Which grades are

difficult to optimise?

Are some planners

better than others?

Many of our customers

have used X-Trim for

many years, therefore

creating an interesting

database of released

solutions with valuable

information about the

trim aspects. Things like:

Is the order mix getting

more difficult?

X-Trim Analytics

Greycon to Optimise Metal Conversion

With our emphasis in

dimensional products,

people have often

wondered why don’t we

have more customers in

the metals industries?

Long-standing readers

may remember an article

in September 2009

mentioning GGB, a

producer of the rings

that make up ball

bearings.

The award by Soluções

em Aço Usiminas

of a contract for X-

Trim & opt-Studio

for 11 plants now

opens a new

dimension.

Usiminas is the leading

steel converter in Brazil,

buying steel coils and

converting them into a

multitude of products,

from panels for the car

industry to building

materials and pipes for

industry.

Commenting on the

largest contract yet

obtained by Greycon in

Latin America, the

Regional Manager,

GREYCON

June 2012

GreyLetter

Inside this issue:

X-Trim 7.5

Improvements

2

Trimming in opt-Studio

7.5

3

opt-Studio Performance

Improvements

3

Scheduling Capability in

opt-Studio 7.5

4

GreyconMill 2.3 SR1 5

X-Trim Analytics 6

Heartbeat Monitor: A

Proactive Approach

6

Effort in 7.5 7

S-Plan—Retirement for a

Valiant Application

7

Quality Assurance 7

New Montevideo &

Athens offices

8

Andres Bonelli, said

“This project establishes

a beach head for

Greycon’s know-how in

optimization for the

metal industry.

Usiminas is making a

leap forward and the

combination of X-Trim

& opt-Studio will allow

the planning team to

reach new levels of

efficiency.”

The banner reads: Today we

start Optimising: It will trans-

form Usiminas’ production

Continued on page 6

Greycon

Suite 7.5 was

released in

May

in the Greycon

Administrator for

viewing the log.

KC for Variable

Diameter

The previous restriction

to inline / duplex cutters

of the pattern-controlling

KC algorithm for variable

diameter problems has

been lifted. The KC

algorithm can now be

used in any variable-

diameter context, but

please refer to the release

notes for a change in

behaviour.

Multiple Patterns /

Parent Reel

We have extended the

algorithm to allow

multiple patterns for

parent reels destined for

a rewinder (or similar)

process.

This is particularly useful

for small orders.

User Requests

7.5 delivers on many user

requests, including items

from APP, International

Paper and Nine Dragons.

Miscellaneous

The work on

improving the

performance &

stability for large

problems has

progressed

considerably.

Several enhancements

relating to guillotines,

including the prize-

winning suggestion by

APP’s Zhou Lei.

The sample runs now

number 400 (from

364).

Column selection for

grids has free-text

filter & supports drag-

and-drop.

Winders have

minimum widths.

X-Trim Improvements in 7.5 The 7.5 release contains

the following

enhancements:

Metals

Most of the work in this

release went into

extending X-Trim to

handle metal cutting, as

exemplified by the very

diverse set of cases at

Usiminas. Among many

other things, we

developed a completely

new variant of the

variable-diameter

algorithm, which

considers length waste

and the possibility to

return some material to

stock.

Audit Trail

Master data changes are

now logged to a database

table and there is a tool

Page 2 GreyLetter

Customer Reviews

The Greycon web site now

contains a section where

anybody can enter a

review. We are taking this

initiative with some

trepidation (e.g. obscene /

junk entries), but we felt

overall it is better for our

users to be able to post

what they wish.

We encourage you to use

it either anonymously or

not!

Input Coil Return to Stock

Customer Orders

+

6,000 m 6,000 m

12,000 m

Rewinder

+

Hos

t P

are

nt

Ree

l

3,000 m

+6,000 m 3,000 m

+

Win

der

Set

See the new

X-Trim video

here.

June 2012 Page 3

Trimming in opt-Studio 7.5 The evolution of the

trimming module on this

release was guided by the

SAICA project. opt-Studio

can now trim multi-

constant diameter

problems. Secondary

optimisation was

enhanced by adding

pattern and parent reel

sorting rules (such as sort

the patterns in the solution

by ascending diameter and

sort the parent reels in each

pattern by descending

width). Other minor

improvements include

support for orders

targeting weight or

number of reels and the

ability to define all-or-

nothing orders.

While trimming a run, the

user can now click the

Import more orders button

and get a grid with all the

orders on the system that

match the run defining

characteristic of the

current run. Standard grid

functionality is available

to help the user find

orders that might improve

the trim, which can then

be imported using drag

and drop.

There is now the ability to

select multiple runs in the

Gantt chart and solve

them all in one go. The

system will call the solver

one run at a time (parallel

solving to come in future

versions!) and present the

resulting solutions in a

grid. Each solution can

then be examined further

by the planner with the

usual tools.

opt-Studio 7.5 Performance Improvements

This release comes with a

big improvement in

performance thanks,

mainly, to the

replacement of a third

party library with a

custom data structure.

The result is, our tests

indicate, a 50% reduction

of memory consumption

and improvements in

response times of up to

90%. Customers with

large datasets (10,000+

orders) will see benefits

immediately.

The chart on the right

shows the improvements

relating to loading and

using the order book

extensively on a dataset

with 20,000+ orders.

Sample Runs

The previous (7.4) release

of opt-Studio could solve

24 of the X-Trim sample

runs. The new 7.5 release

can solve 44 of these. At

this rate the gap will be

closed in 18 releases, so we

had better speed it up!

Page 4 GreyLetter

New Projects

Since the last newsletter:

Resolute (previously

Abitibi Bowater) is

standardising on X-

Trim and the APS

Connector certified

interface for their SAP

project, which covers all

its mills.

APP in China is

implementing X-Trim

at its new Jingui mill.

A second metals

converter (producer of

steel pipes) has placed

an order—more details

in the next newsletter.

A further division, Thai

Union Paper, part of the

Siam Cement Group in

Thailand, is

implementing X-Trim.

First Quality is

implementing X-Trim

at its film division in

Anderson, South

Carolina.

The Piracicaba (Brazil)

mill of Oji Paper

(previously belonging

to Fibria) has selected

X-Trim, to be

integrated with SAP.

This is the second

Japanese-owned

customer (after Toray).

The mill produces

~120,000 tpa of thermal

and carbonless paper.

Cosmo Films is rolling

out X-Trim at its plant

in the US, an

interesting “transfer”

from India.

Scheduling Capability in opt-Studio 7.5

Materials

opt-Studio can now take

into account material

requirements while

scheduling tasks.

Based on the S-

Plan model of

Materials, Bills of

Materials (BOMs)

and Requirements,

the system will generate

a set of suggested

material replenishment

orders and delay any task

that cannot meet its

requirements until the

material arrives. This

closes one of the biggest

gaps between S-Plan and

opt-Studio.

Parallel Workcentres

These have been made

more powerful by adding

two new options:

Advanced Parallel

Distribution (to reassign

tasks to workcentres

each time a new task

arrives to the parallel)

and the Advanced Member

Selection (to consider

batch building when

distributing tasks to

workcentres).

Skills & Operators

For the Usiminas project,

the ability to consider

crew constraints was

incorporated into the

Scheduling Engine by

adding Skills and

Operators.

Switchovers

Switchover rules based

on the number of knife

changes can now be

defined and combined

with other rules. So one

can model, for example, a

grade change that takes

thirty minutes together

with knife changes that

take additional twelve

minutes each. This

functionality works with

patterns generated either

in X-Trim or in opt-

Studio and is one of the

things that cannot be

done in S-Plan.

June 2012 Page 5

GreyconMill 2.3 SR1 Following the

successful

implementation at

Terneuzen, Elocoat

asked for a set of

enhancements; these

have been packaged

as the 2.3 SR1 release:

Simplified Shipping

Process

Shipping functionality

in GreyconMill is very

powerful but

sometimes it can be

difficult to master. To

address this concern,

a new screen was

designed in

agreement with

Elocoat warehouse

team. The aim of this

new screen is to allow

users to perform all

the shipping-related

actions starting from

this screen, instead of

having to use two or

three different screens

as was the case before.

Custom Item

Classification

In GreyconMill, items

have a Quality Status

(e.g.: OK, Waste,

OnHold, etc.) and a

Plan Status (action

performed or to be

performed, e.g. Used,

Free, etc.), and both of

them have a

predefined list of

values.

Some customers may

need to have more

precise control, i.e.

assigning a custom

classification to each

item (e.g. Claim, Item Free

for Production, etc.), and

then have custom

mappings to configure

the combinations of

Quality and Plan Status to

be applied.

The logic to deduce the

new custom

classification is applied

whenever an action is

performed on an item

(production, shipments,

manual editions, etc.)

Improved Rewinding

Process

Some of the faults in a

reel may be removed by

taking it through a

rewinder. However, in

many cases the decision

about this is not taken by

the rewinder operator,

but by a QA team/

supervisor, and may

involve creating an ad

hoc rewinding task.

In SR1 this task has been

simplified, with a new

screen.

Printing Rules

GreyconMill 2.3

introduced the

possibility of defining

specific rules to select a

label template. For

instance, it became

possible to have many

different label templates,

and use a different one

for each machine, or use

a different template for

certain customers.

In SR1 some further

improvements were

added, namely the

possibility of using

different labels based on

the quality status of the

item and also the

possibility of printing

multiple labels upon one

registration. Templates

with multiple copies of a

label (such as the labels

used for reams) are also

possible now.

Join us on July 27th at

the hotel The Capital

CG, Rua Tenente

Negrão 200 Itaim Bibi,

San Pablo, Brazil. For

more information, con-

tact Uri or scan this:

SAP Metals Forum

Greycon will be partici-

pating in this forum in

Mannheim, Germany

on September 11th and

12th. For more infor-

mation please contact

Abder.

X-Trim Analytics—contd. from page 1

Page 6 GreyLetter

This and many other

questions are precisely

what this new module is

designed for.

In addition to the pilot

customer (Sigdopack),

several other customers

have purchased the new

module (more

information later).

Special Offer

Purchase the X-Trim

Analytics module

before the 7.6 release,

due in November 2012,

at a 40% discount to

the list price.

The new module is

only available for SQL

Server 2008 R2 or

later, because it is

based on the SQL

Server Reporting

Services engine.

The new module also

includes a mobile

client, so you may

view the reports on

your Android ™

device.

IT applications

monitoring is a common

practice in systems

administration. There are

a number of tools for

typical checks such as

network activity, CPU or

memory usage, database

performance, etc. In fact,

Greycon has used some

of these tools in various

projects to ensure that

these basic checks are

performed.

Besides these IT

environment issues

(usually referred to as

“technical problems”), it

is important to monitor

the health of the

application itself. In fact,

with manufacturing

execution applications

such as GreyconMill

supporting 24×7

operations and exposed

to many users and to

many inputs from various

sources (including sales

order processing,

planning, machines/

PLCs or manual

registration by

operators), it is

inevitable that some

failures due to human

errors, data

inconsistency, business

logic, etc. occur.

A data inconsistency or

a wrong input message

could lead to making the

wrong product, printing

the wrong labels etc.

Needless to say, such a

mistake could be

detrimental to any

business. The Heartbeat

Monitor proactively

monitors the

applications very closely

to detect such problems

or mistakes, alert the

relevant actors and

respond adequately

before it is too late!

We have used our

industry experience to

anticipate vulnerable

areas for each customer.

The Heartbeat Monitor

contains a set of checks

to achieve this proactive

applications monitoring.

The scope of these

checks has been growing

with the experience. The

system is designed to

run as a Windows

service, be lightweight in

terms of memory and

CPU resources, have

configurable e-mail /

SMS support and use

Windows event logs.

This has proven

successful with

customers such as

Elocoat and StoraEnso

Fors where GreyconMill

is used on a 24×7 basis.

For example, at Elocoat

if an operator loads the

wrong materials into the

machine, we detect this

by comparing with the

expected material in the

BOM of the product

being made (output).

Heartbeat Monitor: A Proactive Approach

X-Trim Analytics Web Cast

We shall give two web

demos in June: 27th at 11

am EST for North

America and 29th at 1 pm

CET for Asia & Europe.

June 2012 Page 7

Effort in 7.5

7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5

Released Feb 2011 Sep 2011 Dec 2011 May 2012

No enhancements Aug 2011 Feb 2012 Aug 2012 Nov 2012

No changes Feb 2012 Aug 2012 Feb 2013 May 2013

No support Aug 2013 Feb 2014 Aug 2014 May 2015

S-Plan was first installed

in 1987 and in fact the

second oldest customer

(Tullis Russell) is still

using it 25 years later.

However, the time has

now come to stop

developing this system.

All the key functionality

is now available in opt-

Studio, which contains

many additional benefits,

based primarily on its

modern, .NET,

technology.

A couple of small

enhancements were

delivered in S-Plan 7.5,

but the plan is for the 7.6

release not to contain S-

Plan at all.

S-Plan will be supported

until May 2015; S-Plan

users should therefore

start planning its free-of-

charge replacement by

opt-Studio.

S-Plan—Retirement for a Valiant Application

The graph on the right

shows the total number

of software defects over

the last 3 years. The

defects are weighted by

severity. The blue part is

those detected by

Greycon. The red /

yellow part shows the

defects reported by our

customers.

The downward trend in

the latter is even more

encouraging when you

consider that not only

we have increased our

user base, but also our

functional footprint

(e.g. GreyconMill) in

this period.

Quality Measure—The Last 3 Years

Releases

The 7.5 Release Notes

can be found in their

usual place (registration

required).

We are planning to

release 7.6 in Q4 2012.

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

Jun

-08

Au

g-0

8

Oct

-08

Dec

-08

Feb

-09

Ap

r-0

9

Jun

-09

Au

g-0

9

Oct

-09

Dec

-09

Feb

-10

Ap

r-10

Jun

-10

Au

g-1

0

Oct

-10

De

c-10

Feb

-11

Ap

r-11

Jun

-11

Au

g-1

1

Oct

-11

Dec

-11

Feb

-12

Ap

r-12

Weighted by Severity 1/2/3/5

Weighted Customer Defects Weighted Greycon Defects

Web Reports

We have improved this,

oft-forgotten, optional

module with better

grids.

The reports can now

also be viewed on

mobile devices such as

iPhone™, iPad™ or

Android™ devices.

What’s Coming Next

For X-Trim we are

planning to extend the

metals functionality with a

custom graphical display.

For opt-Studio, among

many other things, we are

planning a new composite

display that shows the

inventory status of

multiple MTS items on a

single page.

7 Calico House,

Plantation Wharf,

London SW11 3TN.

Phone: +44 20 7978 0700

E-mail: cng@greycon.com

Established for over 25 years, Greycon systems are

now installed in over 400 plants world-wide,

spanning all continents.

Win an Apple iPod Touch

32GB 4th Generation. Open

to users sending us suggested

improvements, which are

adopted (the key for an

enhancement to be adopted is

for it to have a high value /

development effort ratio). For

this round, please send your

entries to Jari by August 15th.

Montevideo Office Athens Office

On March 22nd Greycon opened an

office at Kanari 15, Kifisia, Athens, 145

63, Greece, tel. +30 210 80 82 048.

The well-publicized crisis in Greece

has also created opportunities,

because there is a large pool of under

-employed talent. The office in

Athens also provides an advantage in

terms of time zones, being 2 hours

ahead of UK; as a result Greycon will

be able to offer increased levels of

service without resorting to out-of-

hours mechanisms.

The three new employees are doing

in-depth training in both

Montevideo and London.

We have moved into the new office

in Montevideo, with approximately

3× the floor space of the previous

one.

Jubilee

The London

office was

ideally located

for the Queen’s

Jubilee river

pageant, as this

view from our

balcony shows.