Steel service centre and long products
Implementation plan

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.

Implementation plan

What to fix first, how long it takes, and who keeps each decision. 8 initiatives across 4 departments. €580-830K illustrative annual gross value.

Priorities at a glance

  • 8 initiatives across 4 departments
  • €580K to €830K in illustrative annual gross value
  • Sample target: surcharge assistant and certificate indexing live in month 1
  • Target: every shipment leaves with the right certificate, and every quote with the right surcharge

Automation Opportunity Map

The goal is not to add AI on top of chaos. The goal is to turn repeated fires into infrastructure: context assembled automatically, decisions routed to the right level, exceptions escalated only when human judgment is actually needed. The figures below show direct value by initiative. Broader operational value is modeled separately.

Matching and updates use deterministic rules. An agent can classify a free-text request, gather records or draft a response. Software-enforced access, validation, duplicate handling and named human approvals govern consequential actions.

The two estimates (direct value by initiative; projected annual value by operational effect) are alternative, overlapping views. Do not add them. Ranges are teaching assumptions without source measurements: volumes, time, loaded cost and error cost require validation. Investment, operation and adoption ramp remain to be deducted.

Low complexity
Med complexity
High complexity
Direct initiative value: €570-810K/yr
Quality2 items
€180-250K
Certificate packs: heat number matched to its PDF and assembled
€120-160KMed
Current state
About 70 packs a day are found and merged by hand, 5 minutes each. 11% of shipments that need a certificate leave without the right one.
Target state
Incoming certificates are read and indexed by heat number as they arrive. At shipment, the pack is assembled from the heat numbers on the delivery note and attached. Uncertain matches go to Valérie, who releases or corrects them.
€120-160K/yrWeeks 2-6Med
Claims file: one record per claim, with mill deadlines tracked
€60-90KMed
Current state
Claims are logged in Excel and investigated across four sources. 9 of 31 back-claims missed the mill's deadline in 6 months.
Target state
Each claim opens with the order, delivery note, certificate and line record already attached. Back-claim deadlines are tracked and flagged. The sales director decides credit notes with the customer's claim history in view.
€60-90K/yrWeeks 6-9MedDepends on: Certificate packs: heat number matched to its PDF and assembled
Sales2 items
€150-210K
Surcharge assistant: the right surcharge on every quote line
€70-100KLow
Current state
Mill surcharges reach Divalto about two days into the month. Contract rules live in Aurélie's notes. About 8% of stainless tonnage carried last month's value.
Target state
Published surcharges are collected as soon as mills release them and proposed to Aurélie as a table update she approves. Each quote line gets the surcharge that matches the customer's contract rule. Sales still sets and sends the price.
€70-100K/yrWeeks 2-4Low
Cut-list intake: customer lists read into Divalto order lines
€80-110KMed
Current state
35 cut-to-length orders a day are typed by hand from PDFs and spreadsheets, 6 minutes on average.
Target state
Customer lists are read into draft order lines with lengths, grades and quantities. The salesperson checks and confirms. Lines that cannot be read with confidence are highlighted, never guessed.
€80-110K/yrWeeks 3-7Med
Production and stock2 items
€150-210K
Line feedback: actual cuts and coil weights captured at the line
€60-80KHigh
Current state
Actual lengths, offcuts and partial coil weights are written on paper and typed into Divalto the next morning.
Target state
Operators record actual cuts and weights at the line terminal or by scanning the printed list. Divalto stock updates within the shift, and partial coils carry a weighed value instead of an estimate.
€60-80K/yrWeeks 5-11High
Remnant stock: offcuts recorded and offered before new bars are cut
€90-130KMed
Current state
Offcuts over 1 metre are stacked by the saw outside stock. Sales cannot see them, so new bars are cut.
Target state
Offcuts are labelled and entered into stock at the saw. Before a new bar is assigned, matching remnants are proposed to the saw leader, who chooses.
€90-130K/yrWeeks 10-13MedDepends on: Line feedback: actual cuts and coil weights captured at the line
Logistics2 items
€90-140K
Transport plan: next-day loads and haulier bookings prepared
€40-60KMed
Current state
Nicolas builds the next-day plan in Excel, by phone with three hauliers. Sales learn the date afterwards.
Target state
Loads are grouped by route and weight from confirmed orders, and booking requests are prepared for each haulier. Nicolas adjusts and sends. Sales see the planned date as soon as the load is booked.
€40-60K/yrWeeks 4-7Med
Delivery-date promise: stock, line load and transport checked before committing
€50-80KHigh
Current state
Sales promise dates without seeing saw load or haulier capacity. Problems surface the day before delivery.
Target state
When an order is entered, a date is proposed from stock, line load and booked transport. The salesperson confirms or negotiates, and the customer gets one date that operations can meet.
€50-80K/yrWeeks 9-14HighDepends on: Transport plan: next-day loads and haulier bookings prepared

Implementation Timeline

Weeks are relative to implementation start; months represent four four-week blocks. Dependent work can be prepared in parallel with test fixtures, but production release waits for sync acceptance. This is a scenario schedule.

  1. Surcharge Assistant

    Weeks 2 to 4

  2. Certificate Packs

    Weeks 2 to 6

  3. Cut-list Intake

    Weeks 3 to 7

  4. Transport Plan

    Weeks 4 to 7

  5. Line Feedback

    Weeks 5 to 11

  6. Claims File

    Weeks 6 to 9

  7. Delivery-date Promise

    Weeks 9 to 14

  8. Remnant Stock

    Weeks 10 to 13

  9. Customer Portal: Certificates and Order Status

    Weeks 14 to 16

Month 1: Surcharge assistant live for stainless quotes, with Aurélie approving each table. Certificate indexing starts on incoming PDFs, and quality checks every pack before it is sent.

Month 2: Certificate packs attached automatically for full bundles. Cut-list intake and the transport plan in production. Line feedback pilots on the saw line.

Month 3: Claims file live with mill deadlines tracked. Line feedback extends to the cut-to-length line. Target: compare certificate errors and claim time with the January baseline.

Month 4: Remnant stock and delivery-date promise in use. A second person runs surcharge updates and certificate exceptions. Target: confirm released capacity and yield without double counting.

Projected Annual Value

Steel yield: offcuts reused and fewer new bars cut on long products€170-240K
Staff capacity released in sales, quality, pricing and logistics (88.6 h/week register)€150-210K
Surcharge and back-claim recovery€110-160K
Delivery reliability: fewer late orders and urgent transports€100-140K
Fewer payments held for certificates (financing cost and disputes)€50-80K
€580-830K
projected annual value

Direct initiative value is the sum of the eight initiatives; the projected figure adds effects that cross them, such as steel yield. Released hours go to customers and quotes, with no headcount reduction assumed. Cash brought forward by faster certificate packs counts only as financing cost saved.

Phase 1
War Map
Sample deliverable
Phase 2-3
Implementation
12-16 weeks
Phase 3+
Ongoing
Usage-based

How much time could this free up?

Choose one non-overlapping task category and the people who actually perform it. These inputs are scenario assumptions; replace them with a measured baseline.

180
52,000
40
31
40

2,232

Task hours per week

€2,901,600

Annual cost allocated to this work

892.8

Potentially released hours per week

€1,160,640

Annual gross value of that capacity

Hours = people × weekly hours × task share. Allocated cost = people × annual loaded cost × task share. Potential capacity multiplies each by the releasable share.

This is not net ROI or a payroll saving. Necessary manual work remains. Adoption and quality must be measured; actual uptake may be lower. Implementation investment, model and hosting costs, maintenance and supervision are excluded. Cash savings require a separate spending decision; otherwise the benefit is capacity available for other work.

How We Work

1
War Map Review
We walk through this deliverable together. You challenge the numbers, confirm the priorities, and tell us what we missed. This is your map. We built it, but you own it.
2
Remediation
Before we build anything, we fix what needs fixing. Data quality, missing SOPs, system access. Your team gets briefed on the plan. No surprises.
3
Build + Deploy
We work directly with your operations team. Systems go live one at a time, in priority order. Release gates cover representative cases, permissions, failures and escalation; consequential actions retain the agreed human authorization. This illustrative schedule targets first production results in month 1.
4
Transfer
We train your team. We document everything. We make sure the people who run your operations can run these systems without us. The capability is yours permanently.
5
Exit
Handover is accepted when your team can operate and recover the agreed systems. Any continuing support is separately scoped, with a named owner and a documented exit.

War Map

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

Request a Strategy Session

Direct accountability. Scope agreed before work begins.