Digitising a steel manufacturing floor

MTL Advanced is a steel engineering and manufacturing company working from a 300,000 sq ft facility in Rotherham, Yorkshire. It serves large OEMs in defence and security, construction and quarrying, offshore and renewable energy, recycling and rail.

The factory wanted to digitise production end to end - to follow every job from the moment material arrives to the delivery of the finished product. The aim was to automate daily operations, catch and fix problems as they happen, and build the data to predict them in future.

The client’s own team had laid a basic foundation. The next phase needed a system that fits how the shop floor really works, keeps data consistent at every step and stays secure.

A six-person 2C team - four engineers, a tech lead and a QA - took full ownership of Phase 1. We didn’t just write code: we learned the manufacturing process inside out, challenged assumptions and brought ideas of our own.

The backend carries the business logic for the whole system. It integrates with the client’s existing database through views and stored procedures, and keeps its own data in MSSQL, using transactions so nothing is lost in transit. The frontend is a family of modular applications, each tailored to one production role.