Built a unified steel resource planning platform for a global mining equipment manufacturer

Austin Engineering manufactures heavy mining equipment — wear parts including trays, buckets, and excavator components — for mining and construction operators worldwide, across four facilities in Australia, Indonesia, Chile, and Freeport.

With specialty steel as its primary input and narrow procurement windows, Austin Engineering needed a unified planning system to replace disconnected, facility-level spreadsheets. 

• Four facilities each ran steel planning in a separate, incompatible Excel workbook
• No cross-facility view of steel demand, inventory, or shortage risk existed
• Sales order quantities were entered manually with no live CRM or order management connection
• BOM configurations changed informally with no version control or audit trail
• No integration path existed between the spreadsheet planning layer and NetSuite ERP

1. Started from the strongest existing model

The Batam facility's workbook was the most complete reference. We used it as the basis for SRP's core calculation engine — preserving proven logic while building it for multi-site scale. 

2. Transformed data before going live

Four incompatible workbooks required field-by-field mapping, not automated migration. We scripted the full transformation over three months, with Austin Engineering validating outputs against physical inventory at each site. 

3. Enforced data quality at every integration

Each integration included mandatory field validation gates. Incomplete Airtable records are blocked at intake, preventing corrupt demand data from reaching the shortage forecast. 

4. Adapted architecture mid-project

When Austin Engineering adopted NetSuite during the engagement, we redesigned SRP's master data model — locking CRUD operations in SRP to keep NetSuite as the single system of record. 

MRP Platform

• 18-month rolling steel shortage forecast across four facilities
• Carry-forward deficit logic for compounding shortage visibility
• RAG-status shortage alerting across the full product portfolio
• BOM versioning with date-bounded start and end dates
• Role-based access control with facility-scoped and network-wide roles 

Data Migration

• Custom ETL scripts for steel master records, inventory, and BOM ratios
• Structured normalization from four incompatible Excel workbooks to one schema 

Integrations

• Airtable to SRP API sync with mandatory field validation at intake
• NetSuite to SRP master data push across all facility instances
• SRP to NetSuite shortage forecast and production schedule feed
• CRUD locked in SRP to maintain NetSuite as master data source 

Austin Engineering moved from four disconnected facility spreadsheets to a single cloud MRP platform with an 18-month rolling shortage forecast across all production sites, fully integrated with Airtable for live demand data and NetSuite for ERP alignment.

Business Impact

• Cross-facility steel demand and shortage visibility established for the first time
• Procurement driven by an 18-month forward demand signal
• Automated Airtable sync replaced manual order entry across all sites
• Full BOM versioning with revision history and grade substitution management
• Platform adopted as the daily operational standard by procurement teams