Background

STAIN has been operating since 1988 as a dependable TECHNOLOGICAL PARTNER in the design and development of industrial automation hardware and software to control presses, wire-drawing machines, automated warehousing, extrusion presses and heat treatment furnaces in wire-drawing mills, steel mills, foundries and mechanical workshops.

We have never abandoned this first passion of ours and are very satisfied with what we have achieved, but over 10 years ago, we realized that although it is very important to have state-of-the-art plant and machinery, it is equally important to know in real time what the machines are doing, how many times they stop and for how long, how many rejects there are, how many unfinished products there are before and after each machine, and so on.

In other words, it is vital to have precise information that travels at the same rate as the product, as these details enable us to see hidden costs associated with production, logistics and quality. Thanks to the experience of our people and a thorough understanding of all field events, we can identify what needs to be improved and how, thereby increasing efficiency considerably, in many cases well beyond our expectations.

When we started developing MES products for gathering, integrating and managing field data, our cultural background in industrial automation was a great help in selecting the technological platform for acquiring machine and field events. It was natural for us to use SIEMENS PLCs, the same ones we use to operate the machinery, to interface with and acquire output figures, alarms, downtimes, consumption, process parameters (e.g. temperature, pressure, dimensions and speed) and numerous other data, with no limitation in terms of signals, wiring and communication technology (profibus, Ethernet, as described under <technology>).

We thus acquired invaluable hands-on experience and made numerous improvements to our software development method (ISO 9001 certified since 1996), our communication and interface technology with virtually all ERP systems, and logistics and production management and optimisation methods. This enables us to provide our customers with expert advice, because an MES project will never be associated merely with computers and technology but also with methods, organisation and training.

1998: the first STAIN+ suite for the control of production and logistics in discrete manufacturing companies.

2000:  the MILL+ suite is developed for controlling raw material input, the casting process and despatches at one of Europe’s leading aluminium foundries.

2001: the SPC+ module is added to the STAIN+ suite for statistical process control with measurement data acquisition from instruments and the field.

2003: unification of software development technology using the Microsoft.Net platform, and development of the STAIN+ and MILL+ frameworks, an extensive and powerful combination of customizable items for handling the specific requirements of each customer’s individual processes. STAIN is a MES software house with specific know-how for both discrete manufacturing companies and continuous-cycle metal companies (e.g. steel mills, foundries, pipe mills and wire-drawing mills).

2004: development of the INTEGRA+ simple standard package for automatic data collection from production bay machines.

2005: the MTZ+ plant and machinery maintenance management module is added to the STAIN+ suite.

2006: PRD+ ready-to-use verticalized products are added to the STAIN+ suite to collect and manage production data for the production of taps and fittings, die-casting, plastic moulding and machining.

2007: a new logistics management module for metal companies is added to the MILL+ suite. This module handles the management of scrap yards (<Find out more>), unfinished products (billet warehouse) and finished products (identification of each bundle, real-time inventory and despatch process computerisation) (<Find out more>).

2008: the STAIN+ and MILL+ suites become a multi-platform supporting the SQL SERVER 2005/2008 database and also ORACLE versions 10g and 11g.

2009: the MTZ+ maintenance management module is re-engineered, radically enhancing the configurability of maintenance activities, maintainable components and spare parts stores, and operating data and cost analysis is upgraded (<Find out more>).

2010: release of the DYNAMIC GRID version (see News) for the MILL+ and STAIN+ suites, granting the user maximum flexibility in representing information.

Each year we acquire important new customers, including multinational groups, in the discrete process and metal sector (<References>), and we develop solutions that provide major technological, organisational and economic advantages, improve production and process efficiency, and optimize consumption, often in double figures.

In recent years we have collaborated with the main ICT operators in the ERP sector in providing the market with a complete integrated solution.

We belong to numerous important organisations, including AIB (Brescia Industrialists Association), ANIMA (Federation of Italian Mechanical and Engineering Industries), CSMT (Multi-Sector Service and Technological Centre, Brescia University), ITMETAL (the first ICT community of Italian metal companies), AIM (Italian Association of Metallurgy),  on the Environment & Safety and Pressure Die-casting committees, and ASSOFOND (Italian Foundry Federation).