Build a forging and forming system around your dies, your billets and your press lines.
Forging and stamping shops run on dies and raw material. A die has a life measured in strokes, and a billet or coil has a heat number that a customer may ask about a year later.
The press count sits on a shift sheet. The die shop keeps die life in its head. Material cost per piece is worked out at month end, when the price has already moved.
A system built by GullySystem could hold the die register, the material lot, the press and furnace record and the finished lot together. Each piece would be traceable back to its bar or coil.
Forming businesses we could build for.
A hot forging shop heating billets and a progressive stamping shop feeding coil have different bottlenecks. One waits on furnaces and the other waits on dies, so the build follows the constraint.
- Hot forging companies
- Cold forging companies
- Precision forging companies
- Metal stamping companies
- Deep drawing companies
- Roll forming companies
- Forged automotive parts manufacturers
- Closed die forging shops
- Open die forging shops
- Ring rolling units
- Sheet metal pressing units
- Progressive tool stampers
- Press shops for appliance parts
- Die and tool rooms
- Heat treatment contractors for forgings
- Machining units attached to forging shops
The modules, and what each one covers.
Nothing here is a fixed package. Each module is built, left out or changed to match how your organisation already works.
Die and tool register
Dies are the largest asset in most forming shops, and the register decides when one is pulled for repair.
- Die number and customer part
- Impression count
- Strokes or hits to date
- Expected life in strokes
- Repair, regrind and polish history
- Die steel and hardness
- Die set location in the die store
- Die cost recovered over orders
- Owned by you or the customer
- Tool under repair at a vendor
Enquiry, quote and part costing
A forging quote begins with the weight of the billet and the weight of the finished part, and the gap between them is cost.
- Drawing and revision
- Raw material weight with flash and scale loss
- Coil width, pitch and scrap for stampings
- Press tonnage and cycle time
- Heating cost
- Trimming, shot blasting and heat treatment
- Machining and outside processes
- Die cost recovery
- Quote revisions and follow-ups
Raw material and lot receipt
Bar, billet and coil arrive with a mill certificate. The certificate must stay attached to the stock.
- Material grade and specification
- Mill test certificate
- Heat number and coil number
- Bars cut to billet length
- Receipt weight against delivery note
- Positive material check by spectrometer
- Stock by grade and size
- Material issued to a work order
- Offcuts and end pieces returned to stock
Billets cut from one bar share its heat number. If the cutting list is not recorded, the heat number is lost at the saw.
Work order and routing
- Work order from a customer order or schedule
- Part, die and material
- Route from cutting to dispatch
- Quantity planned against the lot size
- Press and furnace allotted
- Operation-wise status
- Priority and due date
- Rework and extra operations
- Work order closure with scrap reconciled
Billet heating and furnace record
Induction and gas furnaces consume power or fuel for each billet. A billet heated and not forged is waste.
- Billet temperature at the press
- Furnace and operator
- Power or fuel per shift
- Billets heated against billets forged
- Billets returned cold or scrapped
- Scale loss
- Furnace stoppage reasons
- Pyrometer calibration due date
Press and hammer production
- Press or hammer and its tonnage
- Die mounted and changeover time
- Strokes per shift and per operator
- Pieces forged or stamped
- Flash or scrap weight
- Press stoppages with cause
- Die breakage
- First piece approval after setting
- Tonnage and force readings where the press reports them
Trimming, piercing and secondary operations
- Trimming and piercing press
- Coining and sizing
- Burr removal
- Shot blasting or tumbling
- Straightening
- Pieces in and out at each step
- Operator and shift
- Rejection at each step
Heat treatment
- Forgings loaded
- Cycle fixed
- Soak and quench
- Temper
- Hardness test
- Release
- Furnace load chart
- Cycle against specification
- Hardness result per batch
- Reheat after a failed test
- Outside heat treaters and their reports
- Load numbers linked to lots
Inspection and quality plan
The customer’s control plan decides what is measured, how often and with which gauge.
- Dimension checks with gauges and CMM
- Frequency per shift and per batch
- First-off and last-off approval
- Metallurgical tests: grain flow and decarburisation
- Crack detection by magnetic particle
- Hardness and tensile results
- Gauge calibration record
- Customer drawing revision in use
- Inspection report with the lot
Rejection, rework and scrap
- Defect type: underfill, lap, crack, burr, dent
- Stage and die where it arose
- Scrap weight sold or returned
- Rework allowed on this part
- Rejection cost by part
- Customer returns against the lot
- Corrective action raised
Lot and heat traceability
- Bar or coil heat number
- Billets and blanks made from it
- Work order and die used
- Heat treatment batch
- Finished lot and quantity
- Dispatch and invoice
- Customer return traced to bar heat
Machining and outside processes
- Parts sent to machining
- In-house machine and operator
- Plating, painting and phosphating vendors
- Material sent out against delivery note
- Rate and loss allowed
- Returned quantity checked
- Vendor bill matched
- Delay against the work order
Tool room and maintenance
- Die repair job card
- Welding build-up and regrinding
- Spare punches and inserts
- Press maintenance schedule
- Hydraulic and lubrication checks
- Breakdown history by press
- Preventive maintenance due
- Tool room time per repair
Stores and purchasing
- Die steel, inserts and punches
- Lubricants, graphite and quench oil
- Packing material
- Purchase requisition and order
- Goods receipt
- Supplier certificates
- Vendor rate comparison
- Stock by location
Dispatch, invoicing and customer schedules
- Customer schedule and call-off
- Packing list and bin labels
- Delivery note and tax invoice
- Currency per customer
- Export packing and documents
- Returns and credit notes
- Delivery performance by customer
One connected workflow, end to end.
Every stage below can sit in one system, so nobody re-enters what the last stage already captured.
- Enquiry and quote
- Die made or received
- Material lot received
- Billet or blank cut
- Heating or coil feed
- Forging or stamping
- Trimming and secondary operations
- Heat treatment
- Inspection
- Machining or finishing
- Lot release and dispatch
You do not have to replace everything at once.
Each phase is usable on its own, so the system earns its place before the next part is built.
- 1
Material, die and work order
Bar and coil lots with certificates, the die register and work orders that carry both through the shop.
- 2
Press, furnace and heat treatment
Strokes, tonnage, billet heating, scrap weight, stoppages and heat treatment batches.
- 3
Quality, rejection and traceability
Control plans, first-off approval, defect causes and the link from a returned part to its bar heat.
- 4
Costing, dispatch and reports
Cost per piece against quote, customer schedules, invoices and die life views for the owner.
How a build actually runs.
- 01
Stand at the press
We watch one die go from the store to the press and back, noting each count taken.
- 02
Separate the records
Material lot, die, work order, heat treatment batch and finished lot are fixed as distinct records.
- 03
Count what is counted today
Strokes, billets and kilograms are recorded the way the shop counts them now.
- 04
Build the die and material records first
Die life and bar heat numbers drive both cost and traceability.
- 05
Run one press line
A single line works on the new record while the shift sheet is still filled in.
- 06
Carry the history over
Die strokes to date, open orders and material stock are moved across.
- 07
Add the next line
Heat treatment, outside vendors and customer portals follow when the first line is steady.
What you bring, and when.
The build moves at the speed of the answers. These are the things we ask for, in the order we ask.
- 01
Die registers and heat treatment logs
Send the die register, work orders, furnace and press logs, heat treatment records and rejection reports. Customer drawings help. Routing and traceability take shape from them.
- 02
Shop head, quality head and dispatch lead
Each knows how a lot really travels. They use each demonstration to spot what is wrong. The works manager rules if shop and quality read a rule differently.
- 03
Yield allowances, scrap handling and inspection plans
Billet weights, yield allowances, scrap treatment and inspection plans have to be agreed before production and quality modules are built. Grade and die masters are included. Demos are reviewed on the spot.
- 04
Billet stock, dies and open orders
Billet and finished stock by heat lot, die history and open orders go in before go-live. Mention the scales and spectrometer outputs early. The works head gives clearance.
Systems we can put together for you.
- Die and tool life registers
- Forging production and press records
- Billet heating and furnace records
- Material lot and certificate systems
- Stamping and coil utilisation tools
- Part costing and quotation software
- Heat treatment batch records
- Inspection and control plan software
- Scrap and rejection analysis
- Lot and heat traceability systems
- Tool room job card software
- Customer schedule and dispatch portals
- Forging stores and purchase systems
- Multi-plant forming platforms
Questions owners ask before starting.
What is custom forging software?
It is a system shaped by one shop’s dies, materials, presses and customers instead of a stock factory package. Die life and bar traceability are usually where packages stop fitting.
Does it suit stamping as well as forging?
Yes. Coil use, strokes and progressive dies cover stamping, and billet heating covers forging. Both share the die, lot and rejection records.
Can it count strokes from the press?
Where a press has a counter or controller that exports a signal, it can usually be read. Otherwise the operator enters the count.
How is die life tracked?
Strokes are added to the die record from each work order. The register shows when a die is near the point where it is usually pulled for repair.
Can a returned part be traced to its bar?
Yes, if the cutting list records which billets came from which bar. That link is built first.
Does it handle a customer’s control plan?
Yes. The checks, frequencies and gauges for each part can be held and shown to the inspector at the press.
Will forging invoices and purchase entries reach our books?
Yes. Invoices and purchase entries can be passed across, or held in the system, as decided during design.
Can several plants use one system?
Yes. Every plant holds its own presses and dies, while head office reads across all of them.
Will it run on the shop floor?
Screens can be designed for tablets, phones and wall displays near the presses. The hardware is reviewed with you.
How do we begin?
Share a die register, a shift sheet and one customer control plan. We then describe what would be built and in what order.
How we work with this trade.
Ready products for this work.
If one of these fits, it is cheaper and faster than building from scratch. We will say so.
Build a forming system that counts every stroke.
A die that fails without warning stops a press line and a customer’s schedule with it. The warning is already in the stroke count, if someone keeps it.
Send the die register, one month of shift sheets and a material receipt file. Our written reply sets out how die strokes and the bar behind each part would be recorded, and which piece would be built first.
Tell us how your forging, stamping and metal forming companies runs today.
We will tell you what can be digitised, what can be connected, what is worth automating, and what you should leave alone.
What happens after you share your requirements
- A senior engineer reads your answers. Nobody phones first.
- Within one business day you get a written note: what we understood, what we would start with, and the questions we still have.
- If it fits, a proposal follows with the order of work, what we need from you and what you receive at each step.
- No call is booked and nothing is paid until you have read the note. Your details stay with us.
Start with your requirements
Seven short steps that tell us what you need. A senior engineer reads them before anyone gets in touch.
Share your requirements