- If you run a metalworking or metal fabrication business
and are looking for a way to optimize
your production management,
or to not have to deal with hand-drawn profiles
that could get lost, be misinterpreted
or contain incomplete information,
today we're taking a look at a product
that will help streamline your entire workflow.
(upbeat electronic music)
What's up, guys.
Welcome to the Metal Roofing Channel.
I'm Thad Barnette.
Subscribe if you're new,
we release new metal roofing
and metal construction content
every Monday and Wednesday.
Well, if you run a metal fabrication
or a metalworking business
and are looking for a way to optimize
and streamline your workflow,
then you've come to the right place.
Today, I have Cody Campbell
from Cidan Machinery.
We're gonna be taking a look at a product
that does exactly that.
All right, so Cody, can you tell me
what the product is and what it's all about.
- Yeah, absolutely.
So it's called NUIT,
it's a software by Cidan Machinery.
So NUIT is an order processing
and production management software.
So it helps with the order processing
as far as being able to submit custom drawings,
being able to order from a library of standard drawings,
anything from panels, accessories,
anything that you're gonna be doing
during roofing or metal roofing in particular as well.
But then it also helps with our companies
such as our roofers that bend their own metal
or our fabrication companies and our job shops
that need production management.
So that's as far as automated emails,
that'll be notification emails to your customers
of what step of production the order is in.
Within those emails will be auto-generated PDF documents.
Those documents as well will help
our production companies be able to
be a little bit more automated,
go paperless, kinda stuff like that.
And then also be able to submit things
into production, streamline, automate,
all the things that software helps with.
- So if I have a metalworking
or metal fabrication business
this is kind of like a holistic production management
software type of thing?
- Yeah, absolutely.
So with Cidan Machinery,
we provide machines that do
CNC folding, stuff along those lines,
bend metal, cut metal, things along those lines.
What NUIT does is for our production companies
and then for their customers as well,
it helps automate that entire process,
you know, the less time people's hands have to touch things,
the easier it is.
So it really helps their customers
submit orders to them and then also our customers
as well process everything.
- Awesome. Well, can we take a look at some screenshots?
You have something to show me
that we could take a look at?
- So this is the drawing grid.
Very simple here, it allows you
to draw your custom trim.
You'll be able to then make sure
everything is the exact measurements that you need.
So, typical E-trim there,
nothing crazy as you see within a matter of seconds,
customers can draw this also with our roofers
that are gonna be bending their own metal.
This is something that their project managers
and their foreman can do out in the field.
This is online,
it's supported by cloud and Firefox is what we recommend.
As you see here, it's just simple internet browser stuff
but they can log into this on a tablet or laptop,
very easy to draw.
They can add their hems in there as well.
And then select from a list of materials.
And from these materials,
they'll also be able to see
a detailed view or it's usually a 3D view.
And then be able to add that to their cart.
- Yeah, so I can see from a roofer installer's
point of view, this really makes things
super easy to submit orders
for trim and then from the other side,
the fabrication company
to be able to receive these drawings,
the custom drawings in a timely manner
where it doesn't get lost or misinterpreted,
I think that's huge.
- You're right, it helps everybody.
And especially for our roofers,
they're not having to draw on two by fours
and napkins and bring those in to fabrication shops anymore,
they're able to do this from the job site,
they don't have to take this back
into the fabrication shop.
And it's organized, it's detailed,
you know exactly what they need.
Especially for our production companies as well,
they get all the right information.
So there's three different ways
that companies that we have as customers use this.
Number one, it's internally, as I mentioned,
a roofer that is bending their own metal.
So it really helps with their foreman
and their project managers out on the field
to submit these orders
and then submit it directly -
(talking cut off by beeping)
And number two, it's being able to have
your own metal fabrication shop
and receive those orders directly from customers.
They can order twenty four-seven, anytime.
And then as well as a little bit of both,
there are people that have their own roofing company
and that bend their own metal
for roofers as well.
As I mentioned you can also get
all your products as well,
so this is not just for metal,
so especially for those roofing companies
that need to do shingles and sockets
and screws and everything down to butyl tape,
they need to be able to handle everything
so that's where all of this will be handled,
including panels as well as you see here.
These will actually be set out per company.
They will be branded for their business as well
so it won't have Cidan Machinery up there
in the corner, it'll have whatever the name
of the roofing company or the fabrication shop is.
- So in reality, this could be, you know,
an entire store in a marketplace for a company.
- Yeah, exactly.
And so the thing here with this as well
is that you actually open this up
to the customers that you want to as well,
this isn't at the moment just open to everybody.
We do establish the audience,
so as roofers, they may have some people
that are geared a little more to architectural
compared to another one
that's geared more towards commercial or residential.
They're gonna be drawing different profiles.
- [Thad] Sure.
- They're gonna be ordering different things.
They can actually save those profiles
if they wanted to as well.
So that they're not re-drawing everything every time.
They can come in here and save these
to just their custom profiles.
And this is specific to each individual foreman
or project manager, whoever you allow access to.
- So with the actual drawings,
how does that get implemented into the production?
Does that go to a machine,
does it print it out?
How does that work?
- Yeah, so once everything is submitted,
you actually add this to your cart
where you'll have a chance
to be able to double check everything.
We also have a couple different packages,
the package that I have up here now
is our largest package and it does include the pricing.
We do have pricing matrix's that are built in.
We can put your formula in as well,
so very easy for you to just sit there
and receive orders if you're a fabrication shop.
But as they submit these orders,
it'll also have, like I said,
their full pricing breakdown for them.
But then when they submit their order
for the production company,
it jumps into the second part of our system,
which is our IMS,
or intelligent management system.
As you see here in front of us,
we have a weekly calendar view
of all the orders that we have ready
and what we need to do.
Outlined in red means that my operator's
bending the metal right now.
I can click in here to see a quick view
of everything that is involved in it.
Got 45 parts here, they're all aluminum.
And this is a simple drag and drop system as well.
So it really helps them from there.
Within these orders, this is where you'll be able
to click in, you'll be able to load production documents
such as you see in front of you.
And if you don't have the direct machine connection,
we also have a line by line sequence down here as well,
you can print this document out
and have a tablet beside your machine
so your operator can pull this up
and know what he has to do
when programming the part.
- So when you say direct machine connection,
does it only work with Cidan machinery?
- No, so actually Cidan machinery purchased NUIT
at the beginning of 2019.
We had a partnership with them for a few years
and then we really realized that the next wave
of this industry is gonna be automation.
And we've been around for 110 years
as far as our little over higher in here,
excuse me, as far as Cidan Machinery
and we've been able to evolve with the business
as it grows.
And we definitely see the younger generation
eager for technology
and eager for automation and being paperless.
And so that's where we actually acquired
about purchasing the software as NUIT,
but back to your question,
this was not built specifically for Cidan machine.
This was open, we understand that the nation
and fabricators and roofers across the nation
need to be able to connect to their standing machines
that they have now.
So we do connect with other fabricators
that are using other manufacturers within the industry.
- So at what point do you know
that your fabrication business is ready
for a software package like this
ready for that automation that you're talking about?
- So really at any time,
that's the beauty of software
and the beauty of the industry that we're in.
This can be from starting from the get-go.
We have people that are opening new fabrication shops
every year that are like,
"hey, we wanna be automated from the beginning",
which is a great idea.
So they start up shops
and they look for something like NUIT
and we'll roll from there.
But also it's these other companies
that have reached an order capacity
that they go, "hey, there's gotta be
an easier, more efficient way to do this".
And then we'll get in touch with them
and roll from there,
but as far as, that's kinda like the order processing
side of things when you kinda know you're ready
when orders are being a little crazy,
your filing system's getting a little overrun,
you know things along those lines,
a little more efficient way to do that.
And then in production as well,
it's when those orders are still getting to you
but you know you're starting to get jumbled
with those orders, production's not exactly
as streamlined as it needs to be.
Not programming in the control
and being able to send those profiles
directly to the machine can save hours a day.
Especially, even with an experienced operator
and them knowing what they're doing.
Five, ten less clicks every time they put a profile in
saves hours during the day.
- Very cool, so yeah,
sounds like you would take new and old businesses
to the next level with that automation.
- Yes, sir, absolutely.
- So talk to me about the packages,
how does this roll out to customers?
How do you guys bring this to market?
- One of the main things we recommend
is sitting through a webinar.
So we have multiple different packages,
those webinars give me a chance
to be able to tailor something
specifically to our customers
and that will also bring across pricing
and everything like that as well
but being able to tap or tailor
specifically to what they need
and then once we decide to move forward
we will build out the environment,
we will set up the branding as I mentioned earlier,
whether it's with those documents that we saw
or the actual ordering side of things
that will have their logo and things on it.
And then it's about four to six weeks worth of training.
It's about an hour a week
and that is with me.
This isn't an off the shelf software,
so I will be walking them through
how to do everything.
We do have a user manual
and then multiple YouTube videos,
not only for instructions on how to use the system
and production side of things
but also for your customers to learn
how to actually submit orders to you.
- Yeah, definitely sounds reassuring
that you don't just turn people loose
right away with the software and say,
"go for it", you know,
having that step-by-step help
with you guys, that sounds super helpful.
So does the software integrate
with any ERP systems
or anything like that?
- Yeah, so we've integrated with multiple
ERP systems, not only recently
but over the years that you know,
before Cidan actually purchased NUIT,
there's been a lot of integration there.
And we're still currently integrating
with multiple ERP systems
to this day.
We've got two or three ERP systems
we're working with right now.
And then we will actually,
we're building out our quick books
online integration as we speak as well
so that should be ready to go here soon.
- Yeah, that's awesome.
Having that complete system
is really important when it comes to automation,
I can definitely speak from experience on that,
you know, making sure all your docks are in a row
and everything is communicating with each other.
It's pretty paramount in making sure
you have a smooth operation.
- Yeah, exactly. And the idea is efficiency
and you've heard of Industry 4.0 and automation
and that's what it is, you know?
And they're big words
but it makes everything very simple
once you get the flow of things
and you now are ready to take on that new process.
- If someone's interested in learning more
about the product, where can they go,
how do they contact you?
- Absolutely, so you can go to our website
at Cidan Machinery dash Americas dot com.
We do have a webpage there for NUIT under our software.
From there, there is a demo here button
which'll go directly to my email.
Or you can call the office anytime
at 770 692 7230.
- Awesome, well Cody I really appreciate it.
I think this is gonna be really helpful
for the industry as a whole.
Make sure you check out their website
to learn more,
subscribe here to the Metal Roofing Channel
for more content, comment down below
if you have any questions
or if there's any other products that you'd like me
to check out.
As always, I'm Thad Barnette,
and I'll catch you next time.
(upbeat electronic music)