Cosira is setting the benchmark in efficiency, delivery and accountability with Magellan

As one of the largest structural steel fabricators in Southern Africa, the Cosira Group is wholly committed to technological investment and innovation, and believes in a process of continual improvement, thereby ensuring world-class manufacturing facilities and standards.

The Cosira Group is not only meeting, but is also often exceeding the demands of the construction industry with an approach that emphasizes its commitment to the management of all its undertakings in such a way that is accountable and responsible. With time becoming increasingly constrained, the Cosira Group places a premium on exceptional process management with the net result of ensuring projects are within budget, on time and exceed Customers expectations.

Cosira undertakes steel fabrication work for major customers both in South Africa and abroad, and therefore, its fabrication facilities must be world-class to meet global standards of best practice.

One of the many ways that Cosira is achieving this goal is through the use of Magellan; Cosira's state-of-the art enterprise logistics system. Already operational on all of Cosira's projects, Magellan allows the Group to plan ahead, keep track of all parts throughout the production and plant process, and be proactive in correcting any discrepancies well ahead of time. Magellan breaks the traditional 4 wall barrier of the business, allowing complete visibility, while integrating seamlessly with existing systems.

Development on the Magellan system began in 2007 and the system was officially launched in August 2008 in collaboration with Smart Technology Centre, Cosira Group's Technology Services Partner. The advantages of using Magellan have already been overwhelmingly evident with this system proving a key value-add to customers.

All communication extends throughout the production process, via the Magellan system, from one area of production to another, depending on what the particular steel or metalwork requirements of a project may be, including up to final delivery on site. What makes this product unique is its ability to granular track each and every item on an individual basis, as well as being optimized for geographic locations with minimal communication facilities, typical of those outlying geographic regions in Africa. Any item can be traced at the click of a mouse, as well as it's milestone history through the various processes, a key element in the structural steel industry.

Magellan is named after the Portuguese maritime explorer, Ferdinand Magellan. Magellan and his crew were the first Europeans during the 1500s to enter the Pacific from the Strait of Magellan, which he discovered. They were also the first Europeans to reach the archipelago of what is now known as the Philippines, which was unknown to the western world before their landing.

The naming of Cosira's system after the esteemed explorer captures the innovation of this system and how venturing where no-one has been before, can lead to the highest levels of success. The team behind the development is both exited and encouraged in that they have created both a new benchmark and a new innovative use of Information Systems for the construction industry.

In using Magellan, the Cosira Group is able to track all steel assemblies and parts, through the use of mobile wireless terminals, using barcodes optimized for the environment and processes during the manufacturing cycle. Each assembly has a unique number, that is automatically assigned at the beginning of the production process, with a label printed for each part which has a unique barcode ID.

Once each assembly moves from one area to another, it is scanned to indicate that it has now moved out of a specific area. This means that each and every part can be tracked throughout the entire process. The terminals also allow staff the ability to have complete freedom of movement within the facilities as they offer the functionality to not only scan, but process complete transactions, so teams are no longer office bound.

Each item that moves through the production process and plant has its own history report. This has significant implications for both Cosira and the client in terms of transparency, quality and accountability. A particular project client is able to track their own order at any stage of the process by logging onto the Cosira intranet. This further demonstrates the company’s willingness to be completely open and transparent to the client, and offer 'real-time' reporting.

The system is designed in such a way that if the quantity of parts dispatched from one production plant to the next process does not balance, Cosira is notified by an event trigger within the system, and is able to investigate the situation immediately.

Due to the process being tracked from start to finish Cosira is able to take a far more proactive than reactive approach. Each potential problem is an opportunity to improve ahead of time, which has significant implications in terms of time-saving, increasing efficiency, saving money and avoiding standing time.

Furthermore the Magellan system has almost unlimited capacity for future add-ons and applications due to its open architecture. One example is the optional addition of a GPS location module that will allow parts to be tracked while they are on route to a particular destination.

Once again, this demonstrates how the Cosira Group is completely transparent in terms of all operations, and will go to any lengths to achieve the highest levels of transparency, efficiency, innovation and service delivery.