TUBE CITY IMS

Optimization Software for the Metals Industry

P.O. Box 2000, Glassport, PA, USA 15045

Phone: 412-678-6141 Ÿ Fax: 219-864-0045

E-mail: Abs@tubecityims.com Ÿ Website: www.tubecityims.com

ABS News April 2011

Keystone acquired by Tube City IMS

Keystone Systems is no longer. It was officially acquired by Tube City IMS as of April, 1, 2011. Abs will continue to grow under the Tube City umbrella. Donald Eckley will be part of the Tube City team, as Director of Metals Software Engineering and Sales. ABS Version 11.4 will be officially released on April 15, 2011. This may be the last sub-release of version 11. Version 12 is expected to be the next major release. As the year proceeds we will be posting a list of the expected changes in Version 12. Two significant changes were added in Versions 11.3 and 11.4. A new utility program was added to allow you to archive old abs files, and the Material import program has been expanded to process individual change transactions. These are described later in the newsletter. Many minor improvements have been made to the overall system. We have expanded the font size and field widths for almost all the dialogs used throughout the system.

Clients who have selected maintenance Choice 4 will be receiving a CD with version 11.4 soon, or will be able to download the newest version beginning April 15.

Directory Editor

Special option 80 - Display Original Aims, has been expanded to display the original aims on the Charge reports for

both Mix and Tap. Previously, the original aims were only shown on the copy of the charge report. Also, this option would

not show the original aims, if the charge included a heel, due to the width of the charge report. This limitation has now

been removed.

New Special option 87 – Maintain Import History Data Base – This new option has been added to Abs. It is an

extra cost option, so that the base cost for Abs is not increased. Only clients that desire this feature will be affected.

This new feature is explained further in the Material Editor section. This option is normally set to “NO”.

New Special option 88 – Book Heat and Charge number together – This new option has been added to Abs. It is also an extra cost option, so that the base cost for Abs is not increased. Only clients that desire this feature will be affected. This new feature is was developed for clients that assign the Heat number when the Heat is poured, and wish to combine both the reserved charge materials and the reserved trim additions materials when booking the Usage. This option applies mostly to ferrous producers, but may be used by non-ferrous clients as well. This new feature is explained further in the Inventory Control section. This option is normally set to “NO”.

Grade/Alloy Editor

No major changes were made to the Grade/Alloy editor, only minor improvements were made. The ability to do a <F2> pop-up when adding restrictions in the Grade/Alloy editor Utilities function has been added.

The Charge Restrictions dialog now displays the restriction type’s description in a separate column. The restriction code is in column 1, and the restriction type description is automatically shown in column 2. Grade/Alloy aims can now be entered and controlled to 5 decimal places.

ABSNEWS April 2011

Material Editor

Several changes have been made to the Material Import program (MATIMP) this year. The program has a new option to build an Import History Data Base, and it also can process individual transactions to change data fields within the Abs Inventory. This second feature has grown as more and more clients are downloading inventory to Abs, and also need to download changes to the Abs inventory.

Maintain Import History Data Base. If special option 87 is activated, all imports into Abs are logged in the

\abs\data\import.ksi file. The import history can be view via a new menu option, view history. If there are import errors,

this new option creates an error file in \abs\import. The error file can also be viewed via new menu option. There is no

option to delete old error files. They can be deleted by your systems administrator, when they are no longer needed.

The error files are text files. Error file Name is “importerryyyymmddhhmmss.txt”, where

yyyy=year, mm=month, dd=day, hh=hour, mm=minute, and ss=second the file was created. This new feature is an

extra cost feature, and requires that the folder \abs\import is not used by any other application.

New Import Transactions. In addition to processing normal downloaded receipts information, the Material import program can now process individual change transactions. The following change transactions are now supported.

T/C Description T/C Description T/C Description

25 – Change actual cost/per unit 26 – Change optimizing cost/per unit 27 – Change standard cost/per unit

28 - Book Actual quantity 29 – Book Book quantity

30 – Change available quantity 31 – Change book quantity 38 – Change vendor code

40 – Change location 42 – Change availability 43 – Change material type

44 – Change date received 45 – Change time received 46 – Change date & time received

99 – Delete record

Transactions 28 and 29 are used to add to or subtract from the existing quantities. Transactions 30 and 31 replace the existing quantities.

Material Print Accuracy. Print Accuracy has been expanded to support printing with three decimal places. This can be seen in the Least Cost Charge and Additions reports.

Inventory Usage

The Inventory Usage function has been modified to allow you to enter the Heat number in column one of the

Booking dialog, and to enter the reserved Charge number in column three of the dialog. This new feature is an

extra cost item, and is activated via Special option 88 in the Master Directory. For Example:

ABSNEWS April 2011

This feature combines all the materials used under the Heat number entered, providing a Usage report of the

total weight and costs for the Heat.

Inventory Reports

Date searches - When entering the beginning and ending selections dates desired, you can now select the dates from a calendar icon that is displayed to the right of the date field. This feature is available when searching the detailed receipts, usage, the changes and corrections, or the material activity information.

Inventory Aging Report. The detailed Aging report now shows the material description and the location.

Inventory Report 2 – On-Hand Report. When printing Inventory On-Hand report, a checkbox has been added to

the dialog, to print only materials with a re-order point greater than zero. This basically provides you with a

Inventory re-order report.

Inventory Report L – Inventory Location report. When viewing the Inventory by location, a new dialog is now

presented asking you how you want the records sorted. Valid options are LIFO – Last in by location, FIFO – First

in by location, or sorted by Location only. Example:

ABSNEWS April 2011

The Inventory Location report now shows the date and time the material was received. The time received is now being saved with the seconds. Older records will not show the seconds, as this was not being saved prior to version 11.3.

Least Cost Charge (MIX)

The Least Cost Charge program has been modified to support optimizing the materials selected by LIFO or FIFO. This new capability requires Tube City IMS to review your procedures for storing and naming locations within the plant, as there are two methods of storage by location that the program can currently accommodate. This new option also allows the client to establish how many, if any, tubs or containers they are willing to move to get to a desired item. For more information about optimizing by LIFO or FIFO please contact Tube City IMS.

The Mix program now displays the location of the material on the rejects report and rejects dialog.

Metals brokers using the profit analysis worksheet can now do elemental costing on eleven (11) elements. Previously

the maximum costing elements was eight (8).

ABSNEWS April 2011

Least Cost Additions (TAP)

The prelim dialog in the Least Cost Additions program (Tap) now displays in RED, any prelim analysis that is outside the

company specifications limits. This is indicated in the “flag” column. The possible values in the “flag” column are:

If Flag column is: then the prelim analysis is:

(blank) within the aims

Low is lower than minimum aim

High is higher than maximum aim

RED is outside the company specifications

Revised Custom Option 61 – has been removed and replaced with the following new definition. Custom option 61, if activated will by-pass the Recall Option dialog that appears when solving for a Heat/Charge that is reserved.

The recall dialog would ask the user if they want to “Recall and Add” or “Recall and replace”. The new custom option 61 now automatically does the follows.

If Custom Option 61 is activated, and you are re-calling a reserved Heat/Charge and have indicated that this is an Intermediate Tap calculation the action that will be taken when the Heat/Charge is reserved is the same as selecting “Recall and Replace in the dialog”.

If Custom Option 61 is activated, and you are re-calling a reserved Heat/Charge, and have indicated that this is a Final Tap calculation the action that will be taken when the Heat/Charge is reserved is the same as selecting “Recall and Add in the dialog”.

This custom option by-passes the dialog in the Tap program. The Tap user is not asked what action they want done. This option was developed to eliminate the user from possibly selecting the incorrect action to take.

All Custom options are maintained in the \abs\data\custom.ksi file. Only your Systems Administrator should modify this file. No log of changes to this file is maintained, as this is an external text file.
ABSNEWS April 2011

Management Reporting System - Mars

The Mars Average / Total Consumption Report dialog now has a checkbox to load the report to excel. This new option allows you to save the monthly reports for later review.

When entering the beginning and ending selections dates desired, you can now select the dates from a calendar icon that is displayed to the right of the date field.

Material Forecasting - Mfp

The Material Forecasting Summary Requirements, Elemental Requirements, and Forecasted Melt Variance reports can now be loaded to Excel. This new feature allows you to save these reports for later review. In addition, the Summary Requirements report now includes the Class code of the materials selected. Later this year, the location information will be added to the Summary report.

Two new additional process methods have been added to the Forecast Function. In addition to processing the campaign sequentially you can now request that the campaign be processed to (1) Maximize the profit or to (2) Minimize the Campaign Cost. These two new options process all the alloys within the campaign, then reserve or set-aside the materials required based on the method selected, thus providing the most profit or the least costly impact. The Forecasted Melt Variance report is prepared and shows the optimum processing order, as determined by the method selected, either by Maximized Profit, by Minimized Cost, or Sequential order.

When making changes to the Market or Quoted file the ability to Cut a value and Paste it into another material has been added. This is identical to the regular material editors Cut and Paste feature. This change has also been made to the Purchase Evaluation programs Modify option.

Purchase Specification Program – PSP

A new program has been developed to assist in validating received chemistry to an established specification for the material. The PSP program is used to enter the minimum and maximum chemistry limits for each element you wish to monitor and control. The program also has the ability to indicate which elements should be reported. This is used for elements that do not have a minimum value, only a maximum value. When new material receipts are added or imported ABS now flags any elements analysis that is outside the limits established within the PSP program. It also flags any element that does not have a chemistry result and has been set within PSP to have a chemistry reported. For more information about this new program, call or email Abs@Tubecityims.com and ask for the “Purchase Specification Program.pdf” documentation file.

ABSNEWS April 2011

Scrap Control

The Scrap Control Transfer Functions menu option - F4-Edit has been slightly modified. The F4-Edit dialog now has a

checkbox labeled “Assign Chemistry shown”. By checking this box, the Chemistry assigned indicator for the material will be set, allowing the material to be transferred to the live Abs inventory. If a Scrap Average Chemistry is assigned to an imported receipt or to a manually entered receipt the chemistry for the material will be visible, but it will be flagged as “not assigned”, until the “Assign Chemistry shown” check box has been checked.

The two additional labels “Purchase Spec Min Value and Maximum Value” are two new fields that show the optional

minimum and maximum chemistry values defined for the highlighted element. These values change as the cursor is moved from element to element. For more information about the Optional Purchase Specifications program (PSP) contact Tube City IMS, and ask for the Purchase Specifications documentation.

ABSNEWS April 2011

Abs Utilities

A new Abs utility program has been added to the U - Abs utilities menu. The new program is Menu option O – Archive Abs files. This new program was developed to allow you to archive monthly and yearly Abs data files that are no longer necessary to be on-line. Only users with a user number less than 5 can Select, Retrieve and Delete archive files. When activated the following Dialog is displayed.

You can select from old detailed receipts, detailed usage file, detailed adjustments, old expired material files, old Year-to-Date files, old Grade/Alloy Change files, or old IO error files. Each year Abs creates twelve receipt files, twelve usage files, twelve adjustment files, two expired files, one Year-to-date file, one Grade/Alloy change file, and as many as twelve IO error files. This utility program provides the ability to view how many files exist, and also provides the ability to archive and move the files from the \abs\data folder. This Abs Maintenance if not done, will result in the \abs\data folder containing hundreds of old unnecessary files.

Files that have been archived can be retrieved and restored in a matter of minutes with the Retrieve from Archives button. For more information about the Archive feature click the Abs About menu option on each dialog page.

ABSNEWS April 2011

Batch file processing – in Abs

There are two option settings that instruct Abs to call a Batch file. The first option is when the user wants to have a special charge sheet produced and the second option is when the user wants to take control from ABS to run a another program or process.

Special option 40 – If special option 40 in the Master Directory is not set to its default value No, this implies that the client wants Abs to call a special batch file (MIXSPC.BAT, or INTSPC.BAT, or TAPSPC.BAT) to prepare a special Charge sheet or report, instead of the normal standard charge copy. Abs will then call the requested batch file, rather than the standard copy program via a call to the appropriate batch file. The batch file will only be found if it is in the user’s start-in folder, or in a folder that is within the users Environment Path statement, such as \task folder. If the batch file is not found after searching both of these locations the call to the batch file will fail and the special batch file will not be executed.

Abs has now been modified to first look for the requested batch file in the \abs\help folder first. If the batch file it is found in this folder then Abs calls and processes this batch file. If it is not found in the \abs\help folder, then ABS will call the batch file as was previously done. It is highly recommendation that if you are utilizing this special option (40), that your Systems Administrator copy the appropriate batch file(s) to \abs\help folder. When a new computer is added to the system, if the environment path statement is not modified to include the \task folder calls to the batch file would fail. If the batch file is in the \abs\help folder this will not fail now.

Custom option 49 – This option, if activated instructs the MIX and or TAP programs to call either MIXUSR.BAT or TAPUSR.BAT, after the heat/charge has been reserved. The user now has control and can have a special program start. The most common use of this custom option is to start the MAKE30 program ran, which creates a data file with the reserved materials. This is one of the most common uses for this option. The call to the batch file was performed as described above. Now Abs first looks for the batch file in \abs\help folder. If the batch file it is found in this folder then Abs calls and processes this batch file. If it is not found in the \abs\help folder, then ABS will call the batch file as was previously done. Once again, we highly recommend that if custom option 49 is utilized, that the MIXUSR.BAT or TAPUSR.BAT file be placed in the \abs\help folder.

Misc.

1. When changing numeric data fields, such as quantity, cost, analysis, etc., values that are always numeric, ABS positions the cursor to the left of the existing value. As new values are entered, the new values are shifted left. Both the old value and the new are shown until the cursor is moved to another data field. For example:

Actual Cost/Lb. Before:

After:

We have attempted to correct every screen where numeric data is entered or changed to use this procedure. There may be a few cases where this could not be achieved due to screen size. We are working on a solution to these exceptions.

ABSNEWS April 2011

Downloading Interim ABS Software Updates

As a reminder, the address for downloading interim ABS updates from Keystone’s website is as it was before. This web site is still valid. When the web site is updated and moved we will send all clients the new address. Until then you can continue to use this address:

http://www.keystone-systems.com/absuser/

The top of this page contains links to seven (7) different zip files to accommodate updates, as needed. These files will be password protected, and named as follows: part1.zip, part2.zip, part3.zip, part4.zip, part5.zip, part6.zip, and current.zip.

When a client needs an ABS update, they will be notified via email which zip file(s) to download (part1.zip, part2.zip, etc.) and the password to the file. The client will have five (5) days to download their particular file(s). If their files are not downloaded within five (5) days, they may be overwritten with another client’s update.

The file “current.zip” contains ABS programs and/or files that every client has (i.e., database editors and help files). This file will be updated on or around the first of each month. The password for this file will always be “absall”. Every client running the Windows version of ABS may download and install “current.zip” regardless of whether they have an ABS maintenance agreement or not. The current.zip file also contains the current abshelp.zip. You need to unzip the abshelp.zip file into your \abs\help folder in order to have the latest help, error, and on-line documentation files.

The bottom portion of this webpage contains the following informational files that have always been available on Keystone’s website. These files are in Acrobat Reader (PDF) format and can be downloaded by anyone:

ABSNEWS.PDF - Latest ABS Newsletter ABSFILES.PDF - Listing of all ABS Programs and Data Files

ABSFLYERS.PDF - All ABS Product Flyers ABSLAYOUTS.PDF - ABS Data File Layouts

As always, please feel free to contact Tube City IMS if you have any questions or concerns.