Trinity Steel Fabricators Implements FabTrol MRP Advanced Production

to Help Deliver on a 22,000 Ton Industrial Structural Project

Trinity Steel Fa b ricators 205 E. Pine Valley Drive

Trinity, TX 75862 U.S.A

(936) 594-3513

www.trinitysteel.com

FabTrol MRP software

Drawing Management

Material Management

Production Management

Shipping Management

FabTrol customer since

July 2005

Primary type of work

Industrial Structural

Project industry

Petrochemical

Project owner

TOTAL Petrochemicals USA

Project managment

Fluor Enterprises

Project detailer

Innovative Steel Detailing

Project

Port Arthur Refinery Deep Conversion Project

Owner: TOTAL Petrochemicals USA, Inc.

Case study focus

FabTrol MRP Advanced Production modules: An analysis of how production hatch­ing, automated distribution of CNC data, and production progress tracking were used to prioritize and manage fabrication and timely, consistent delivery of 13,000 tons of sophisticated industrial steel structures to the job site.

"Now, with Advanced Production, we break sequences into production batches to get detail into the shop as we need it. It's made a huge difference in how steel flows through the shop." - Mickey Swor, Project Manager, Trinity Steel Fabricators, Inc.

"Here at the job site, I can tell our construction companies with confidence that Trinity's delivery dates are the dates they will see their steel." - Chris Supan, Director Material Management, Fluor Enterprises, Inc.

Project participants

TOTAL Petrochemicals USA, Inc.

The Port Arthur Refinery owned by TOTAL Petrochemicals USA, Inc., dates back to the early 1900s when it was first built as an oil terminal. The refinery has under­gone several expansions and updates in its century of service. The current $2.2 bil­lion deep conversion project will allow annual production of three million tons of ultra-low sulfur automotive diesel, bringing overall refinery capacity to 12 million tons. Hand-in-hand with increased capacity will come a reduced environmental footprint and compliance with new federal fuel standards.

"This project had 22,000

tons of structural steel on

it and when we developed

our fabricators, we knew

weit need more than one

shop. So when we went

out for bid, it was with

the full intent of having

two fabricators. Trinity,

of course, was one of those

fabricators, and because

of their performance,

they became the primary

fabricator." - Chris Supan

Director of Material Management

Fluor Enterprises, Inc.

Four coke drums manufactured in Spain- each one 12 stories high, 32 feet wide, and weighing 404 tons-are the centerpieces of this project that will include a 50,000 barrel-a-day coker, and additional units for desulfurization, vacuum dis­tillation, and other related processes. To support and provide access to the drums and related units , twenty-two thousand tons of structural steel platforms, vessel towers, control buildings and miscellaneous iron were required.

Fluor Enterprises, Inc.

Fluor Enterprises, Inc., a Fortune 500, full-service Engineering, Procurement, Con­struction and Management (EPCM) company involved in challenging projects worldwide, won the contract for the refinery conversion in late 2006. Engineering and procurement phases began in 2006, with construction starting up in 2008.

Based on a competitive bidding process, Trinity Steel Fabricators, Inc. was awarded a contract for structural and miscellaneous steel fabrication. The fabrication phase of the project started in March of 2008, with heavy production kicking in by June of that year.

Trinity Steel's role on the project was fabrication of the main structures to hold the vessels, the platforms around the tower vessels, stairs, ladders, control buildings and pipe racks.

Trinity Steel Fabricators, Inc.

Trinity Steel Fabricators, Inc., an AISC Certified industrial steel fabrication com­pany established in 1976, specializes in fabrication of the complex steel structures required in the mining, petrochemical, marine and other industrial sectors. A pro­gressive company committed to using the best technology in its effort to deliver a quality product to its customers, Trinity Steel, whose president, Roy Karnes, Jr., is a former IBM product development manager, has been a consistent innovator in its use of hardware and software in structural steel fabrication. In the early 90s, the company automated part processing by replacing many of their machines with modern CNC-driven machines. Now, with three shops, each dedicated to a spe­cific part of the fabrication process from part processing to fit-up and welding, the company provides up-to-date information to all shops simultaneously by pro­viding access to a single FabTrol MRP installation. To support customer commu­nications, Trinity provides customer access to a website where they can get current project status 24/7 by logging in and querying the system, which then pulls up and displays the most current FabTrol MRP data for the customer's online review.

- 2-

"Trinity did an excellent

job of working with us, of

moving our orders around,

and assessing what they

could do as far as fabrication

went." - Tim Hil lis Material Managment Buyer

Fluor Enterprises, Inc.

"Advanced Production gave

us the ability to schedule our

shops better and get the right

steel at the right time. We can

divide sequences up into

batches. Instead of picking

through 200 tons of plate all

at once, the machine operator

only has to pick through 20

tons he's going to need to

work on that week." - Richard Neal Vice President of Projects

Trinity Steel Fabricators, Inc.

The challenge

Goal: Prioritize 13,000 tons of steel with 225,000 detail parts involving routing of 150,000 CNC files to produce and deliver over 81,000 ship marks in the right order at the right time.

Added challenge: Fabrication started when only 15 to 20 percent of the project was engineered.

Schedule: One and a half years

"You always have a chance of errors, but I would say we produced 13,000 tons of steel and had no significant back charges or errors from the job site. Because of FabTrol's Advanced Production, its batching and routing, SICAM sorting some of those files for us, we're putting out a better product. And that comes from using the latest tools and technology. We're tying all this technology together to help us ensure that we do put out a good, quality product." - Richard Neal, Vice President of Projects, Trinity Steel Fabricators, Inc.

Desired changes and changes delivered with Advanced Production

In anticipation of the Port Arthur Refinery conversion project, Trinity Steel was interested in streamlining its production planning and routing, and in eliminat­ing delays in production progress tracking.

To meet this challenge, Trinity Steel added the FabTrol MRP Advanced Production modules in early 2008. Working closely with FabTrol Systems training and imple­mentation staff, Trinity Steel set up FabTrol MRP's Advance Production modules' preferences, workshops and work areas, including CNC work areas. Then routing rules were configured to route parts to the appropriate work area and equipment across Trinity's three production plants.

Trinity Steel and Controlled Automation staff also worked together closely to in­tegrate the Advanced Production modules with Trinity Steel's CNC controllers. Controlled Automation's Structural Information for Controlled Automation Ma­chinery (SICAM) software was successfully configured to import FabTrol MRP's production batch data, including the CNC files for each batch, and send produc­tion status updates back to FabTrol MRP in real time as parts were completed.

- 3-

"Importing a job is night

and day from what it used

to be. ISD can now go in

and check every file before

they send it to us. We gave

them our unit price file

tables and they've got that

and it runs smoothly,

really smoothly." - Mickey Swor Project Manager Trinity Steel Fabricators, Inc.

Trouble-free importing

With the prospect of managing over 300 drawing releases, the need for file accuracy and quick turnaround was a high priority.

Desired change: Put a system in place that would alert Trinity Steel to missing CNC files during drawing imports and eliminate importing errors due to inconsistent material callouts.

Changes delivered after implementation: When an imported file was missing CNC data, FabTrol MRP alerted Trinity Steel staff immediately. This notification allowed them to request the file from the detailer right away to ensure that complete data was routed to each machine.

In addition to improving their process for automated CNC file monitoring during import, Trinity Steel decreased incoming errors from the detailer by providing him with their FabTrol MRP material definitions and translation tables. This allowed the detailer to check each file against the FabTrol MRP setup before sending it to Trinity Steel.

"Now we generate our own reports and we fix any errors before we send a file to Trinity. Before, they would tell us,"Okay, this part's no good. Please regenerate it." We'd have to reopen the job, look for that part. Now it's something we pick up on before the file is sent." - Troy Gibbins, Detailer, Innovative Steel Detailing, Inc.

Prioritizing by production batch

On the TOTAL Port Arthur Refinery project, releases averaged 100 to 300 tons, with several releases over 500 tons. To manage larger releases, Trinity Steel typi­cally broke the release into sequences. However, too many sequences often made it difficult to keep detail flowing through the shop.

Desired change: The ability to easily break sequences into production batches to get detail as needed.

Change delivered after implementation: With the batch planner in FabTrol MRP, Trinity Steel was able to easily create production batches to fabricate similar items together based on drawing releases. The original hatching priorities could be modi­fied to accommodate shifting project priorities.

-4-

"That was exactly the main

reason we went to Advanced

Production: The ability to

plan our work better for

each piece of machinery

by routing parts," - Richard Neal Vice President of Projects Trinity Steel Fabricators, Inc.

"Now when we have our weekly production meeting, we pull up FabTrol MRP and in the batch planner we pick the priority of each batch that has been assigned to a shop. We go through each shop and we move our priorities around so that every week the shops know exactly the priorities . . .. move this one ahead of this one .. . It gives the shops the information they need to run their work. We can have 20, 30 batches in the shop a week. How do they know which ones to run first? Now we can plan that out and show them exactly which order to work them in. That was something we were lacking before we got Advanced Production." - Richard Neal, Vice President of Projects, Trinity Steel Fabricators, Inc.

Routing parts

Trinity has three plants, each of which specializes in a part of the fabrication pro­cess. The Tomball plant does all part processing and ships its cut, coped, drilled and angle parts to the Trinity and Lufkin sites for an assembly-line approach to fit-up and welding. Work between the shops was coordinated at weekly project meetings.

Desired change: Automatic routing of parts to appropriate equipment/work areas across plants.

Change delivered after implementation: Based on routing rules and production batching information, FabTrol MRP automatically routed parts and associated CNC files to the right work areas and machines in each of the three shops. Parts with CNC data that weren't going to be processed at a CNC-capable machine, were routed to the appropriate machine based on the CNC data and the routing rules set up in Advanced Production.

"We did all of our routing rules before we started heavy into production in 2008. We're probably a little bit different than a lot of fabricators in having multiple shops and having all our CNC equipment located in one shop that supplies material and parts to all of our shops, so it was a little bit different setting up all the shop locations and routing rules. But it worked out great for us." - Richard Neal, Vice President of Projects, Trinity Steel Fabricators, Inc.

- 5-

"We've really been able to

meet their [Fluor's] needs.

And Advanced Production

really helped with that. The

old way of doing it-putting

all the CNC files in folders

and having our shops pick

through the folders to find

the right parts and so forth .. .

When we went to Advanced

Production, we were able to

route the material to the

right location, and export

those CNC files automatically

to the right locations." - Richard Neal Vice President of Projects Trinity Steel Fabricators, Inc.

Managing CNC files

Trinity Steel managed its CNC files by checking manually for missing files and placing each file in a folder on the server where the CNC operator could look for the right ones.

With over 150,000 CNC files on the refinery conversion project, Trinity Steel wanted to quickly and accurately match the right CNC file to the right machine and to the assemblies that needed to be produced.

Desired change: The ability to route files automatically at the right time to the ap­propriate controller and quickly update existing fi les after a revision.

Change delivered after implementation: As a part of the routing functions de­scribed in the preceding section, FabTrol MRP put CNC files for the relevant pro­duction batch in the correct folder for the controller that drove the NC equipment doing the work. When drawing revisions were received, FabTrol MRP notified staff which files were affected and where they were in production so they could be replaced quickly.

Tracking production progress

Cutting lists were returned to the office at the end of the day for manual updating of production status in FabTrol MRP. When a cutting list had cut and uncut items on it, it could sit at the saw for several days. As a result, recording actual cuts was delayed until all items were cut and the cutting list was turned in to the office. Or, if a large quantity of steel was flowing through the shop, office staff were not always able to keep up with manually updating verified cuts. With over 255,000 parts in the TOTAL Port Arthur Refinery conversion project, Trinity was concerned about backlogs and delays.

Desired change: Improved production progress tracking with more timely updates on production status.

Change delivered after implementation: The angle line in Trinity Steel's Tomball shop was the first CNC equipment to be successfully integrated with FabTrol MRP using Controlled Automation's SICAM software. This integration allowed part completion data to be fed back to FabTrol MRP automatically in real time, as parts were cut at the angle line.

-6-

"Trinity was very flexible

within the realm of 'Okay,

we can move this, we can

move that. We haven't gotten

to this yet, or we've got this

but we haven't started it yet.

We can set it aside." - Tim Hill is Material Management Buyer

Fluor Enterprises, Inc ..

To update completion of parts that were produced in non-CNC work areas with­out manually updating FabTrol MRP based on cutting lists, Trinity Steel used Fab­Trol MRP's ADC (bar coding) module. When an assembly was scanned as com­plete at the quality control work area, all parts not yet marked as complete in Fab­Trol MRP were updated as completed. With over 81,000 ship marks to deliver to the job site for the Port Arthur Refinery project, timely information on part and assembly status was essential for planning production, and to meet shipping and erection schedules.

"Now, as Project Manager, it's been pretty easy for me to see where I am as far as status of pieces through the shop. Now I feel confident knowing that I can look in FabTrol MRP and see where the detail is rather than wondering whether the cut sheets have been updated manually. I can go into progress tracking and see exactly where we are. Bottom line, everything we use now, whether it's the barcoding or the batch planning, it just flows so much smoother. It's so much easier to manage." - Mickey Swor, Project Manager, Trinity Steel Fabricators, Inc.

Results that count

The Port Arthur Refmery Deep Conversion Project required flexibility on a number of fronts. First, fabrication started when only about 15 to 20 percent of the project was engineered, compared to a typical business model of 30 to 40 percent complete. As a result, priorities shifted frequently. Based on their access to accurate, up-to­date information, Trinity Steel was able to quickly assess the effect of changes, and make necessary adjustments. In addition, as a result of Trinity Steel's quality and reliability, Fluor Enterprises shifted increased tonnage to them as the project pro­gressed. In the end, Trinity Steel successfully absorbed an additional 5,000 tons of steel work on the project while still delivering on the original schedule.

And deliveries are the acid test in steel fabrication: the right ship marks, properly fabricated, delivered at the right time to the job site are what count. To ensure suc­cess in this area, Trinity Steel combined its production progress tracking with bar coding of assemblies at quality control. They placed a bar code sticker on each as­sembly at the time of final inspection, with QC set up as a work area in advanced production in FabTrol MRP. An assembly without an approved inspection status in FabTrol MRP could not be scanned for loading. After passing through quality

-7-

fabTrOisystems, Inc. Proud member of the Dowco Group

1025 Willamette St., Suite 300 Eugene, OR 97401 USA

888-FABTROL www.fabtrol.com

control, and being loaded, the assembly bar code was scanned again. At each way­point (e.g., galvanizer) each assembly was accounted for and scanned again. When the load arrived at the construction site, each assembly was received into Fluor En­terprises' system using a file generated from FabTrol MRP data.

"What stood out with Trinity was their ability to work with us and their ability to provide information and keep us up-to-date. That information piece really makes a difference. You know, everybody can fabricate. But I've chased some stuff where I really didn't have the level of confidence. With Trinity, I'm confident that what they say they shipped, they shipped-that what they say they've made, they've made." -Tim Hillis, Material Management Buyer, Fluor Enterprises, Inc.

FabTrol MRP- A better way to manage

To learn more about FabTrol MRP and how your fabrication operations can benefit from Advanced Production, visit us at www.fabtrol.com or call us at 888-FABTROL.

"We strive to provide a quality product, an on-time product, a low-cost product. FabTrol and the additional tools that work with it have definitely increased our quality and decreased production time. We're getting steel out faster, and we're able to manage that steel better. FabTrol MRP has helped make us more efficient. It's definitely a win-win for us." - Richard Neal, Vice President of Projects, Trinity Steel Fabricators, Inc.

© 2010 Copyright FabTrol Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

This document may not, in whole or in part, be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form without prior consent, in writing, from FabTrol Systems, Inc.

FabTrol, FabTrol MRP, the FabTrol MRP logo, and A Better Way to Manage are trademat1ts or registered trademat1ts of Fab Trol Systems, Inc. -All other brands, product names, and mat1ts are the properties of their respective owners.

- 8 -