Mobile App Development for Steel Production Management

We created a mobile app MVP for digital labeling, product code scanning, comparing the products to established standards, and tracking their production status. We’ve integrated the system into the company’s manufacturing process, accelerated the work of employees, and continued to automate other business processes.

Client

A chain of steel manufacturing plants designs, produces, and supplies structural steelwork for the mining, oil refining, engineering, and agricultural industries. The company’s engineering center and 50 partner plants share the responsibility for the design and production stages. First, the engineering center collects orders and designs 3D models. Then the partner factories manufacture structural elements based on the models, assemble and ship them to the construction sites.

The company’s digital division developed a platform using Building Information Modeling (BIM) technologies to bring customers and manufacturers together in a single digital environment. It digitized order processing and fulfillment, allowing management to track the production process in a single system:

• Receive new orders and track their progress.
• Discuss and clarify requirements with customers.
• Design a 3D model from a template.
• Send orders to factories that have the necessary equipment.
• Monitor each factory utilization to avoid overloading.
• Add and edit model documentation.
• Track the location of the products and their parts.
• Send products to other stages, including assembly and shipping to the job site.

The digital platform has improved the speed, quality, and cost-effectiveness of steelwork design and delivery.

Challenges

The new digital platform simplified the design process but did not significantly speed up the manufacturing process. The production manager analyzed factory reports and found that each engineer spent an average of 11 hours on a single product. It included receiving the order, comparing specifications, entering actual data via a web portal, and creating requests to move the product to packaging or shipping.

The client realized that they can significantly reduce the production cycle time by simplifying and automating the engineers’ work. It would allow them to focus on core tasks: working with blueprints and finished products instead of filling out paper documentation and duplicating it via the web portal.

Visits to the factories confirmed that employees were doing everything manually: writing down product specifications on paper, then re-entering the product data, and checking it against blueprints on a desktop computer. The portal could not automate these tasks. The lead product manager of the digital division wanted to implement such automation.

The manager suggested creating a mobile app that would allow engineers to quickly obtain design information by scanning DATAMATRIX codes, mark new designs, add photos and comments to track defective products, and update production data. Such an app would speed up the engineer’s work and reduce routine paperwork.

The project’s testing period was very tight. We needed to develop the app MVP in one month, because the product manager planned to demonstrate the results in the quarterly report, prove the app useful, and continue to develop it along with the digital platform. In addition, the manager needed to report the results to senior management weekly so that we could timely adjust product development plans

Therefore, the manager was looking for an IT company that could start the project almost immediately and deliver the app within a tight timeframe without compromising quality. It had to be a team of developers and testers who would immerse in the company’s processes and complement the internal team with their expertise.

Tasks

Our goal was to develop a mobile app for engineers and help the digital division speed up the manufacturing of steel structures. The app should allow:

• Easily logging in to a company account and access to key features from the home screen.
• Labeling products with DATAMATRIX codes and reading codes from labeled products to quickly get details about each product.
• Editing product information and adding comments and photos. Managing how defective products are handled.
• Moving items through production stages, including batch operations using filtering and bulk selection.

We needed to create an MVP of the application before the quarterly report, which meant we had to start development right away.

Solutions

Understanding the business process and planning development to meet the 30-day deadline

The company planned to develop the app in one month, so it was important to reduce the paperwork and approval process that involved multiple departments with which we had to interact. Management expected weekly progress reports from the head of the digital division.

We immersed ourselves in the company’s operations and made the development process comfortable for the client:

• Studied the company’s structure — we mapped our employee responsibilities and directed technical, budget, and product questions to the appropriate people. This allowed us to reduce the workload for the client’s project manager.
• Organized the development process conveniently. It was important for the client to prioritize user feedback so that fixes could be delivered in the next version of the app.
• Stayed in touch with the client’s team. We discussed the details of the process, what had been done, and what was in progress with the company’s designers and analysts. We presented weekly interim results to management, received feedback, and gathered requests for further improvements.
• Transferred all the work to the client’s infrastructure. From the beginning of the project, we created technical tasks in the company’s knowledge base, entered daily updated information about our work into the client’s task tracker, and used the company’s repository and version control system. This allowed the client’s management to easily see all the processes in their system during weekly meetings.

Using an agile methodology and established communication with various departments, we developed the project’s MVP in 3 weeks.

Auditing UX/UI design to identify weaknesses in use cases and ways to eliminate them

The company’s product manager realized that complicated interface elements increased the time it took engineers to complete tasks: for example, a funny picture on the login screen distracted attention from the buttons or made the user scroll the screen before entering credentials. Therefore, it was decided to develop a calm, minimalist design that would allow users to access the application’s features immediately.

We studied the business requirements and made recommendations on how to achieve a consistent app design that would look coherent, logical, and user-friendly. For example, we suggested highlighting the buttons that lead to the next step so it would be easy for the user to select the correct one; we also added a ‘loading’ visual element to the scan screen showing when the scan was complete. Based on the results of the design review, we created an updated feature backlog according to the company’s needs.

Building the app’s MVP with Flutter to reduce the development costs without sacrificing quality

The company wanted to develop mobile apps for iOS and Android. The digital division didn’t have the budget or time to build two separate apps, so we suggested building the app’s MVP using the cross-platform Flutter framework and getting it done in 30 days.

Flutter is a cross-platform framework that allows you to develop a mobile app for iOS and Android using a common code base, saving up to 40% of development costs (compared to native app development). Developers write code once and reuse it for two or more different platforms, significantly reducing app development time.

By choosing Flutter, we were able to create an MVP for Android and iOS based on the same platform and save the cost of developing a second app.

Developing features to decrease engineers’ routine

When we started working with the company, they already knew what features they needed to speed up their manufacturing processes.

• Printing labels and scanning DATAMATRIX codes.
• Moving products between manufacturing steps.
• Viewing blueprints and product details.

After consulting with the company’s management, we began developing the MVP based on their requirements and recommendations.

Corporate access authorization

We used bright colors and large fonts for the authorization and login screens, per the company’s specifications, so that any employee, regardless of age, could easily log in and access basic functionality. We highlighted the action button in purple, so the employee could see it in any light.

Bringing all key manufacturing features to the main screen

Once logged in, the user sees the main features they use in their work: items they have access to; shipping labels (items ready to ship, painted and labeled); shipping locations, such as a crate, pallet, or package; and lists of items to be shipped to job sites.

The features are synchronized: after scanning an item code, the user can change the status of the item, create shipments, or create a shipping list.

Support for product labeling and DATAMATRIX code scanning

When new products are delivered, the engineer enters the details into the system, then prints and attaches DATAMATRIX code labels to the products. A DATAMATRIX code is similar to a QR code, but smaller, and is only used to label products or items.

Once the label is created, any employee can scan the code to get all the information about the product: photos, blueprints, current status, and specifications. Once the work on the item is completed, they can update the status or leave comments under the product photo for other employees to review and approve the work.

We also added a bulk scan mode of product codes to select a large number of designs and perform a group transaction. For example, an engineer can now prepare a group of products for shipment with just a few clicks.

Search and filters to simplify work with ready-made products

All finished products are placed in a separate category of shipping labels, and filters make it easy for users to find each item. For example, users can select all items that are in the assembly, welding, or packaging stages. They can also manually select a few items from the search results to perform operations only on those.

Results

In one month, we developed a Flutter mobile app for steel production management. During the first two months after the test release, the client’s company productivity increased fivefold:

• -40% reduction in the time required to collect and process reports for reworks.
• 15x increase in the speed of information reaching the company’s shop floor.
• 5x reduction in time needed to create item’s shipping documents and labels.
• Eliminated over-sorting, which often occurs during product shipping.

In January 2024, employees spent 5 times less time on all production-related processes: from entering product details to transferring items to the installation stage.

The client appreciated the results of our work and offered to continue the partnership to develop the project further. We created a backlog that included the future features of the app that would further simplify the work of field workers and increase the efficiency of the production process.