Operational excellence for metal fabrication COOs

Delivering OTIF, OEE and resilience across multi-site metal fabrication

There's a particular kind of frustration that comes from running a plant where the work itself demands precision, tight tolerances, exact material specifications and skilled craftsmanship, but the systems supporting that work are lagging behind. Job status lives in someone's head instead of being visible across the business. Purchasing, production and invoicing each hold part of the story, but none has the complete picture. By the time a problem on the shop floor becomes visible in a report, the business is already a step behind. If this sounds familiar, the issue isn’t how your plant is run; it’s a lack of visibility needed to stay ahead.

The cost of complexity that nobody quite budgets for

Walk through any fabrication facility and you'll find the same challenge expressed in different ways: expeditors chasing materials, planners rebuilding schedules after a supplier delay, and supervisors making decisions based on information that's already hours old. None of these activities create customer value, yet together they consume significant operational capacity. The issue isn't a lack of effort. It's that too much effort is spent compensating for disconnected systems instead of producing more profitable work.

Custom, high-mix work is inherently more complex to keep efficient than repetitive volume work and most systems weren't built with that difference in mind. The gap between good and great operators is measurable. According to the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association (FMA) Financial Ratios and Operational Benchmarking Survey, industry-average on-time delivery is 84%, while top-quartile fabricators achieve more than 90%. Scrap and rework average 1.4% of sales, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margins average 10.7%. The difference between those numbers isn't structural; it’s operational, and much of it comes down to how fast information moves through the business.

In metal fabrication, this shows up as wasted hours reconciling information that should already be known, quality issues caught too late for cost-effective resolution and scrap that chips away at margins one job at a time. A recent Infor™ global survey of business leaders found that fragmented data and disconnected systems, not a shortage of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, are consistently cited as the real obstacle to achieving reliable results out of automation.

Why most operations platforms weren't built for this

Many of the systems running manufacturing plants today were designed for single-site, repetitive production and they struggle to support the mixed-mode reality most fabricators live in: engineer-to-order, configure-to-order, make-to-order and assemble-to-order, sometimes all running through the same line in the same week. Rigid scheduling, weak engineering change control and execution systems that don't communicate with planning create friction that quietly erodes both delivery performance and margins.

What a connected system changes and what it doesn't

Infor CloudSuite™ Industrial Enterprise provides fabricators with a unified operational foundation designed to support the unique requirements of metal fabrication. Capabilities include dimensional inventory for length, width and coil diameter; configure, price, quote (CPQ) with guided selling and real-time pricing; and bill of materials (BOM) and routing structures with built-in yield and scrap management. Native manufacturing execution system (MES) integration gives plant teams real-time visibility into production status, machine performance and material flow. Quality deviations are flagged as they happen rather than during final inspection, giving teams the chance to act before parts are scrapped.

No system erases the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) gap that comes from running custom work instead of standardised production; that's a structural challenge. What a connected foundation can do is close the avoidable part of that gap: The part caused by delayed information and disconnected systems.

Scheduling that adapts instead of just reacting

Advanced planning and scheduling adjusts in real time to material constraints, engineering changes and shifting demand, enabling fabricators to move between engineer-to-order, make-to-order and repetitive production without disrupting schedules. Order pegging shows the downstream impact of priority orders immediately, helping ensure critical customer orders stay prioritised even mid-shift. Native computer-aided design (CAD) software integration closes the version-conflict gap between engineering and production, while guided configuration with 3D visualisation ensures configured orders enter production with an accurate BOM the first time.

The supply side of the same problem

Raw material can represent up to 60% of total fabrication costs, so the planning engine accounts for material grading and characteristics, optimising inventory by location and time of need. Vendor-managed inventory and consignment models sit alongside company-owned inventory while maintaining clear ownership visibility. Supplier collaboration tools surface delivery risk early enough for planners to respond, rather than discovering a shortage when it's already too late.

AI that fits the way plants actually run

Chief operating officers (COOs) tend to be practical about AI. They want it to improve scheduling, predictive maintenance and quality analytics, embedded within the MES and enterprise resource planning (ERP) they trust. Infor Velocity Suite runs on the same operational data those systems already capture, following a staged path—discover, build, measure and expand—that starts with Infor Process Mining before organisations commit to automation.

From there, Infor Industry AI Agents turn diagnosis into action, coordinated by the Infor Agentic Orchestrator. The Production Supervisor and Job Order Agents surface schedule deviations before they become line-stop events; the Inventory Agent identifies component shortages before they affect production schedules; the Quality Control Agent analyses non-conformance patterns for earlier intervention; the Transfer Order Agent manages inter-site movements; and the Buyer and Purchasing Agents handle supplier exceptions and purchase order (PO) updates autonomously. Every automated action stays auditable and traceable, supporting quality compliance while building confidence on the shop floor.

What this has actually delivered

Manufacturers are already showing what happens when connected operations, industry-specific capabilities and modern cloud technology come together.

Oberg Industries, a global contract manufacturer of precision-stamped and machined metal parts, moved to Infor CloudSuite Industrial Enterprise to unify planning and shop floor execution. It now delivers around 90% of orders on time, top-quartile performance compared with the 84% industry average, while continuing to improve productivity through automation and process intelligence.

 

Kattsafe, a manufacturer of metal height safety systems, used Infor Velocity Suite to speed up order processing by 88%, streamlining ERP workflows, improving accuracy and scaling operations without adding headcount. A clear example of automation absorbing volume that used to require more people.

 

Independent analysis reinforces the picture: A Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study commissioned by Infor found a 30% boost in productivity for warehouse and operations employees and a 25% gain for production, planning and field-service employees. Infor was also named a Leader for the fifth consecutive year in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises.

Key statistic: 30% productivity gain for warehouse and operations employees (Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study commissioned by Infor).

What changes once the friction is gone

When planning, execution and quality run on connected, real-time data, the shop floor operates more predictably—not because the work is simpler, but because information keeps pace with production. OEE improves. On-time performance stabilises. Scrap and rework drop because problems get caught earlier. None of this requires adding complexity. It comes from removing the friction that was already there, quietly costing you every day.

Disrupt your industry, not your operations.

The most successful metal fabricators are building agility, reliability and resilience on a connected operational foundation.

With industry-specific capabilities, real-time visibility and AI-powered innovation, Infor helps metal fabricators transform complexity into measurable business results. Explore Infor Metal Fabrication ERP software and start unlocking more value from your operations today.