Development of control systems for metal depots

Metal depots are engaged in the storage, processing and sale of rolled metal products. As a rule, in such a business there are many work processes – from the purchase and cutting of raw materials, to interaction with customers and organizing logistics. Managing all of this manually is quite difficult, which is why companies in this industry are increasingly prioritizing automation through intelligent control systems to increase productivity and competitiveness.

Let us consider in more detail the main tasks that such systems can solve:

• Warehouse management. Using warehouse accounting tools, you will be able to monitor the availability of products in the warehouse in real time and effectively manage stocks, which will allow you to avoid shortages and surpluses, as well as optimize the delivery and shipment processes.
• Optimization of production processes. By automating the processes of cutting and processing metal products, you can significantly increase productivity and, consequently, the speed of order processing.
• Quality control. Automation of checking the quality of metal and its compliance with standards will make it possible to better assess risks and take timely measures to improve products.

• Improvement of customer service. With the help of intelligent systems, managers will be able to automatically track the status of orders and instantly respond to customer requests. This will provide a higher level of service and increase your competitiveness in the market.
• Logistics management. Organization of transport and tracking of deliveries of metal products to customers.
• Financial Accounting. Financial operations management is an integral part of the work of a commercial enterprise. With the help of the management system, you will be able to control expenses, income, payments to suppliers, client payments and payroll in one place, in real time. Moreover, you will be able to generate reports and financial analysis of your company to track its performance.

It is also worth noting that these are only the basic capabilities of metal warehouse management systems, and in practice they are created taking into account the individual needs of each company.

Various technologies can be used to develop automated control systems for metal depots, depending on the characteristics of the project, its goals and performance requirements. For example, a technology stack might look like this:

• For mobile applications. Programming languages Java/Kotlin for Android, Swift for IOS and Flutter/Dart for cross-platform solutions.

• For desktop applications. Python/PHP/C++ languages and Django/Flask/Yii2/Laravel frameworks.
• For web applications. Python/PHP/Node.js and Django/Flask/Yii2/Laravel frameworks for the backend part, and HTML/CSS/JavaScript for the frontend.

When developing metal warehouse management systems, we prefer to use the iterative Scrum methodology. Its idea is that all work is done in small cycles – iterations, which are also called sprints. Each sprint usually lasts up to two weeks, and after completion it is presented to the customer.

Due to frequent checks of the intermediate result, the client always understands exactly what work is being done and can provide timely feedback, which is extremely important when creating such large and complex projects.

In addition to the methodology, there are also development stages – this is a sequence of steps that specialists must perform to create a high-quality and viable product. Consider what work is performed on each of them.

Stage 1. Gathering information

At this stage, developers need to determine the goals and requirements for the management system, as well as collect the data necessary to get started. To get answers to all questions, we organize meetings or online meetings with client representatives.

Stage 2. Design and technical documentation

After receiving all the necessary information, the specialists proceed to the design. The result of this stage will be a prototype of a scrap metal management system, including mockups of interface pages, a description of the functionality, a technological stack and a development plan.

Stage 3. Design development

At this stage, UI designers create a thoughtful visual environment that is as comfortable as possible for end users. Given the complexity and high concentration of functionality in control systems for metal depots, their design is most often developed individually. With this approach, all graphic elements are drawn from scratch and harmoniously interact with each other.

Stage 4. Programming

Programming, or technical development, is a fairly general concept that consists of two parts:

• Frontend development. Building a user interface that works on the client side. The frontend includes: layout, development of animations, interactive elements, event handlers and other tools that ensure comfortable user interaction with the system.
• Backend development. Unlike the frontend, the backend is hosted on the server and is not accessible to the end user. Nevertheless, it is he who provides the functionality of the software. When implementing this part, specialists design databases, configure servers, optimize system performance, and perform other work related to storing and processing data.

Stage 5. Testing

When the technical development is completed, it is important to make sure that all the functionality of the system works correctly and as it was intended during planning. This work is performed by QA engineers – quality assurance specialists.

Stage 6. Technical support and development

The next important step is technical support.

The fact is that after the release and the start of using the project in real conditions, users may encounter various unforeseen errors. The elimination of such problems is carried out as quickly as possible, just within the framework of technical support.

Also, after the release, you can continue to develop the management system – improve or add functionality, change the visual environment, create integrations with new external services, etc. For such purposes, additional patches with updates are created, which are then installed into an existing system.

Using intelligent management systems, you can significantly increase the efficiency of your business: optimize the production of metal products, monitor inventory in real time, manage financial transactions and customer interaction, which will help increase competitiveness and increase enterprise profits.

The development of high-load control systems for warehouses and metal depots is one of the main activities of AVADA MEDIA. While working, we rely not only on the experience of our specialists, but also on close communication with the client, which allows us to find the best solutions for his business.