrial manufacturing 

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### FAQ Chatbot helps business fly

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/business-growth-with-chatbots/
Date: 2021-05-05
Description: Letterbox Lab uses chatbots to deal with unprecedented demand caused by the global pandemic.

This B2C manufacturing and ecommerce business deals with customers and suppliers from all over the world had to quickly increase production and assembly to meet new demand. Demand for their main product, a science kit, exploded overnight. On 18 March 2020 online subscription rates increased six-fold within 24 hours.
From their Worklab space in Wales, the team was dealing with increasing orders and volume queries from both customers and suppliers. Within a week of the lockdown announcement, they had become so inundated with new customers they had to suspend their online registration.
Approach Our approach was to support the business to keep up with the volume of questions coming from several different communication channels and successfully capture demand from new customers. We helped them to deploy the GoSmarter Chatbot tool to deal with the most common questions asked by customers and take the pressure off the production and management team.
Objectives This aim was to build a Microsoft Azure-hosted chatbot and deploy it to the company website and social media channels. With a little support, their bot was up and running in hours and responding to customer queries worldwide and 24/7.
Achievements Their personalised bot christened LetterBOT became the newest member of their customer service team. It was able to guide new users through their product range and help them to choose the right subscription. It took the pressure off the team and was able to deal with volume questions.
Key results Deployed a Microsoft Azure-hosted FAQ Chatbot Used a Microsoft QnA Maker knowledgebase to keep the bot relevant and up-to-date Selected a pre-built personality and style to suit the brand Staff trained to maintain the knowledge base Further information Letterbox Lab FAQs Why does chatbots work for manufacturing e-commerce businesses? Letterbox Lab is a distinctive case study in manufacturing: a product business that also operates as a direct-to-consumer ecommerce company. The manufacturing challenge — scaling production to meet a six-fold increase in demand — is fundamentally different from the customer service challenge, but both demand fast, scalable solutions.
The chatbot addressed the customer service challenge precisely because it operates at machine speed. Where a human customer service agent handles one conversation at a time, LetterBOT handled hundreds simultaneously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For a business suddenly managing a global customer base from a Welsh worklab, that capability was the difference between controlled growth and being overwhelmed.
What is the Microsoft Azure QnA Maker approach? The technology underpinning LetterBOT — Microsoft Azure’s QnA Maker — is a knowledge base platform that enables businesses to build question-and-answer systems from existing content. Letterbox Lab’s FAQ content, product documentation, and subscription information was fed into the knowledge base, enabling the bot to answer accurately from day one without needing to be trained from scratch.
The staff training element of the implementation — teaching Letterbox Lab’s team to maintain and update the knowledge base — was essential for long-term sustainability. As products change and new questions emerge, the team can update the bot without external support.
How did the pandemic response evolve into long-term business capability? Like many of the businesses GoSmarter worked with during 2020, Letterbox Lab’s adoption of a chatbot was initially a crisis response. But the capability they built during that period became a permanent part of their customer service infrastructure — a 24/7 channel that continues to handle queries, guide new customers through the product range, and free the team to focus on the work that requires human judgement.
This pattern — crisis response becoming permanent capability — is consistent with the broader shift to digital adoption that the pandemic accelerated across manufacturing and e-commerce.


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### Logistics firm liberates staff with data automation

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/fls/
Date: 2021-04-23
Description: FLS Logistics cut 50% of admin time by replacing spreadsheets with a data warehouse. Near real-time visibility without adding IT headcount.

Freight Logistics Solutions (FLS) needed help to modernise its data warehousing capabilities to run more effecient operations and gain a competitive advantage. The aim for the cargo transport provider was to improve their digital position and scale their business.
Approach We consolidated data into a centralised reporting database to eliminate manual work and provide more timely insights into the business and its customers. Collaborating closely with the management and technical team to deliver a build a scalable and cost-effective data warehousing and data integration process. Utilising a mix of scheduled and real-time data feeds to provide an up-to-the-minute view of the business performance.​
Objectives Consolidate data from multiple sources into one centralised reporting system​ Deliver a cost-effective solution in terms of maintenance and scalability for the business​ Train staff so that key digital capabilities are developed and sustained within the firm​ Support data warehousing competencies in order to help leverage a distinct competitive advantage in the market​. Achievements Aligned prioritised technical requirements with business objectives in business modelling workshops Delivered one central database using Azure SQL that consolidated multiple data sources​. Delivered real-time data from APIs using Azure Functions. Real-time analytics support better business decision making​ Provided a cost-effective solution using Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Serverless solutions with no ongoing maintenance burden and the ability to scale easily​ Supporting ongoing data warehousing service in order to ensure database optimisation and backup maintenance. FAQs What is the 50% time saving — what it actually means? Freeing up more than 50% of staff time from data entry is not an abstract metric. For a logistics business like FLS, the people spending that time on manual data work are typically operations staff with deep knowledge of their customers and their business. Redeploying that time to customer service, problem-solving, and strategic work is not just an efficiency gain — it is a capability gain.
The reason data entry consumed so much time was fragmentation: multiple data sources that did not talk to each other, requiring manual extraction and reconciliation to get a coherent picture of business performance. Consolidating that data into a centralised reporting database, with real-time feeds from key sources, removed the need for the reconciliation work entirely.
Why Azure was the right choice? The decision to build FLS’s data warehouse on Azure SQL, with Azure Functions handling real-time data feeds, reflects a core principle in GoSmarter’s engineering approach: use Platform as a Service (PaaS) and serverless solutions where possible to eliminate ongoing maintenance burden. For a logistics company, maintaining a database infrastructure should not require dedicated IT headcount — the platform should handle it.
The scalability of this approach is important too. As FLS’s business grows and new data sources need to be added, the architecture supports that growth without requiring a rebuild.
Near-real-time visibility — why it matters in logistics? Chris Sourbutts’ testimonial describes the goal as adding value to customers’ experience. In logistics, the fundamental value proposition is reliability and transparency — customers want to know where their freight is and when it will arrive. Near-real-time data visibility gives FLS the operational picture they need to answer those questions accurately, manage exceptions before they become problems, and provide a service that retains customers rather than losing them to competitors. 

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### The digitalisation of Dry Ice

URL: https://www.gosmarter.ai/casestudies/the-digitalisation-of-polar-ice/
Date: 2022-05-25
Description: How Polar Ice, Ireland's leading dry ice supplier, took its first steps towards digitalising its operations with Nightingale HQ.

Our CEO Ruth Kearney visits Ireland’s leading dry ice supplier, Polar Ice.
A Brief History of Polar Ice Polar Ice is a family run business established in 1996, they are the leading manufacturer and supplier of Dry Ice in Northern Ireland. They began with two employees and now have a team of seventeen people. Due to their hard work and dedication they have achieved an impressive market growth of over 800%.
Alison Ritchie is the managing director of Polar Ice, she helped to set up the company alongside her father and two brothers. In 2013, Polar Ice invested in food grade manufacturing and are certified to BRC v8 and ISO9001:2015. Due to consistently striving to achieve the highest grade in their BRC Quality audits, they are the approved dry ice supplier to some of the country’s top meat processors and food suppliers. To ensure their high standards are maintained, Polar ice employ their own quality assurance experts and operate a clean room manufacturing environment to prevent any physical, chemical, or microbial contaminants in their dry ice. As a result of their exacting standards, Polar Ice have received recognition for their achievements in several industry awards including the Ulster Bank Business Achievers Award 2015 - Winner of Women Led Business in Leinster.
Why Is Dry Ice So Important? Among Polar Ice’s many customers, pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer use their dry ice in their shipping containers to transport drugs required to be stored at continuously low temperatures. Aer Lingus also uses dry ice provided by Polar Ice in their onboard catering storage units. Further examples include medical uses such as hospitals and labs to store samples and the Irish Blood Transfusion Service to transport vital plasma products. Whilst there are a number of industries that use dry ice, Polar Ice manufactures a range of products including blocks, slices, and pellets with custom-sized dry ice products on request making it a unique experience tailored to the client.
We are looking forward to working with Polar Ice as their digital partner and supporting them on their digitalisation journey made possible with our digitalisation voucher. To find out more about our products check out our website or book a call to see how digitalisation could help your business.
What Digitalisation Looks Like for a Specialist Manufacturer Polar Ice isn’t your typical manufacturer. They operate in food-grade conditions, hold BRC v8 and ISO 9001:2015 certification, and supply pharmaceutical clients including Pfizer. Their products go into cold chain logistics for medical-grade drugs that must be stored at continuously low temperatures. The stakes are high.
That level of compliance means their quality management processes are demanding. Every batch of dry ice they produce must be traceable. Every cleaning record must be accessible. Every supplier must be verified and documented. When an auditor walks in — and for BRC v8, they will — the documentation must be complete, accurate, and findable.
That’s a lot of paperwork. Or it was.
Moving from paper to digital records Manual recording in a food-grade environment creates risk. Paper gets wet. Ink smudges. Records get misfiled. People forget to fill in a form at the end of a shift.
Digital tools remove most of that risk. When your team logs a temperature reading on a tablet, it’s timestamped and stored automatically. When a batch is traced back for a customer query, the record is there in seconds. When an auditor asks for the last six months of cleaning logs, you don’t spend two hours pulling files from a cabinet.
For a manufacturer with pharmaceutical clients who expect zero-defect supply chains, this isn’t just efficiency. It’s brand protection.
Cold chain logistics and traceability Polar Ice supplies dry ice for pharmaceutical cold chain logistics — where product traceability isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a regulatory requirement. Pharmaceutical clients like Pfizer have strict supplier qualification processes. Being able to demonstrate rigorous digital records and full traceability is part of maintaining those relationships.
As Polar Ice grows, the manual approach to records and traceability will become a bottleneck. A team of 17 can manage a lot on paper. At 25 or 30, it starts to break down. Digitalising now means sustainable growth later.
FAQs Why is digitalisation critical for food-grade manufacturers? Food-grade manufacturing operates under audit regimes that demand complete, accurate, and retrievable records. BRC Global Standard for Food Safety requires documented procedures, traceability records, corrective action logs, and supplier approval documentation — and auditors will ask to see them.
Paper-based systems are vulnerable. Documents get lost, damaged, or completed incorrectly. Retrieving a specific record under audit pressure takes time you don’t have. Digital systems solve this by creating automatic, timestamped records that are searchable and immediately accessible.
Beyond audit readiness, digital records support faster response to customer queries, better visibility of quality trends, and a cleaner handover when key staff are absent. For manufacturers supplying into pharmaceutical or medical supply chains — where traceability is a contractual requirement — digital records are non-negotiable.
How does GoSmarter help businesses with complex compliance requirements? GoSmarter works with manufacturers to identify the specific compliance documentation that’s creating the most pain, then recommends or configures tools that reduce the manual effort involved.
That might mean a digital quality management module that captures inspection records automatically. It might mean a supplier approval workflow that ensures every new supplier completes the right checks before their first order. Or it might mean connecting existing systems so that compliance data flows without manual re-entry.
For manufacturers with complex regulatory requirements, our compliance solutions are designed to reduce the administration burden without compromising the rigour that auditors expect. The MillCert Reader is one example — it automates the processing of mill certificates, a document-heavy compliance task that typically costs hours of manual effort per week.
What does a digitalisation voucher cover? Digitalisation vouchers are funded programmes designed to subsidise the cost of digital advisory and technology adoption for small and medium-sized businesses.
In Northern Ireland, Invest NI has historically offered digitalisation voucher schemes covering consultancy costs, software licensing, and implementation support — typically meeting 50% of eligible costs up to a defined cap. Enterprise Ireland runs similar programmes for businesses in the Republic.
These vouchers are designed to reduce the risk of making a first investment in digital tools. They allow businesses to work with a specialist — like GoSmarter — to identify the right tools, implement them correctly, and train the team, without carrying the full cost upfront.
GoSmarter works with clients on funded programmes. We help structure the scope of work to meet funder requirements, manage reporting, and make sure the deliverables are genuinely useful to the business — not just boxes ticked to satisfy the grant conditions.
Go deeper GoSmarter Compliance Solutions — managing compliance documentation automatically No-Code Workflows for Metals SMEs — how to digitalise without an IT department AI for Metals Manufacturing — a plain-English guide to AI in manufacturing 

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## Company Information

- **Company**: Nightingale HQ (creators of GoSmarter AI)
- **Founded**: Late 2018
- **Mission**: Revolutionise productivity in metals manufacturing by making advanced tools and insights available to everyone
- **Location**: Europe (UK base)
- **Industries Served**: Metals manufacturing, steel production, fabrication
- **Awards**: Best Greentech Application Wales 2025, Innovate UK Innovation Awardee, EIT Manufacturing Innovation Awardee
- **Website**: https://www.gosmarter.ai/
- **Contact**: TalkToUs@GoSmarter.ai
- **Demo Booking**: https://calendly.com/gosmarter-demo