How Steelhead Serves Fabricators With All-In-One ERP Software

In this video, I'll walk you through the cutting feature in Steelhead. Starting in the assemblies dashboard, I'll create a new assembly. Put in your assembly name—let's call this "Steelhead Table Demo." If you don't give it a name, Steelhead automatically assigns it a number. Select a part number for the assembly—let's use "Steel Table-01." Click "Create." If you haven't yet used this part number, then click "Save."

Now add the components that make up this table. Start typing your part number and create a new one if needed. Within this dialogue, there are some fields at the bottom to specify source operation, material, geometry type, and dimensions of the material. Under "Source Operation," you can choose to just cut or, if you have machining to do after cutting, choose "Cut and Create Blank." On save, this cut stock checkbox indicates whether or not this part number will be used to create other parts—for example, a 4x8 piece of sheet metal would be cut stock.

Let's create a new material here under "Substrate"—carbon steel. You can add more details as desired and click "Save." We'll create a new geometry type as well. You can give it a description and specify which dimensions it has, then upload an image and save. Enter your dimensions—for example, four feet by one-fourth inch—and upload an image if desired. Fill in any additional information before clicking "Save."

Add another component—for example, "Steel Table Leg." Click "Create." For this one, we'll create blank on save as well. Select the material; the geometry type will be 1.5-inch round with a specified length and outer diameter. Click "Save," then enter your dimensions and units before saving again. Add the count—for example, four legs per table with one tabletop—creating a completed chain.

Click "Save," then click on your assembly name to open it up. Scroll down to the processes section where you can see the full tree. For example, take four 1.5-inch steel rounds and make them into four table legs. Machine a tabletop, then weld those together to create the completed table.

Now that our assembly is set up, let's create a sales order. Create a new sales order—call it "Steelhead T-01" for ABC Manufacturing—and click "Save." With this setup, you now have a shortcut to add parts to your sales order. Click "Add Parts to Sales Order" and enter the name of your assembly (e.g., Steel Table-01). Your part number will autofill.

Let's say ABC Manufacturing wants to order three tables. Save that. On your sales order under BOM items, click the assembly to see your manufacturing tree. You can add pricing on each piece of the table or just input the final table price by clicking the edit pencil icon.

If you want to change some input on this process, any changes will adjust only on the sales order—it will not change the assembly at a global level. For example, you can click on the table legs and make changes here without affecting other orders using this assembly.

If there are deviations specific to a sales order but not at the global level, you can handle that here. Now we'll generate all work orders at once by adding an assembly under process treatments for the main assembly—for example, machining—and saving.

You can jump into the cutting dashboard either directly from this page or from the homepage by clicking on "Cutting." You can also set up workboards for cutting if you have different stations like Laser 1 or Laser 2.

In the cutting dashboard, you'll see parts to be cut based on current open sales orders and unfinished work. The cut stock section holds all available part numbers designated as cut stock that can be used to cut these parts down.

Select a table to cut. The list will automatically filter by part numbers sharing the same material and geometry so you can cut several jobs together for maximum efficiency. The cut stock also filters by material and geometry type.

Click "Cut Plan," select your inventory item (e.g., a 4x8 sheet), add dimensions and units for each piece, then click "Save." Add in a batch with container name, net quantity, and save it.

For tracking drops after cutting three 4x4s, you'll be left with another 4x4 piece of inventory as a drop. Use the checkbox to tell Steelhead whether to create a new part number based on this drop's information or leave it unchecked if it's not reusable.

In this case, we’ll save it for future use—a nice 4x4 piece of inventory left as drop stock after cutting three finished tabletops from two 4x8 sheets of inventory.

Clicking on the cut number shows what was depleted and what was created at the batch level related to purchasing information. You can trace everything up and down the chain to see how it's all connected.

Returning to your sales order and opening up its manufacturing tree shows all completed steps in workflow detail. Open planned work orders for other pieces of your table and run those parts through their processes to completion from this dialogue or inside of their respective work orders.