Fagersta Stainless

Flexible ERP is important for change-oriented steel manufacturer

Fagersta Stainless is one of the world’s leading steel manufacturers, focused on pulled and rolled stainless steel wire. The operation today is characterized by rapid change with focus on operational development and increased efficiency, supported by a Jeeves ERP backbone. 

 

It is important that we have a dynamic system that is easily upgraded and that we can grow with. — Tony Björk

 

Within Fagersta Stainless, there is a continuous drive to transform while improving the company. In 2007, Fagersta Stainless selected Jeeves ERP as its new ERP system, due to the company’s requirements for a more flexible and upgradable ERP system that could be customized more easily than its previous system.
 
“It was important for us to get a system we could grow with, and also had a broader functionality,” said Tony Björk, IT Manager at Fagersta Stainless. “We also put great value on user friendliness, and that all information would be easily accessed, searchable, and analyzed. Compared to our former environment, Jeeves ERP was also considerably more integration friendly, and offered a simplified integration with both our own MES system and a formulation system that, among other things, entails managing compliance with safety regulations.”
 

Adapting the system

Since the feasibility study and implementation was initiated, Jeeves has partnered with Fagersta Stainless. Björk is very satisfied with the collaboration, and added that the Jeeves business consultants have maintained an important role in the work of adapting the ERP system to meet Fagersta Stainless’s needs. 
 
“We went from a quite rigid system to a very flexible one, and there was a risk we would adjust the Jeeves ERP solution to become too similar to the former system,” said Björk. “It was very important that we received support in the work of thinking outside the traditional, to help us see new possibilities. Therefore, we wanted Jeeves to act as both an inspirer and provocateur in the process, and this has worked tremendously well.”
 

About Fagersta Stainless

Fagersta Stainless AB was founded in 1983, and is a steel manufacturer focused on pulled and rolled stainless steel wire. All production takes place in Fagersta, where the main office, rod factory and wire factory are also located. The wire rod factory produces approximately 64,000 short tons annually, while more than 11,000 tons are processed into wire. Fagersta Stainless has sales of approximately $260 million, and about 260 employees. These products are sold all over the world, either directly or through a network of representatives. The main areas of application are in fasteners, springs, welding wire, electrodes, bicycle wheel spokes, and applications for construction industries and household use.