PCE Engineering Oy of Toijala, Finland, has announced the successful initial adoption of their ELiPLAN production planning software by High Concrete Structures Inc., the United States' largest producer of precast concrete parking structures. This makes the US company ELiPLAN's major user. Based in Denver, Pennsylvania, High Concrete produces large building components such as double tees, beams and columns. As well as supporting this successful company's production, the planning software has improved information flow and inventory control.

Mark Aho, Vice President of technology for High Industries, Inc., the group which owns High Concrete Structures Inc., explains, "Having seen the system in operation in Finland, we realised it could be useful in our production of heavy duty pre-cast structures where there are many variables to consider." Another decisive point for the company was the fact that it was a tailored software system.

"ELiPLAN is the most comprehensive software of its type on the market," points out Tommi Järviharju, PCE's software products export manager. "It evolved out of our own company's need for a dedicated production planning system. One of the advantages of the system is the fact that it is developed specifically with the needs of the pre-cast industry in mind," says Järviharju.

"It was easy to implement and use and backed by a credible company," adds Aho. One of the main benefits is that the introduction of the software has lead to increasing standardization of procedures within the organization. This has lead to all business activities becoming "more transparent throughout the organization as information can be shared between different departments within the company," says Aho. Since its adoption by the US producer, Aho says that inventory/storage yard control has improved considerably. The company is able to more closely track each pre-cast concrete component's location.

Modular design
The ELiPLAN software is based on a number of modules that cover tendering, project management, scheduling & backlog balancing, storage yard, material and maintenance management. The modules are always tailored to meet the requirements of the particular product, which means any pre-cast component from hollow-core flooring to walls, structural components to railway sleepers. Based around the widely used Oracle database system, it can be integrated with a customer's existing computer system to give everyone access to the same information. It is reported to be suitable for all sizes of companies. Running on a customer's existing computer system, the software can be applied to one or several plant locations and is a flexible, real-time system that allows information to be shared across a company's organization.

High Concrete has implemented several of the modules and is collaborating with PCE on some aspects of the software related to the development of a new quality control module. PCE has recently introduced a bar coding module which is used within storage yard control.

PCE makes machinery and equipment for the pre-cast concrete industry and is said to be the world's leading supplier of expertise, equipment and machinery, production lines and plants for the pre-cast industry. The company is part of the Consolis group whose subsidiaries make pre-cast concrete products for a variety of civil engineering works and infrastructure projects based on PCE and other technology. High Industries, Inc. is a group employing 2,500 people in the US and has a turnover of US$500m (Euros 500m).


For more information contact:
PCE Engineering Oy Ab
Mr Tommi Järviharju
P.O.Box 33
FIN-37801 Toijala
FINLAND
Tel.: +358-3-549 5360
Fax: +358-3-549 5300
E-mail: tommi.jarviharju@elematic.com

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