SigmaNEWs January 2013
SigmaNEST® Holds the Key to Tecta Responsiveness
Tecta S.A. is one of the largest steel-cutting companies in France. As a leading supplier to the machine tool and energy markets, the company’s extensive manufacturing capacity allows them to process several hundred tons of steel a week. This capacity combined with the flexib
ility to cut parts in all formats and all thicknesses (up to 4m wide and 15m long; and up to 800mm thick, or even 1400mm) allows Tecta to deliver a wide variety of metal parts.
While the company’s fabrication capabilities are clearly impressive, it is the company’s level of responsiveness that customers most appreciate. Sense of service has been the driving force behind Tecta since the company’s formation in 1992. Requests are processed, confirmed, and delivery times scheduled all within a short 48 hour time frame. This responsiveness has allowed the company to grow from its origins focused on the Swiss market to broaden its customer base into Germany, Poland, Benelux, Austria, and beyond.
Tecta’s fabrication equipment includes several oxyfuel and plasma cutting machines. These machines feature the very latest technology, offering clients optimal cutting quality for all geometric shapes, ranging from simple to complex. SigmaNEST® CAD/CAM nesting software is a key to the company’s ability to maximize material yield, cutting machine performance and deliver quality parts to its growing and diverse list of customers.
“We realize that maintaining our activity requires an ongoing commitment to quality,” said Michel Holder, who sells for the company in France. “We strive to deliver the best to our customers in terms of quality and pricing. SigmaNEST has been our CAD/CAM nesting software since 1998. We rely on SigmaNEST to help drive our continuous production improvement initiatives.” Today Tecta uses SigmaNEST to create parts, import DXF files supplied by the client, and generate the tightest nests possible in order to reduce material costs by maximizing the part yield from each sheet.
“SigmaNEST is a powerful and comprehensive solution that fits our varied needs,” explained Holder. “It allows us to quickly adapt to the growing demands of the market.”
SigmaMRP™
SigmaMRP™ is a manufacturing resource planning (MRP) system specifically designed for the fabrication industry. It helps users better manage transactions and communications with customers and suppliers, inventory of goods and raw materials, internal and outsourced processes – and the relationships connecting them all together.
SigmaMRP™ is tightly integrated with SigmaNEST™ CAD/CAM nesting software for quoting, work orders, and inventory control. It facilitates the specification, quoting and scheduling of manufacturing jobs, tracks inventory, automatically generates all necessary documents for planning and manufacturing, and maintains a history of all communications. SigmaMRP™ also offers a number of powerful specialized modules, including Shop Floor Data Collection and Marketing Campaign Planning and Analysis.
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Northwest Office Expands
SigmaTEK is pleased to announce the relocation of its Seattle, Washington facility.
Our new address is:
2495 152nd Ave NE, Ste. 2495
Redmond, WA 98052
Tel: (425) 861-1100
Fax: (425) 861-1718
“This expansion reflects our steady growth both regionally and globally,” stated SigmaTEK Director, Bill Huffman. “By nearly doubling our space we are able to add resources and events to better serve our growing list of customers. In addition to larger more up-to-date training facilities, we now have the capacity to host special events while becoming even more responsive to current and future consumer needs.”
What’s New:
- New, larger location almost doubling our size
- Conference room with video conferencing ability
- Larger and updated training facility
- Larger space to host software release events
- Larger space to host customer technical events
- Closer to amenities, food, lodging
- Located next to Microsoft main campus in Redmond, Washington
SigmaTEK and Coherent Announce Partnership
Coherent Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) and SigmaTEK Systems have entered into an agreement enabling Coherent to provide SigmaNEST® CAD/CAM nesting software on its new META platform of laser cutting machines. This will further enhance the ease-of-use and efficiency of this popular laser cutting machine.
SigmaNEST is the market-leading software for nesting, NC programming and cutting of metal sheet materials. As a global provider, SigmaNEST is the leading CAD/CAM nesting system for laser, plasma, waterjet, punch, oxyfuel, router, knife, tube/pipe and combination cutting machines. SigmaNEST ensures superior material utilization, machine motion optimization, and maximum part quality, balanced with cutting speed, work flow integration, material handling, accurate estimates, and information management.
“This relationship demonstrates an on-going commitment by Coherent to provide its growing customer base with the tools that deliver sustained and measurable levels of material savings and manufacturing productivity,” said SigmaTEK President and CEO, Ben TerreBlanche. “This move aligns us with a rising player in the machine tool industry and further solidifies SigmaNEST as the world’s leading CAD/CAM nesting solution. While we are excited to be entrusted as Coherent’s nesting solution provider, the true beneficiaries will be the growing list of Coherent users.”
“This agreement brings together SigmaTEK’s unique software expertise with Coherent laser machining technology to effectively minimize the software set up needed for our CAD-to-Cut solution initiative,” said Coherent Laser Machine Tool General Manager, Larry Dibattista. “Coherent‘s commitment to the international laser cutting market is to provide multi-lingual laser cutting machines that drive increased productivity and enhanced efficiencies. Including SigmaNEST software further delivers on our efforts to provide the right customer solutions.”
Keep the Best Nest!
Is your SigmaNEST subscription expired or about to expire? Don’t miss out. With a quick phone call you can protect your software investment by ensuring new releases and fast support.
Your SigmaNEST subscription service also includes:
- Telephone and e-mail user-level technical support, including “virtual” live support
- Access to SigmaTEK’s customer portal “SigmaTEK Connect”
- Priority technical support
- Favorable pricing on SigmaNEST add-on modules
Renew Today! Call (425) 861-1100
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time)
4 Questions 4:
Keith Brown (SigmaMRP™)
SigmaMRP™ Product Manager Keith Brown takes time to answer four quick questions about our newest product.
1. There is a lot of buzz around this new software, SigmaMRP™. What can you tell us about it?
Keith: SigmaMRP™ is a new and different product for us. For years, SigmaTEK’s suite of software has provided the fabrication industry with solutions for reducing waste and improving manufacturing process efficiency. Now, with an MRP package specifically designed and developed to integrate with SigmaNEST, we are able to address related business processes as well.
2. Can you be more specific about the business functions it touches?
Keith: Absolutely. SigmaMRP™ is focused around what we call the “Five Ps”: People, Product, Process, Planning and Payment, with a lot of depth in each of these areas — automation, tracking mechanisms, and the tools our customers need to quote quickly and accurately, turn purchase orders into work orders, plan and execute the work, and accelerate invoicing.
3. How does SigmaMRP’s integration with SigmaNEST increase the value of both products?
Keith: To illustrate that, let’s examine two different types of manufacturers, the OEM and the job shop. The OEM will maintain a number of different product assemblies on the MRP side, consisting of combinations of purchased goods, profile parts and other manufactured items. Orders may come in that demand running a variety of combinations and quantities. The profile parts for all the orders can be combined and passed to SigmaNEST to be nested together and produced most efficiently, while the remaining components are tracked and managed in SigmaMRP™ through their various operations that do not involve profile machines.
The job shop, on the other hand, might be given a solid model or a set of drawings with a request for a quote just to produce the profile parts. The part geometries can be nested in SigmaNEST, have an efficient NC path applied, and have the costing figures for material and cut time passed back to SigmaMRP™ to produce a near-instantaneous quote. Once approved and ordered, the same set of parts can be handed off by SigmaMRP™ to SigmaNEST as a ready-to-cut work order.
4. What can you tell us about the SigmaMRP™ team?
Keith: We have developers and support staff in Europe and North America, and we recently hosted a week of training to bring onboard the first wave of distributors and SigmaTEK sales reps from the US, Australia, South Africa and Japan. I work closely with SigmaMRP™ Sales Manager Brad Stropes, who assists manufacturers in assessing potential advantages of SigmaMRP™ implementation and determining subsequent ROI.
My job as Product Manager is to ensure that the team has the necessary resources, structure, and guidance to sustain the growth of the software and the support of our customers. We are busy working on software quality and new features, materials for promotion and training, and on communicating the vision of this new breed of SigmaTEK software both internally and to our target customer base. Those target customers are existing users of SigmaNEST that can benefit from the capabilities offered by SigmaMRP™ to link, automate and optimize their business and manufacturing processes, and to enjoy an even greater return on their software investment.
Whose NEWs
Monty Brown and Andrew Hood join the SigmaTEK team.
Monty Brown…
Monty Brown joins the SigmaTEK Services Group as an Automation and Integration Consultant. In this capacity, he will assist customers in architecting custom automated solutions and leveraging SigmaNEST throughout their organization and extended supply chain. Monty’s background includes a vast amount of experience with ERP/MRP system and shop floor integration as well as SigmaNEST software at Grain Belt Supply. Most recently, he worked on a variety of projects as a customer supply-chain consultant at O’Neal Flat Rolled Metals.
Andrew Hood…
Andrew is our newest Applications Engineer. He works at the Helpdesk providing customers with solutions to any issues they are facing with SigmaTEK products. Andrew’s experience in the custom automation, machine design industry where he designed machines using Solidworks, and integrated machines with Fanuc robots, light sensors, and other equipment by programming Allen Bradley PLC’s.
We are very excited to have Monty and Andrew on board, and look forward to the value they will bring to SigmaTEK, as well as our customers.
