A sophisticated and comprehensive project material control system that reconciles the availability of material with the scheduled production requirement. Material is allocated to the highest priority throughout the schedule and highlights shortfalls in availability and purchase orders.

INTRODUCTION

ControlmaX is exceptionally powerful and efficient software for application on any substantial construction project. It may deliver an immediate, direct saving in costs, by easily enabling more efficient fabrication / construction activity sequences as it provides material controllers and planners with the right tool set to undertake their work very efficiently. The primary objective, met very effectively, is to provide a means to minimize extra costs as a result of adjustments to delivery dates, construction schedules and design requirements. 

The functionality provided in ControlmaX has been proven to be highly effective on many successful and profitable projects (conversely, too many construction projects have been seen with inadequate material management and control in place where ControlmaX could have prevented disastrous financial consequences).

Effective Materials Management is an essential part of any project, yet this important task is frequently made even more complex by the difficulty of correlating information from various systems such as procurement, material takeoff and planning. ControlmaX takes essential materials information from all of these systems, combines it together and makes it easily accessible through inquiries and reports. 

ControlmaX simplifies assessing the impact of changes which may occur in one or more system such as priority (planning), ETA (purchasing), material quantities (takeoff) and allows the overall impact to be easily and rapidly assessed before problems can occur. Clearly, other MatriX modules will be particularly suitable as feeder systems with purchasing data in ProcuremaX and take-off requirements in QuantimaX and a number of tables are common to the MatriX systems (e.g. Part Numbering). However, like other parts of MatriX, ControlmaX is modular and designed to integrate with any competent software providing similar functionality within existing corporate or project information and work process systems.

ControlmaX can be applied as a productivity and control tool for planners and material controllers or it may be used as a primary input and control facility for the main operation functions of project materials management. As work progresses and the situation changes,

ControlmaX can continually manage material allocations and / or activity schedules to optimize productivity. Significant areas of functionality that can be managed include :

MATERIAL ALLOCATION

There may be many examples of instances where construction may involve pre-fabrication and the cheapest, most efficient option may be to pre-fabricate all the similar items but items may also be wanted in a certain sequence for construction / erection. There may also be constraints on material delivery dates and availability. 

The ControlmaX material allocation process caters for the assignment of priorities, scheduled construction dates and actual or scheduled material availability. The programs are particularly efficient and can perform allocations in a matter of seconds for thousands of components to thousands of activities; this is done so quickly that it is quite straightforward to undertake "what-if" analysis with differing criteria or if any conditions change.

As part of the matching process, ControlmaX will allocate material to requirements showing where material requirements are fully satisfied. This also allows identification of shortages and surpluses. ControlmaX also takes into account any losses, over-issues or material which is not cleared so that the true picture is given.

ALLOCATION METHODS

ControlmaX allows material to be allocated against requirements in two ways: Attempt to allocate material to requirements in a job card only if all material is available, or to allocate available material to the requirements.

MATERIAL COMMITMENT

ControlmaX supports reservation of material against requirements.  Also referred to as committed allocation.

INVENTORY

ControlmaX provides full support for recording the physical location of material in inventory, and the location from which material was used.  This allows the production of pick lists for project material.

EXPEDITING

Ensuring that material deliveries occur on a timely basis is a very difficult task.  As revisions come through from takeoff, it is all too easy for this to impact on material deliveries, resulting in them arriving late or in insufficient quantities. 

The impact of schedule changes can have a similar effect.  While material may originally have been ordered in good time, this may no longer be the case.

Design changes may result in a reduction in requirements for some material and an increase for others, which will also affect the delivery schedule.  These changes can have a considerable impact on cost and evaluating the full impact of the changes is extremely important.  Material may have to be air freighted to arrive on time, work may have to begin out of sequence, or fabrication may be delayed.  The impact of these costs on the bottom line can be very significant.  The costs in additional freight charges, and manhours can be considerable, ControlmaX minimises these costs.

CHANGE ASSESSMENT

Changes occur constantly for the duration of a project.  By providing a decision support system which can rapidly show the overall impact of any changes, ControlmaX allows proactive materials management, so that problems and delays are avoided before they occur or have a chance to impact on the schedule.  ControlmaX avoids reactive management, where action is required because of problems and delays which have already occurred.

WHAT IF CAPABILITY

ControlmaX provides a powerful 'what if' facility, where details can be changed on a project wide basis e.g. the priority for all job cards related to a particular activity can be temporarily changed, in order to assess the overall impact on the project schedule.

DECISION SUPPORT

Integrating information from purchasing, material takeoff, planning and fabrication to ensure that material supply is both timely and of sufficient quantity can be extremely demanding on a large scale project.  The situation changes regularly, and integrating and updating the information is an on-going task.  ControlmaX rapidly matches scheduled receipts and orders against prioritised material requirements to suggest optimum usage, highlight expediting requirements and provide look-ahead information to avoid future problems.

IMPORT/EXPORT/FILTER

Data from existing systems can be imported into ControlmaX in comma delimited format, or a customised interface can be provided.  ControlmaX can export information in a variety of different formats such as Excel to allow the information in ControlmaX to be easily notified to others.  ControlmaX also provides a filter facility which allows the user to condense reports and displays so that only information of particular interest needs to be printed.

SUMMARY OF KEY FEATURES

ControlmaX is one of the key components of the MatriX software system - the complete operational and strategic solution for the 21st century. An elegant, easy to use and integrated solution MatriX offers a guarantee of greater control throughout your business.