Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for sheet metal fabricators.
A checklist built from how sheet metal fabricators 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.
- Quotation from the flat pattern
- Sheet and remnant stock
- Work centre routing
- Drawing and bend programme control
- Bill of materials with hardware
- Outside coating tracking
- Assembly, inspection and packing list
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners
- For estimators and planners
- For programmers and press brake operators
- For welders, fitters and inspectors
- For stores and dispatch
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Jobs by work centre and promised dispatch date
- Sheet used, scrapped and returned as remnant, by grade and gauge
- Quoted against actual hours by process and part
- Hardware shortages against open assemblies
- Coating lots out, with vendor and days away
- Scrap and rework by cause and work centre
- Dispatches and invoices by customer
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- SMS
- WhatsApp or other messaging
- Barcode scanner
- Accounting export
- Spreadsheet import
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Can an assembly carry its hardware as well as sheet parts?
- How are remnants handled?
- Does it link to nesting software?
- Can we cost secondary operations such as tapping and riveting?
- What stops the wrong revision being bent?
- How do coating returns get tracked?
- Does it handle repeat call-offs from one customer?
- Can open jobs and stock come across from our spreadsheets?
- How do we see it and what does it cost?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Nesting leaves usable offcuts untracked
- The wrong revision gets bent
- Bought-in hardware does not arrive with the frames
- Coating jobs are tracked by phone calls
- Quotes miss the secondary work
Prefer to talk it through? See the sheet metal fabricators page.