How JobBOSS² Can Help Metal Fabrication Manufacturers Stay Profitable

Metal fabrication often involves large and custom jobs. From managing multiple custom specifications and timelines to ensuring compliance with welding standards and delivering components on schedule, owners of metal fabrication shops often need to wear many simultaneous hats. Material handling needs to be precise but also has to encompass last minute field modification. This is all so shop leaders can deliver high-quality fabricated components on time and within budget.

However, many metal fabricators still rely on Excel, an accounting package, or a generic system to manage their complex operations. Doing so is impractical in today’s environment when every dollar counts. That’s why it’s important to consider a proven ERP solution that has spent decades serving hundreds of metal fabricators.

What can you expect to gain?

• Increased profitability: Accurate job estimating and real-time costing ensure correct pricing, reduce underpricing risk and help secure and maintain profitable jobs.
• Cost savings: Automating material tracking enhances efficiency by reducing waste and manual errors, ensuring materials are readily available, lowering production costs, and maintaining compliance with industry standards to minimize rework and avoid costly penalties.
• Improved productivity and customer satisfaction: Optimized scheduling and real-time shop floor data collection enhance overall productivity by reducing delays, ensuring efficient resource allocation, minimizing idle time, and enabling quick corrective actions to address bottlenecks. Centralized data management and automated reporting offer real-time insights into inventory, production, and financial performance, enhancing visibility and enabling informed decision-making for continuous improvement.
• Saved time: Using AI to build BOMs and increase automation accelerates the estimating and quoting process by reducing manual data entry, while JobBOSS²’s flexibility for field modifications and change management enables quick job and schedule adjustments, minimizing disruptions and preventing time-consuming rework.

How should you use your ERP?

Job estimating and bidding

Reduce the risk of under- or overestimating project costs and improve profitability by providing accurate bids for large custom fabrication jobs. JobBOSS² offers advanced job costing and estimating tools that help metal fabricators accurately estimate the cost of materials, labor, and production time. The system considers historical data and material usage to produce precise quotes.

The new AI BOM Builder saves time and improves accuracy by allowing users to import complex Bills of Materials (BOMs) right within Estimating. Users can also apply markups to materials, labor, or the overall quote to ensure profitability.

Job modifications and change management

Quickly adapt to changes in job specifications without causing significant disruptions to production, ensuring that custom orders are delivered on time and within budget. Built for make-to-order manufacturers, JobBOSS² provides flexibility in managing changes to job scopes, including last-minute design modifications or adjustments required by the customer. Manufacturers can easily modify work orders and adjust schedules or material requirements in real-time.

Scheduling and Coordination

Stay on track with schedules by seeing real-time visibility into production timelines, reducing the risk of project delays due to fabrication bottlenecks. JobBOSS² has the scheduling tools to help metal fabricators manage complex job timelines, ensuring that fabricated components are ready for delivery according to project needs. Prioritize jobs based on deadlines but also have the freedom to adjust jobs to handle rush orders, gain confidence that the right job is routed to the correct machine or work center, and improve overall productivity by making sure that all resources are used efficiently, reducing idle time, and optimizing capacity usage.

Shop floor data collection

Improve real-time visibility into shop floor operations, identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies early, and make data-driven decisions to optimize production. JobBOSS² data collection captures real-time production data, such as job status and employee hours. Employees can record labor hours directly into the system as they work on a job. This helps shop leaders monitor the performance of individual jobs, analyze scrap, and adjust production schedules as needed.

Job costing and profitability

Shops can monitor the profitability of each job as it progresses, allowing them to adjust if necessary to avoid losses. JobBOSS² tracks costs associated with each job, including labor, materials, and overhead. It also calculates profitability in real-time by comparing costs to quoted prices or customer payments. This helps ensure that jobs are priced correctly and profitable.

Welding and structural integrity compliance

Uphold industry standards, including ISO 9001 and AS 9100, reduce the risk of non-compliance and improve the quality of fabricated products. JobBOSS² can help you produce quality parts and stay compliant. Use JobBOSS² to track your certifications, provide traceability for all your materials, and help provide documentation through our Rapid Document Systems (RDS) service.

Material handling and inventory management

Automate your material tracking process, reducing manual work and ensuring that the correct materials are available at the right time, minimizing delays and inefficiencies in production. Receive updated inventory data across all locations, easily transfer inventory, adjust inventory, and ensure that materials are used efficiently, reducing waste.

Automated reporting and documentation

Reduce the administrative burden of manually compiling reports and gain access to real-time insights on project progress and profitability. JobBOSS² has over 200 standard reports, including those for production performance, material usage, job costing, and compliance. Several reports are tailored to metal fabricators' specific needs, including project profitability, job progress, and quality control results.

Time to increase your returns

Staying profitable as a metal fabrication manufacturer requires more than skilled craftsmanship—it demands operational efficiency, real-time visibility, and flexible job management. JobBOSS² is designed to help metal fabrication shops tackle the complexities of large, custom jobs, optimize production workflows, and maintain profitability.

With proven job tracking, real-time scheduling, inventory management, and compliance tools, JobBOSS² offers the functionality to ensure that every aspect of your shop runs smoothly. By integrating these solutions, metal fabrication businesses can stay agile, meet tight deadlines, and deliver high-quality results on time and within budget.