A consortium of R&D, industrial and trade associations have joined together
to provide enabling tools that promise to improve the structural steel fabricators
business.
The project aims to develop a web-based platform for e-collaboration between
the structural steel manufacturers (fabricators) and their clients, specifiers,
designers and suppliers.
The project is led by BRE and is financially supported, in part, by the Department
of Trade and Industry under its ICT-Carrier Programme.
The sector is already very strong in its use of IT for design and production
of steel structures and is probably ahead of most other sectors within the construction
industry. However, the exchange and share of data across its boundaries and
within its supply chain is not as well developed.
Product Data Management and e-collaboration technologies have been tried and
tested in automotive and aerospace industries for some years with proven benefits.
The project aims to study, adopt and adapt these technologies to improve the
productivity, competiveness and quality of service of the Steel fabricators.
It is estimated that potential annual savings of up to £50 million,
or a 2.5 percentage point increase in profitability exists. Achieving this goal,
however, requires the up take of new technologies and practices by the industry.
This project aims to provide a vehicle for demonstration of the benefits and
a working platform for bringing about the change.
Metis
e-working platform 
