Metals industry accelerator helps plan inventory, pricing

Crowe Horwath LLP has released a new version of the Crowe Metals Industry Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012. The update works with the company's latest generation of ERP technology, with processes that are configured for the metals industry, including producers, processors, fabricators, and service centers.

Users can optimize inventory through a cut plan workbench — a user interface that matches demand for cut sizes of bar, sheet, and coil to available supplies of raw material and remnants. The program transfers specifications among sales, purchase, and production transactions, including intercompany orders, and tracks inventory by quantity, theoretical weight, and actual weight.

Pricing can be done in any convertible unit of measure, regardless of the unit by which an item is sold or inventoried. Dimensional transformation is factored into routings, and cost allocation for divergent production is calculated automatically.