Steel service centre and long products
Findings

Steel service centre and long-products processor · 2 sites · 170 employeesThis War Map shows how we turn an operational review into an implementation plan. The dates show a possible sequence; the scope and schedule of a real engagement are agreed with you.

Findings

Where work gets held up, who has to step in, and what it costs in this example.

Certificates found by hand

About 70 shipments a day need a mill certificate pack. Each one is assembled from a shared drive sorted by supplier and month, and about 8 a day leave without the right certificate.

Payments held for paperwork

Large fabricators hold payment until the certificates arrive. The company finances steel it has already delivered while someone searches for a PDF.

Surcharges a month behind

Mills change alloy and energy surcharges monthly. Until the tables are updated by hand, quotes and invoices can carry last month's value, in either direction.

Steel left by the saw

Usable offcuts are stacked by the saw outside stock. Sales cannot offer them, so new bars are cut and the offcuts end up as scrap.

Illustrative time allocation for 10 interview roles

Searching for documents and records
24%
Re-typing orders and lists
21%
Customer and production decisions
20%
Phone and email follow-up
20%
Pricing and quoting
15%

These scenario percentages total 100%. They describe task categories for the 10 interview roles and are not extrapolated to all 170 employees.

45% of the observed time goes to searching and re-typing. Follow-up calls and emails take another 20%. Pricing takes 15%, and 20% is left for customer and production decisions.

Key Insight: Searching is the largest block, and most of it is for one thing: the right certificate or record for a given heat number. Fix that link and several rows of the register shrink together.

SOP vs. Reality

Shipment to certificate packSOP: 4 steps → The Reality: 10 steps, 3 handoffs
The SOP
Order picked
Certificates attached
Delivery note printed
Shipped
4 steps, linear
The Reality
10
Steps
3
Handoffs
5 min per pack, days when one is missing
Cycle time
~70 packs/day
Volume

The scanner captures the heat number when a full bundle ships. The trail breaks when bars are cut: the heat number becomes handwriting on a tag, and the certificate becomes a search through a drive sorted by supplier and month. About 8 shipments a day leave without the right certificate.

The Gap
Certificates arrive as PDFs by email and are filed by supplier and month. There is no index by heat number.
On cut pieces, the heat number is handwritten on a tag. A smudged digit means calling the line or reopening the original bundle record.
Sample of 400 shipments over 3 months: 11% had a certificate missing, sent late or for the wrong heat.
Two large fabricators hold payment until the pack arrives. Scenario: about 6% of invoices paid 9 days later on average. This is cash timing, not lost revenue.
For EN 1090 structural work, the customer must trace every piece to its certificate. A wrong pack is a product-liability question, and the quality manager decides.
Cut-to-length orderSOP: 5 steps → The Reality: 11 steps, 3 handoffs
The SOP
Order received
Entered in Divalto
Cutting list printed
Bars cut
Shipped
5 steps, linear
The Reality
11
Steps
3
Handoffs
Stock updated the next morning
Cycle time
~35 orders/day
Volume

A typical cutting list has 10 to 60 lines. Sales types it into Divalto, the saw leader nests it by hand, and the actual cuts go back into the system the next morning. Offcuts long enough to sell are stacked by the saw with a chalk mark and never enter stock.

The Gap
12 orders timed: 6 minutes on average to type a list, up to 25 minutes for 60 lines.
Nesting depends on who runs the saw. With Mehdi off, the afternoon shift cut more new bars for comparable orders in the sample.
Offcuts over 1 metre sit outside stock, so sales cannot offer them and new bars are cut instead.
Divalto stock runs a day behind the rack until the paper lists are typed back.
Quote with surchargeSOP: 4 steps → The Reality: 9 steps, 2 handoffs
The SOP
RFQ received
Base price from list
Surcharge applied
Quote sent
4 steps, linear
The Reality
9
Steps
2
Handoffs
Tables updated ~2 days into the month
Cycle time
~40 alloy and stainless quotes/day
Volume

Mills publish alloy and energy surcharges each month. Until Aurélie updates the Divalto tables, which takes about two days, sales either use an Excel calculator or quote last month's value. Each customer contract says whether the surcharge follows the order date or the delivery date, and only Aurélie knows which applies.

The Gap
Surcharge audit: about 8% of the stainless tonnage invoiced over 6 months carried the previous month's value.
Scenario: 480 tonnes a year at roughly €100/t of surcharge left on the table, so €40-60K a year. Errors also run the other way and trigger disputes.
Contract surcharge rules live in Aurélie's notes, outside Divalto.
Quotes are followed up from memory. Nobody sees which open quotes will expire on a surcharge change.
Quality claimSOP: 3 steps → The Reality: 9 steps, 4 handoffs
The SOP
Claim logged
Investigated
Closed
3 steps, linear
The Reality
9
Steps
4
Handoffs
~50 min of investigation per claim
Cycle time
~14 claims/week
Volume

Claims cover wrong lengths, surface defects and missing certificates. Investigating one means opening email, Divalto, the certificate drive and the paper cutting list. When the defect comes from the mill, the back-claim has a deadline, and nothing tracks it.

The Gap
About 14 claims a week, each needing about 50 minutes to gather the facts.
31 back-claims to mills in 6 months; 9 were sent after the mill's deadline and the cost stayed with the company.
The Excel claims file has a cause column that nobody fills in consistently.
Credit notes are decided without the customer's claim history at hand.
Key Insight: The four sample comparisons show 150%, 120%, 125% and 200% more steps, respectively: (actual ÷ documented − 1) × 100. The claim process has the widest gap because each claim reopens records held in four places.

Work that needs attention

QualityCertificate packs found and merged by hand; 70 packs/day × 5 min × 5 days29.2h
SalesCut-to-length lists re-typed from customer PDFs and spreadsheets; 35 orders/day × 6 min17.5h
QualityClaims investigated across email, Divalto, certificates and line paperwork; 14/week × 50 min11.7h
SalesSurcharge checked in an Excel calculator on alloy and stainless quotes; 40/day × 3 min10h
LogisticsNext-day transport plan built by phone with hauliers, then confirmed back to sales10h
WarehousePartial coil weights corrected after spot checks6.5h
PricingMonthly surcharge table update in Divalto: 16 h/month; 16 × 12 ÷ 52 = 3.7 h/week3.7h
OperationsOffcuts stacked by the saw outside stock; usable lengths scrapped or forgottenongoing
88.6 person-hours/week across 7 quantified rows; 1 unquantified risk88.6 h
Key Insight: The pricing row converts monthly hours to a weekly figure. Certificate and claim rows are kept apart: pack time ends at shipment, claim time starts when the customer complains. Steel lost to unrecorded offcuts is a material cost, valued separately in the plan. Time spent is not automatically recoverable.

Risk Register

Single point of failureCritical
Aurélie Fontaine, pricing
Surcharge tables, contract surcharge rules and mill price history are maintained by her alone. A two-week absence at a month change would leave sales quoting without current surcharges.
Single point of failureHigh
Mehdi Haddad, saw line
Nesting is done in his head after 20 years at the saw. When he is off, the afternoon shift cuts more new bars for the same work.
TraceabilityCritical
Heat numbers lost on cut pieces
For structural steel under EN 1090, every piece must trace to its 3.1 certificate. Today a handwritten tag is the only link. The quality manager stays the person who releases a pack when the match is uncertain.
MarginHigh
Surcharge passed on late
Scenario: €40-60K a year of alloy and energy surcharge left on the table, plus disputes when the error runs the other way.
Working-capital timingHigh
Payments held for certificates
Scenario: about 6% of invoices paid 9 days later on average while customers wait for certificates. This is cash timing, not lost revenue.
Cost recoveryHigh
Back-claims to mills missed
9 of 31 back-claims in 6 months missed the mill's deadline. The cost of the defect stayed with the company.
Stock accuracyMedium
Estimated partial coil weights
After slitting, remaining coil weights are estimated. Sales sometimes promise material that weighs less than the system shows, and the order slips.
System fragmentationMedium
Certificates outside the ERP
Divalto stores heat numbers as free text and the certificate drive has no index. The two only meet when someone searches by hand.
Next Chapter
Implementation plan

Strategy Session · 30 min

A real engagement is scoped in the Strategy Session and may begin with a War Map or a bounded Feasibility Sprint.

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