Case Study: Major Steel Processing Company achieves 855% production boost and major cycle-time reduction with iGrafx

Major steel processor optimizes process by combining analytical and statistical methods with sophisticated simulation tools

Major Steel Processing Compnay, a large U.S. steel processor serving industries including automotive, needed a disciplined, data-driven way to analyze automated equipment reports, model processes, and improve quality, delivery and productivity. Senior Quality Engineer Ron Proper led the adoption of iGrafx process‑modeling and simulation solutions to combine analytical and statistical methods with real equipment data and MINITAB integration.

Using iGrafx, Proper built detailed process maps, plugged in real monthly data and failure patterns, and ran fast simulations (a month of production in ~30 seconds) to test improvements without capital expense. The work revealed that a $185,000 coil‑car purchase would not increase output, supported operational changes that could boost production by ~10,000 tons/month (up to $50M annual sales impact), and in tests with iGrafx achieved an 855% production increase and reduced cycle time from nearly ten minutes to 62 seconds; training and MINITAB compatibility further enabled implementation.