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What is Industry 4.0?
With Industry 4.0, the future of business is happening today. You’ve probably seen aspects of it; consumer electronics that allow homeowners to control their thermostats and lights from their mobile phones for example.
This is what’s referred to as the Internet of Things, or the IoT. The same type of device connectivity and cloud storage capabilities are now coming to the Metals Distribution Industry as well.
Historians now refer to the most recent industrial revolution as Industry 4.0. Put simply, each revolution changes how people create.
Industry 1.0 – You’ve probably heard of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s, when manufacturing first became more common than farming. Mechanization, steam engines, water power, Iron production, textiles, mining and machine tools.
Industry 2.0 – The second revolution occurred when factories transitioned from mechanical to electric operations, mass production, engines, telegraph, gas and water supply.
Industry 3.0 – The third happened when factories integrated computers, PCL, robotics, electronic networks, automation and digital machines.
Industry 4.0 – The latest revolution marks the use of the internet to facilitate manufacturing processes across the industry. Smart facilities use autonomous machines, advanced robotics, big data, analytics, internet of things( IoT), digital cloud, machine learning and AI to improve efficiency and respond to problems as soon as they arise.
Adopting Industry 4.0
Adopting the technology of Industry 4.0 requires a significant investment but allows for numerous benefits. For instance, productivity increases dramatically with the integration of advanced technology. In fact, in the United States alone, technology has increased manufacturing productivity by 40% in the last two decades.
Industry 4.0 also allows for better tracking of materials and more efficient inventory. If materials used in manufacturing have defects, tracking technology can provide a simpler way to determine which products are affected.
Are you ready for Industry 4.0?
Though the manufacturing sphere is swiftly changing, many facilities don’t feel prepared for the new industrial revolution. While 84% of companies are moving quickly to Industry 4.0, only 14% feel ready for the revolution — and only 25% feel they have a well-trained workforce that could tackle the demands of this move.
Of course, most companies want to move forward with adopting these new advanced technologies and methods. Several factors continue to push the industry into a more savvy future; data availability, enhanced connectivity, smart factories, and consumer demand are all driving the industry into the next revolution.
Data availability makes it easier to know every step in production, make changes where needed to be made to enhance productivity and collect data to become as efficient as possible. And increasing consumer desires push companies to make these changes.
Implementing Industry 4.0
To implement Industry 4.0, you’ll need to upgrade your equipment and employee training programs. Begin by adding new software systems to handle the automation. You’ll also need to partner with an established industry IT company to ensure that your platform is installed and operating correctly and keep your system safe from hackers.
Industry 4.0 is a vision and policy with standardization while accepting flexibility in a world that is in motion.
The goal is to enable rapid decision-making, monitor assets and processes in real-time, and leverage existing data and additional data sources from connected assets to gain efficiencies to create end-to-end information streams in real-time across the value chain.
Enabling more efficient production and servicing, as well as superior customer interaction (including gaining real-time data from actual product usage) and cutting the inefficiencies, irrelevance and costs where possible. Promoting a customer-centric sense of service to customers who value speed, cost efficiencies and value-added innovative services.
In the end, it remains business – to grow, innovate and remain relevant while optimizing customer value and loyalty.
Image courtesy of Umberto via Unsplash
The federal agencies are urging organisations to immediately apply recommended mitigations to secure their machines
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and FBI have issued a joint security alert, urging organisations to immediately take steps to prevent Russian state-backed hackers from exploiting vulnerabilities in multifactor authentication (MFA) protocols and the Windows print spooler.
As per the advisory, Russian actors recently exploited MFA defaults and the critical ‘PrintNightmare‘ bug to compromise an unnamed NGO’s network and steal sensitive information.
They gained access to the NGO’s cloud and email accounts, moved laterally via the organisation’s network, and exfiltrated documents.
The hacking attempts started as early as May 2021, the advisory says, although it does not disclose details of where the NGO was located or the length of time the attack lasted.
Russian actors apparently gained initial access to the network via compromised credentials, then enrolled a new device in the organisation’s Duo MFA.
Using a brute-force password guessing attack, the hackers obtained the victim’s credentials, granting them access to an account with a simple and predictable password.
The victim’s account had been un-enrolled from Duo owing to a prolonged period of inactivity, but was not disabled in Active Directory.
The actors were able to add a new device to the account, satisfy the authentication requirements, and get access to the victim network – all allowed under Duo’s default configuration settings, even for inactive accounts.
The hackers then exploited the PrintNightmare vulnerability (CVE-2021-34527) to gain administrator privileges and turn off MFA.
PrintNightmare is a vulnerability in the Windows Print Spooler service, which provides printing functionality inside local networks. The vulnerability was disclosed in June last year and enabled attackers to take control of vulnerable systems remotely to run arbitrary code (install programmes, modify data, and create new accounts) through local privilege escalation.
After turning off MFA, the hackers authenticated to the NGO’s VPN as non-administrator users and connected to Windows domain controllers via Remote Desktop Protocol. Finally, they obtained credentials for other domain accounts, which they used to move laterally to the victim’s cloud storage and email accounts and access confidential content.
CISA and the FBI recommend that enterprises enable, enforce, and correctly set up MFA, as well as prioritise patching known exploited bugs to prevent such attacks.
The mitigations measures recommended by CISA include:
- Enforcing MFA for all users, without exception, and ensuring that it is set appropriately to prevent ‘fail open’ and re-enrollment scenarios
- Apply time-out and lock-out features
- Disable inactive accounts in MFA, active directory, etc.
- Update software with a focus on known exploitable flaws
- Regularly monitor network logs for unusual activity
- Apply security alerting policies
“Over the last several years, Russian state-sponsored cyber actors have been persistent in targeting U.S. cleared defence contractors to get at sensitive information,” said Rob Joyce, director of NSA Cybersecurity.
“Armed with insights like these, we can better detect and defend important assets together.”
FBI cyber division assistant director Bryan Vorndran said, “We encourage organisations who may have experienced this type of exploitation to report to the FBI and/or CISA and provide us with additional information so we can continue to deter and disrupt nation-state actors.”
“The FBI will not tolerate this type of criminal activity and we will use all of the tools in our toolbelt to combat this threat.”
Image courtesy of cottonbro via Pexels
Carbon emissions have been a widely recognized issue for more than a century. As emissions continue to rise year after year, it’s increasingly common for organizations to acknowledge the issues associated with carbon emissions and give loose plans for reducing them in the future.
The future is now.
Carbon emissions are damaging to the planet and actions need to be taken immediately in order to minimize the damage.
At this year’s Zukunft Stahl conference in mid-February, Henrik Adam of Tata Steel Europe shared a similar message.
“Europe’s steel production will more and more depend on the decarbonization process at mills… We feel a strong sense of responsibility to decarbonize our operations and we need to do this right now and not in ten years’ time. The future is being shaped today.” – Henrik Adam
To back up their statements, Tata Steel shared their goals for tackling carbon emissions: a 30-40% reduction in emissions in Europe by 2030, and the production of CO2-neutral steel by 2050.
Advances in technology over the coming years will make the decarbonization of steel easier and more cost effective, but the luxury of time is dwindling.
“The future is being shaped today”
The urgency in Henrik Adam’s statement is not to be brushed aside. Furthermore, the responsibility of decarbonizing the steel industry cannot lie on the shoulders of Tata Steel, or even on the shoulders of the European steel industry. Reducing carbon emissions in the steel industry must become a worldwide effort.
In a thick smog of CO2, Tata Steel’s efforts are a shining beacon of purity.
To read more, click here.
Story and Conference Transcript courtesy of:
Nearly 110 years have passed since the tragic sinking of the Titanic. Over the years, research has helped to determine the various factors that sank the unsinkable. The iceberg warnings were dismissed, the ship was traveling too fast in poor conditions, the binoculars were inaccessible to the crew – the list of things that went wrong is frighteningly long.
It wasn’t until the 1990’s that researchers were able to test steel from the Titanic’s hull to find that it contained a high percentage of sulfur, making the steel very brittle. In the early 20th century, material testing was basic at best and there was no accurate way to test the chemical composition of the steel.
A century later, metallurgy has come a long way. Materials are tested for their chemical compositions and mechanical properties to ensure that they meet the certifications required by the various international standards organizations such as ASTM, ASME and EN.
In today’s world, Metal specific ERP programs like the iMetal Platform are able to provide a robust heat analysis program that helps its users consistently report their MTRs with accuracy. Our heat analysis module delivers a systematic and easy approach to keep track of material traceability, characterization, identification and validation.
iMetal Cast Analysis Module provides chemical analysis and verification of metal specification that can identify and quantify the elemental composition of your material and help support your quality control processes.
Material identification, characterization and verification are essential, iMetal provides not only reporting but field level validation of chemical elements and physical properties to ensure your materials conform to industry standards.
Finding the right partner to provide accurate chemical and physical properties of your material is important. The iMetal Software is metal specific and can support Heat analysis on a range of metals and a variety of material attributes and specifications that will identify and quantify the elemental composition of a metal alloy.
Case in Point:
Failure to meet material certification standards is not only dangerous, it brings serious consequences as well.
Elaine Thomas, a metallurgist working in a Washington State foundry, landed herself in the hot-seat back in 2017 after it came to light that she had been falsifying material test reports and providing unsatisfactory steel to US Navy contractors since 1985.
For 32 years, Thomas circumvented the Navy’s material requirements, supplying fake MTRs for nearly half of the steel that the foundry had provided to the Navy for submarine parts.
Thomas ultimately took responsibility and pleaded guilty for fake test reports on about 240 steel productions. Her prosecution resulted in a prison sentence and a hefty fine.
Since the situation initially came to light, the Navy has made it increasingly clear that accurate material testing is an absolute necessity for their suppliers. Fortunately for everyone involved, there have been no reported incidents with the substandard material and corrective measures have been implemented.
Jonas Metals Software and the iMetal Platform will exceed the ERP needs of your Metal Service Center. In addition, our team can advise on the best practices in the use of advanced metal applications in all sectors of the metals industry. You can have the peace of mind that iMetal will provide Total Quality Assurance and reliable chemical analysis reporting and verification to meet the most stringent quality control requirements.
Stories courtesy of:
Image courtesy of Bence Szemerey – Pexels
Dan Markham, Editor-in-Chief at Metal Center News, was in attendance for the North American Steel Alliance’s annual roundtable meeting in October of 2021 where he had the opportunity to ask some questions about the future of the steel industry. Thanks to Dan’s impeccable note-taking, we were provided with a great transcript from the meeting.
This roundtable provides very interesting insight on the current state of the steel industry, and how the NASA expects to see it change in 2022.
It seems that the NASA’s current perception of the future of the steel industry is that demand will rise throughout 2022, as will steel prices.
However, they have concerns with the labor market – specifically with the inability to fill open positions and the lack of available truck drivers.
Over the course of 2022, it will be interesting to see how the steel industry holds up and if the labor market changes at all.
To read the full transcript from Dan Markham, click here.
Story and Transcript courtesy of Dan Markham – Editor-in-Chief, Metal Center News
Peterson Steel, a highly reliable and organized metal service center from Worcester, Massachusetts, has been supplying metal to the East Coast since 1931. This 90 year young business is booming and shows no signs of slowing down. Peterson Steel has used our software, MCMS, since 1996 and president Doug Peterson has loved it ever since.
A little over a year ago, Peterson Steel made a big decision – they acquired our MC Barcode and MC Cutting modules to simplify their inventory. However, at the time, Peterson Steel was not using lot-tracking inventory. This proved to be a bit of a dilemma, according to Doug.
“It took us over a year to physically measure and tag all of our inventory, but it was well worth it.” said Doug on the transition to lot-tracking inventory.
Now that Peterson Steel has finished their transition over to lot-tracking inventory, the game has changed. Previously, they experienced issues from time to time where two different employees would accidentally sell the same piece of inventory to two separate customers. This was a result of their inventory not being updated in a timely manner, as their inventory was a little difficult to manage. This issue has vanished since Peterson Steel implemented the MC Barcode and MC Cutting Modules. Not only is their inventory fully organized and tagged now, but MCMS automatically updates and allocates their inventory in real-time.
Doug admitted that he was initially afraid of the learning curve that would come with these new modules. He was pleasantly surprised when everyone, even the not-so-tech-savvy, had learned how to use the software within a year and they all loved it. “There is always the chance of human error, nothing is 100%, but if the information is put in correctly, the chance of error is nil.”
For 25 years, Peterson Steel has used MCMS to maximize their efficiency, and Doug Peterson sees no reason to change their ways. “It’s a great software and it works perfectly for what we do.” We can’t wait to see how they continue to grow, and how their lot-tracked inventory will help them thrive.
To adapt to our clients’ needs, we continue to update MCMS to improve its functionality and efficiency. Here are some of the big changes with MCMS 6.0 update 2.
The sales tax resale ID has been relocated. Previously, the resale ID was found in the “customer” and “ship-to customer” files. It has been moved to a new file called “tax exempt” where the resale IDs will all be organized by customer/state.
Orders and quote entry will continue to work as they have previously – tax authority can still be based on the “customer” and “ship-to customer” files. However, a new option is to use the “tax location” file.
Among the other new updates to the order entry and quotes sections of MCMS are the ability to add predefined comments for new orders, a customer inquiry option, a few customer maintenance changes, and more.
The 6.0 Update 2 also brings changes to accounts receivable (invoice history for MC Connect reports), inventory transfers, accounts payable, bank account maintenance, document management, and emailing.
For a full description of the changes in MCMS 6.0 Update 2, click here.
Welcome to the Show Nathan Sigsworth, Kayhan Karayel, and Simon Pickering! (US)
In our efforts to further expand JMS, we have brought in a few new members to the team. Please join us in welcoming Kayhan Karayel, Simon Pickering, and Nathan Sigsworth!
Nathan Sigsworth was recruited into the JMS Team on October 18th. As a new software support analyst, he is excited to assist our growing iMetal user base with their training and implementation needs.
Prior to joining Jonas Metals, Nathan had experience in the exotic metals industry. He is very excited to be able to continue to work in the metals industry, but now on the technical side of things.
Nathan comes to us from the aerospace metals industry and has vast experience working with exotic metals and composites. We are well pleased to welcome yet another employee with experience in the metals industry to our team.
Nathan enjoys playing the piano, reading, working on cars and eating spicy foods (the spicier the better he says). To our clients – if Nathan helps you with support, maybe consider sending him some hot sauce.
Kayhan Karayel joined the Jonas Metals team on December 1st as a Product Manager. In his role, Kayhan will be responsible for creating strategic roadmaps for existing products, planning for new products and representing the voice of the customer to the organization.
A well rounded and bright individual, Kayhan received a BSc in Physics from Middle East Technical University in Turkey, and a MBA from Queen’s University of Belfast. Prior to joining the Jonas Metals team, Kayhan gained an abundance of experience in product management, technical consulting, business solutions consulting, ERP Project management, program management, and professional services. Kayhan’s experience in these roles spans over a number of sectors including insurance, finance and invaluable experience in the metals ERP software market through Epicor.
Kayhan has lived in Turkey, Northern Ireland, and England throughout his life, but has worked on ERP implementations and other software projects in the United States, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Austria, and Greece. In case it wasn’t evident, Kayhan is a bit of a globe-trotter and loves to spend his time visiting new places to learn about their culture, enjoy their local cuisine, and experience their history.
In the world of sports, Kayhan enjoys basketball and football. In the UK, he supports Liverpool and in Turkey, Fenerbahce. He is also an avid Argentine Tango dancer, and we look forward to asking him to teach the JMS team how to tango!
Simon Pickering also joined our Jonas Metals team on December 1st as an Analyst Designer. As a member of the JMS team, Simon will take care of our Statement of Requirements and also create design documents for our development team.
Before he worked for JMS, Simon gained experience at Epicor in professional services consulting and client services project management. He’s also gained experience in group business analysis, IT management, supply chain management, operations management, and purchasing management. Simon is a very versatile individual, and he will bring great experience and knowledge to the team.
Simon has been married to his wife for 20 years, and has two children. He also has a British Bulldog and 6 Pedigree Chickens! He enjoys DIY projects, attending concerts (when COVID permits), and meeting with friends. He is a football fan, and supports Aston Villa although he admits it’s a painful team to support at times.
We are elated to welcome this fine group to the JMS team and we can’t wait to see what they have in store for our business. Please join us in giving them a bright and warm welcome to Jonas Metals Software!
