Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for cable and wire manufacturers.
A checklist built from how cable and wire manufacturers work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Rod coil receipt and metal stock
- Drawing and stranding runs
- Extrusion batch record
- Drum register
- Test records
- Metal-linked quotation
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For plant managers
- For planners
- For machine operators
- For the test room
- For sales and dispatch
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Metal weight in and out by stage and by run
- Scrap copper and aluminium booked to stock
- Drums by test status and customer order
- Compound and masterbatch lots used per extruder run
- Remnant lengths available by size
- Quotations won and lost with the metal rate used
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- Accounting export
- Label printer
- Weighing scale
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Can a quotation follow the metal market?
- How are drawing and stranding losses recorded?
- Can I trace a drum to its rod coil?
- Does it handle armoured and multicore cable?
- What tests can be stored?
- How do remnant lengths get sold?
- Can weighing scales feed the system?
- What drives the cost?
- Who owns the production records?
- Is there a fixed way to start?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Weight is lost between stages
- Drums lose the link to their rod coil
- Colour and compound mix-ups
- Remnant drums are hard to sell
- Metal price shifts are not reflected
Prefer to talk it through? See the cable and wire manufacturers page.