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Know exactly what stock you have, where it is, and what it is committed to. Eliminate manual stock-checks and out of date spreadsheets.

GoSmarter is the AI-powered compliance and traceability platform for metals manufacturers. Audit-ready from day one. Free 7-day trial, no card required.

Connect production, inventory, quality, and dispatch in one place. Give your team the visibility to reduce delays, solve problems faster, and keep operations running smoothly.

GoSmarter helps finance teams control costs, improve profitability, and build stronger business cases with real-time operational data.

GoSmarter helps compliance teams stay audit ready with complete digital traceability and quality documentation. Instantly provide records to customers and auditors - all from one secure platform.

Generate first-draft cutting plans in minutes. Allocate and track the right material every time. Reduce scrap by up to 50% and keep orders moving from planning to dispatch.

GoSmarter pricing for metals manufacturers: four tiers, unlimited users per site, bundled AI credits, and a 7-day free trial. No per-seat fees, no surprises.

British Steel is shipping 120,000 tonnes of Scunthorpe-made steel billets to rebuild two of Nigeria's biggest ports. What UK metals manufacturers should watch.

Missed hot-mill defects at 1,000°C → How AI thermal imaging finds sub‑mm cracks, reduces costly claims and triggers instant fixes.

Manual processes are holding many metal shops back—rising costs, quality variation and bottlenecks show it’s time to automate.

Standardise, digitise and automate manufacturing records to improve traceability, version control and audit readiness.

Reduce downtime, stop making scrap, and stop wasting money.

Discover our GoSmarter automation toolbox for SMEs. Help save time and be more productive with tools to help with marketing, sales, and more.

We look at some of the major priorities facing senior management and the role that AI can play in solving them.

Seven digital strategies—AI docs, MES, cloud inventory, ERP and e-signatures—to cut paperwork, speed production and improve compliance.

AI and machine learning have a multitude of applications in the healthcare industry, find out how AI can complement healthcare professionals.

Discover some of the ingenious ways that AI in retail is being used to enhance the shopping experience. Learn more at Nightingale HQ.

AI and IoT cut unplanned downtime by up to 68% in metal fabrication. Learn how integrated sensor networks and AI analytics replace manual guesswork.

Missing mill certs and slow heat traceability? — Find suspect heats, cut manual searches, and produce audit-ready heat-to-shipment records.

Generic ERP fails metals teams on mill certs, heat codes, and scrap rates. An AI layer like GoSmarter fixes the gaps without replacing your ERP.

Stop typing mill certs and wrestling 2005 ERPs — AI automates admin, slashes scrap and downtime, and fixes capacity planning.

Manual Mill Test Report processing costs UK metals firms £100,000+ a year. AI cuts MTR handling from 12 minutes to 8 seconds and drops errors by 98%.

AI-powered ERP transforms metals production scheduling with real-time data, cutting planning time and scrap while boosting capacity and on-time delivery.

Access our AI in manufacturing overview in association with the ICBE. Discover Nightingale HQ today.

AI in steel inventory and stock management: case studies on vision systems, predictive analytics, and what to look for in a steel stock management app.

Four levels of AI maturity in steel manufacturing, with real examples from POSCO, thyssenkrupp, Baowu, and SSAB. See where GoSmarter fits in.

Missing mill certificates and late supplier paperwork: learn how AI automates checks, flags gaps and cuts admin time and production delays.

1985 tech and spreadsheets are bleeding your plant dry - AI load balancing fixes furnace temps, crane schedules and maintenance to cut waste.

UK manufacturers lose £95bn a year to idle machines and wasted resources. Learn how to allocate AI on the shop floor and see real returns.

Manual cert filing is a compliance risk. See how AI tools automate document operations in metals — from OCR extraction to audit-ready traceability.

AI scheduling tools cut scrap, lower costs, automate mill-certificate handling and enable real-time production planning for metals manufacturers.

AI training delivers a 3:1 to 5:1 ROI in year one, but only 38% of UK manufacturers can prove it. Here's the 30/60/90-day framework to measure what matters.

Spreadsheet errors in carbon reporting - see how AI automates batch emissions, cuts mistakes and readies metals firms for CBAM.

Spreadsheets cost metals manufacturers up to GBP100,000 a year. See how AI inventory tracking cuts errors, tracks live stock and automates mill certificates.

Stale spreadsheets cause downtime and scrap; this shows how predictive analytics turns live shop-floor data into decisions that cut waste.

Stop losing hours to Excel - AI automates mill certs, live schedules and cutting plans to cut waste and save time.

Stop wasting cash on spreadsheets and 1985 tech — learn how AI kills furnace waste, cuts scrap and slashes energy bills in weeks.

Missing certs and messy heat codes? This article shows how AI fixes traceability, flags supplier risk, and cuts scrap and inventory.

How AI boosts metals production: real-time control and planning that raise throughput, cut energy and emissions, and outline steps to pilot.

Michael Flacks thinks he can save British Steel. Good luck to him.

Rejected certificates cost Indian steel exporters real contracts. Here's how EN 10204, ASTM, and ASME fit together, and how AI keeps compliance audit-ready.

Stop typing mill certs and hunting filing cabinets — kill 1985 tech. See how AI extracts heat numbers, auto-links certs to stock and ends audit panic.

What audit trails mean in metals manufacturing — and how GoSmarter satisfies ISO 9001 Clause 8.5.2, IATF 16949, and AS9100 automatically.

Structural steel work rarely runs on one standard. Here is every EN, ISO, API, and NORSOK rule that lands on a fabricator's desk, in plain English.

New CEO Tania Archibald isn't selling the farm for cheap.

Discover how we can use decentralised AI to create trustworthy contact tracing apps in a time where trust in tech and use of data is so low. Read more today.

British Steel to supply 36,000 tonnes of 60E2 rail for the Ankara–İzmir high-speed line, backed by UK Export Finance.

UK set to nationalise British Steel within weeks after talks with owner Jingye, sources say.

BS EN 1090-1, EN 1090-2, and NSSS demand airtight mill certificate records. The compliance checklist every structural steel fabricator needs.

Discover our secret to operational resilience that can withstand crises. Learn more at Nightingale HQ.

Business Finland grants EUR 20M to SSAB's five-year research and development (R&D) programme to accelerate fossil-free, low-carbon steel development.

Stop running on 1985 tech - manual mill certs, spreadsheets and scrap kill margins. AI automates scheduling, inventory and cutting plans.

The steel industry faces increasing pressure to decarbonise, with the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) set to become a decisive factor by 2026. Scrap is no longer just a production inefficiency — it directly increases reported emissions and carbon costs. For Finance and Sustainability Managers, reducing scrap is now central to meeting carbon targets and protecting margins.

Chatbots handle the repetitive questions so your team can do the real work. Here's what they're actually good for — and where they fall flat.

Compare cloud and on‑premise manufacturing software across cost, deployment, customisation, scalability, security and remote access to decide the best fit.

Resource allocation problems cost UK metals manufacturers millions every year in scrap, delays, and stock chaos. Here's how AI fixes all three.

Learn key welding codes, including AWS D1.1, D1.2, D1.6, ASME and D17.1, with clear use cases, limits, inspection rules and code selection tips.

Stop guessing if you're legal. Generate OSHA, GDPR, or ISO 9001 checklists that actually make sense.

Drowning in mill certificates and CBAM risk? Read how AI automates cert capture, fixes traceability, cuts scrap and avoids fines.

Compliance checklist for metals manufacturers: UK REACH, import/export rules, ISO standards, supplier qualification, traceability, emissions, and digital tools.

Digital Manufacturing Week 2020 was an online success with more than 3,000 attendees and 2,500 webinar views. Learn more at Nightingale HQ.

Hidden scrap eats your margin. See how live cut plans and remnant tracking cut scrap rates by up to 50% and stop miscuts before they happen.

Manual plate reservation causes overbooking and shift handover gaps. See why quantity tracking fails for plate, and what actually reduces the risk.

Manufacturers need Data Champions to help them succeed in today's digital world. To learn more about how you can find your Data Champion for your team or company, read on!

Stop running your shop floor like it’s 1985 — replace manual data and legacy ERP with AI + IoT to cut downtime, scrap and admin drudgery.

Read our tips on how to decode the hype around AI. Discover more AI and data articles at Nightingale HQ.

Developer velocity is the ability to drive transformative business performance through software development.

Read about Digital Supply Chains to find out what they are all about. Today, a well-planned Digital Supply Chain can help businesses grow and thrive.

Missing mill certs waste hours and risk recalls. Learn to track heat numbers, automate certificate capture, and cut audit and recall time.

Find out what the terms Digital Twin and AI mean in manufacturing, how they can help you keep up with your competition, and what to do before adopting an AI solution.

Hidden queues and missed deliveries → See how live digital twins find fixes to cut scrap, shorten lead time and recover throughput.

Digital twins cut steel scrap from 5-8% to under 2.5%. Learn the standards, data foundations and pilot plan that make one work on your line.

EN 10204, ASTM, and ASME aren't rival standards. One governs the certificate, one the material, one the equipment. Here's how they fit on a mill cert.

CBI and Energy UK warn high business energy costs risk UK deindustrialisation; 40% of firms cut investment.

Remnant stock causing costly emergency buys? Learn how JIT-ready ERPs track remnants, automate mill certs, and cut scrap and procurement costs.

Stop typing mill certs and fighting 1985 ERPs. AI automates the admin nightmare, cuts downtime and scrap, and gets factories scaling fast.

Spreadsheets are costing your metals business. Learn how ERP solves multi-warehouse inventory - and why GoSmarter gets you running in a day, not months.

Every AI solution needs its own ethical considerations. Explore what you should consider for COVID-19 monitoring solutions at Nightingale HQ.

EU issues CBAM guidance for iron and steel, clarifying how to calculate and report embedded emissions for 2026.

The European Parliament has approved tougher steel trading measures from 1 July 2026. Here is what changes and what manufacturers should do now.

ONR serves fire enforcement notices to five contractors at Hinkley Point C after inspectors found significant fire-safety failings.

Mill certs fail customers when the traceability chain breaks. This guide covers every gap — from upload and approval to branded certs and order packs.

Missing mill certs and mismatched stock waste time — learn to cut cert entry, restore traceability and get live shop-floor status.

Germany confirms €322m additional funding for Salzgitter’s Salcos hydrogen steel project after delays.

Engineers lose 20-30% of their time to manual rekeying and missing mill certs. Learn how automation speeds audits and cuts scrap.

Stop typing mill certs and burning scrap with 1985 tech: automate certificates, optimise cutting plans, cut energy use and protect margins.

AI and digital transformation insights for metals manufacturers — practical guides, case studies, and no-BS takes on cutting-edge tech for the shop floor.

GoSmarter now covers non-ferrous metals: 83 grades, Cu-Ni C70600/C71500, bronze, and copper alloys. Includes CBAM-ready aluminium emissions factors.

Certivo manages quality documentation. GoSmarter reads what's inside every mill certificate. Honest comparison of two tools that work better together.

Epicor is powerful but not built for steel. GoSmarter fills the metals gaps: mill certs, traceability, cutting optimisation. Live in a day, not 18 months.

Excel wasn't built for steel inventory. GoSmarter was. Here is the honest comparison: where each one wins and when it makes sense to use both.

Generic OCR and IDP platforms can read text. They cannot handle multi-heat certificates or build an audit trail. Here's why metals manufacturers need GoSmarter.

Jonas Metals knows steel distribution. GoSmarter adds AI-powered mill cert extraction and cutting optimisation it was never built to have. Honest comparison.

Katana handles make-to-order. Fiix handles maintenance. Neither was built for metals. The honest comparison for metals SMEs choosing inventory software.

GoSmarter, Katana, and Fiix solve different problems. Here is an honest comparison of what each does and which one fits your metals operation.

GoSmarter vs Lantek, Sigmanest, and Bystronic for cutting planning in metals: who should use which tool and why they serve different jobs.

Sage 50 is excellent accounting software — not a metals inventory system. What Sage does well, where it falls short for steel, and how GoSmarter fits in.

Strumis is purpose-built for structural steel fabricators. Where it excels, where GoSmarter adds something different, and how the two work together.

TallyPrime runs your books and GST. GoSmarter runs mill certs, cutting plans, and scheduling. Keep TallyPrime, then add GoSmarter where admin slows output.

We are Microsoft partners and we use their tech to power our data and AI services. Take a look at some of our favourite Microsoft manufacturing case studies

Logistics business and logistics have a huge opportunity to unlock additional value in their business through the use of data and AI integration.

How AI reduces waste and costs in steelmaking: boosting yields, predicting equipment failures, optimising energy use and production schedules.

Stop losing money to manual SPC and legacy kit. AI inspects every unit, predicts faults 15–30 mins ahead and slashes scrap and rework.

Manual mill cert entry causes fines and delays. AI extracts, validates and flags compliance issues in minutes, hitting 99% accuracy for metals manufacturers.

How AI-powered CRM unifies ERP, IoT and CRM data to automate tasks, improve demand forecasting, cut costs and strengthen customer relationships.

Stop wasting hours on messy mill certificates and scrap tracking. See how AI automates data capture, cuts scrap by up to 15%, and fixes scheduling.

Discover how energy design transforms grid constraints into opportunities for innovation and profitable sustainability strategies.

Shared logins and broad permissions drive scrap and audit risk. This guide shows how RBAC sets role boundaries, enforces separation of duties, and cuts waste.

Scrap rate inflates embedded carbon. Undigitised certs can't prove it either way. Here's how cut plans and mill cert data become CBAM and ESG evidence.

AI-driven automated workflows reduce manufacturing downtime by digitising certificates, providing real-time inventory data and cutting manual errors.

Learn how manufacturing can embrace sustainability, reduce costs, and meet regulatory demands with insights from Dr. Kevin Douly.

Find out how adding these layers of accessibility to your work processes can boost productivity company wide and create a more inclusive environment.

Find out how to score an AI quick win with these easy chatbot projects. Discover more at Nightingale HQ.

In this project we discuss the benefits of infusing AI into your sales process, how easy it is, and how easy it will make your life.

Ease into marketing AI with this quick-win project of creating your own social listening tools. Discover more at Nightingale HQ.

Turn a small IT budget into big productivity gains — the best time-saving SaaS tools that help manufacturers cut admin hours without breaking the bank.

Steel mills leak energy in furnace idle time and bad scrap data. Link energy to heats and shifts to cut kWh per tonne, scrap and costs fast.

Cut admin loops and reduce spec errors by digitising mill certificates at goods receivable, then reusing that data across fabrication, quality checks, and traceability.

McKinsey's take on manufacturing's post-Covid recovery — which Industry 4.0 adoption paths work, and what 'lighthouse' manufacturers are doing differently.

The future of manufacturing lies in smart factories. Discover Nightingale HQ's blog post on Industry 4.0 and how AI is reshaping the manufacturing sector.

ASTM standards underpin quality and traceability across metals manufacturing. Here is what they are, why they matter, and how AI handles the paperwork.

Learn how digital tools and AI-powered automation help manufacturers overcome labor shortages by scaling staff productivity with no-code solutions

AI answers vary wildly depending on who typed the prompt. Here's how a skills file makes results consistent across your whole team.

Passing an ISO 9001 audit doesn't guarantee you can find last week's mill certificate. Here's what steel quality standards really require.

Italy produces 90% of its steel via EAF. Three new furnace projects are reshaping the map. Here's what EAF operators need to manage.

Stop typing mill certs into your 1985 ERP. AI Kaizen cuts scrap, slashes downtime and kills admin drudgery.

Stop typing mill certs and wrestling with 1985 tech — cut manual data entry, scrap and delays by layering AI, OCR and bolt-ons on your ERP.

Stop wasting 120+ hours a year on paperwork. Automate it.

Wasting hours retyping mill certs and blurry drawings → learn how AI OCR cuts admin, errors and scrap and speeds planning.

Legacy systems scatter mill cert data and create audit risk. See how AI automates compliance, cuts breaches by 50%, and saves 8-12 hours weekly.

Compare Life Cycle Assessment tools for metals manufacturers and see how AI cuts timeline and cost while improving audit-ready reporting.

EU CBAM defaults add up to €35 extra per tonne for steel exporters. Digitise mill certificates, automate emissions tracking, and replace defaults with verified data.

Stale ERP data and missing shop-floor facts → get context-aware answers that cut errors, speed scheduling and stop bad quotes.

Digital inventory tracking cuts time and errors versus manual counts by automating scans, providing real‑time visibility and scalable workflows.

Stop manual data entry and spreadsheet chaos - AI mill-cert OCR and automated tracking cut errors, save hours, and give real-time stock visibility.

Marcegaglia's €1bn Mistral Project in Fos-sur-Mer targets 80% lower steel emissions. Here's what it means for European supply chains.

Part of Industry 4.0, AI is an emerging technology that promises gains for manufactures. Learn more about the steps to master AI.

MTR vs MTC explained: what each document proves, why the heat number matters, and how to manage thousands of certificates without the admin.

Calculate exactly how many parts you can get from a sheet. Stop guessing and stop wasting metal.

Do you have wrong stock and lost mill certs? Learn to track heat numbers, automate certificate capture, return remnants to stock and cut scrap.

Calculate the weight of steel rebar, metal plates, bars, and tubes before your fabrication job goes sideways. Free. No sign-up.

Microsoft Build 2021 is kicking off and as usual it's packed with announcements. Get our rundown in this Nightingale HQ blog post.

Clear answers on Mill Test Certificates: what MTCs contain, EN 10204 types, verification, common issues and AI automation with digital audit trails.

Read about MLOps to find out what they are all about. Today, MLOps can help businesses grow and thrive.

Material Test Reports prove quality, enable traceability, and underpin compliance in metals manufacturing. Here's why MTRs are your most valuable document.

A buyer's guide to Material Test Report (MTR) compliance — the audit checklist, industry requirements, and how to verify every Mill Certificate.

Guessing your CBAM certificate cost before an EU import? Estimate it in seconds with official EC emissions factors and live certificate prices.

GoSmarter at UK Metals Expo — meeting metals manufacturers at the NEC Birmingham to showcase AI tools that cut admin and boost production efficiency.

Blastr wants to pick up Speciality Steels UK's bones — and maybe move its HQ to Britain in the process.

Messy mill-cert data drives scrap and rework; learn to build heat-linked batch records for actionable defect warnings and fewer alarms.

Learn how predictive maintenance with edge computing helps metals manufacturers detect failures in milliseconds, reduce downtime and scrap, and cut maintenance costs.

The National Audit Office (NAO) released its report on ‘Managing the Commercial Lifecycle’ in July 2021. We’ve taken a look and identified key areas that manufacturers can learn from government procurement best practices.

Chasing scattered training records and audit risk: learn to map role-based training, keep audit-ready evidence, and cut admin time.

Missing coils, messy mill certs and a dispatch scramble every shift. See how to fix stock, offcuts and traceability with AI, and hit 98-99% accuracy.

UK manufacturers waste £200,000 a year on manual production tracking. Real-time data cuts errors, slashes downtime, and makes compliance effortless.

Stop wasting shifts on re-typing mill certs and job cards — learn which flows to connect first for live orders, scrap and traceability.

Production halts and ghost stock → How to track materials in real time to cut scrap, stop stock errors and improve traceability.

45 minutes per quote. 20 quotes a day. Here's how AI rebar quotation assistants get it under five minutes — and what to look for in one.

Manufacturers can adapt to disruptions successfully, ensuring business continuity during distress, by building a resilient supply chain based on Microsoft tech. With an outdated technology stack manufacturers suffer from wasted time, inaccurate or missing information, and inefficient processes. By modernising your supply chain you can optimise your workforce, build agile planning and distribution processes, enhance supply chain visibility, and maximise asset uptime and efficiency.

Phishing, spoofed sensors and poisoned data risking production → clear steps to lock networks, access, models and backups.

Rebar scrap challenge and the benefit of optimisation - A 1D cutting stock problem

IoT security best practices for smart sensors in metals manufacturing: device hardening, PKI, mTLS, real-time monitoring, and GDPR-compliant data management.

Certificate admin and scrap waste stall AI adoption. Use leadership tactics to automate data entry, keep human sign-off, and show day-one wins.

Stop hunting for welding code scope and inspection rules across a dozen tabs. Filter, compare, and link straight to the source.

What's the DIN equivalent of 316L? Stop guessing and use this tool.

Automate mill cert handling in 5 steps with steel certificate management software. Reduce errors, close compliance gaps, and cut manual admin.

Stop manual mill-cert entries and spreadsheet chaos. Use AI, barcodes, and RFID to cut errors, slash scrap, and get real-time stock visibility.

Spreadsheets and legacy nesting are eating your margins — AI cutting plans cut scrap, track offcuts and save real money.

Stop letting inbox overload and manual data entry kill output - see how AI automates RFQs, mill certificates and cut lists to cut admin, scrap and delays.

Firefighting and repeat breakdowns waste hours — this blunt, data-first plan shows how to stop them with PMs, spares and targeted monitoring.

AI robotics cuts scrap, downtime, and certificate admin before they eat your margin.

AI for metals isn't about robots taking your job. It's about stopping the manual drudgery that's killing your margins. Here's the no-BS guide.

Still typing mill certs and juggling spreadsheets? Kill 1985 tech—AI extracts certs, auto-schedules and slashes scrap so your floor stops firefighting.

Know exactly what a job costs before you quote it. Stop working for free.

Lost plates, crane queues and missing mill certs — practical steps to track materials, cut scrap and run AI trials in weeks.

Mill certificate chaos and hours lost re-entering data → Learn how MCP-based AI automates certs, cuts scrap and speeds audits.

The Data Science Hierarchy of Needs and the Minimum Viable Product can be combined to build effective artificial intelligence (AI) proof of concepts.

Forgotten yard stock drains margin and space. Learn a practical clean-up and offcut workflow that cuts buying, waste, and planning delays.

How UK metal fabricators can reduce waste, cut lead times and boost output using workflow mapping, KPIs, AI scheduling and automation.

The EU's Omnibus I package wipes CSRD obligations for 90% of companies. Here's what metals manufacturers need to know and what hasn't changed.

Manual mill certificate management drains hours every week. See the hidden costs of MTCs and why metals manufacturers are automating certificate handling.

Metal Park and the World Steel Association are building a real talent pipeline in the Middle East — and they're not messing about.

Picking the wrong welding code costs failed inspections and reworked joints. Answer four questions and get the code, the rationale, and a job checklist.

Your team uses Nest thermostats and Ring cameras at home. Then they clock in and feel like it's 2005. Here's why that gap is costing you more than you think.

Companies with the fastest developer velocity outperform others by 4-5x through strategic tool investments. Here's why manufacturers should prioritise tooling.

Buried in certificates, re-keying and late shipments → Learn which AI tools cut admin hours, reduce scrap and predict disruptions.

Unplanned downtime, scrap and manual certificate re-entry: edge tools that cut latency, reduce scrap and automate traceability in steel plants.

UK and EU steel tariffs hit 50% today with quotas slashed. Here is what changes for your cost base, lead times, and quotas, plus what to do this week.

UK doubles tariffs on imported steel to 50% and slashes quotas. Here's exactly which products take the hit — and what manufacturers need to do before July.

The UK government's national AI strategy was released on the 22nd September 2021. Find out what it means for manufacturers.

British steel and EV makers face a tariff crunch. Here's what the UK government is doing about it and what it means for manufacturers.

Free rebar weight calculator for UK bar sizes (BS4449). Weight per metre, cross-sectional area, d²/162 formula for diameters H6 to H40. No login required.

UK steel strategy impacts are now hitting downstream manufacturers through quota cuts up to 98%, tariffs up to 50%, delivery risk, and forced overbuying.

Mill certificates and emissions data waste hours. GoSmarter's AI automates extraction, links certs to inventory and tracks carbon for CBAM compliance.

The AI and machine learning techniques manufacturers use to cut costs and boost efficiency — explained without the hype. Find out which apply to your process.

Make UK and Sage recently teamed up to produce a report on the skills needed for a green future.

Wales Tech Week 2025 highlights — GoSmarter at the Factory Floor to Digital Core panel, Welsh tech ecosystem connections, and the Best Greentech Award.

Natwest's Future Fit report has some great insights we've broken down for you in this quick read.

Discover what citizen developers are and what they can contribute to today's manufacturing industry.

Digitisation, digitalisation, and digital transformation aren't the same. Here's what each means for metals manufacturers and why the distinction matters.

The FinTech industry is constantly throwing out new trends. Here's what to watch out for in these fast-changing times.

Stop typing mill certs and wrestling Windows‑95 software — AI automates the admin nightmare, cuts scrap and saves hours on the shop floor.

Broken traceability anywhere slows material release and triggers audit drills. Here is how heat numbers travelling end to end protect your throughput.

Big-bang digital overhauls blow the budget and stall. Here's why metals manufacturers should phase transformation: back-office first, factory floor last.

Paper mill certs and poor cut plans cost time and scrap, learn how plant-focused AI reads certs, reclaims offcuts and speeds replanning.

At Nightingale HQ we have invested in early-stage career development for years through internships, apprenticeships, and graduate placements. Here is what we have learned about what works, what does not, and why it matters.

The Azure AI Fundamentals exam is a brilliant way to upskill your management team and get them up to speed with the basics of AI..

Most ERPs are giant, expensive filing cabinets. Here's how to actually use them to stop your supply chain from blowing up.

Stop wasting hours on manual mill-certificate work and legacy 2005 tech. GoSmarter's AI extracts mill cert data in seconds so engineers can engineer.

Stop burning material and hours on 1985 tech and spreadsheets — AI cuts scrap, slashes energy bills and stops downtime dead. GoSmarter.

ERP lot tracking shows what moved where. It can't name the heat, the cert, or the exact chain of custody behind a finished part. Here's the difference.

The EU published its country-by-country steel quota one day before it took effect. Here's what Annex I means for your suppliers and your certs.

Discover the 8–10 KPIs metals manufacturers should track — OEE, scrap rate, energy per tonne, and embodied carbon — all in one real-time dashboard.

Why Mill Test Certificates are the backbone of traceability in metals procurement — and how to turn buried portable document format (PDF) files into searchable, audit-ready data.

Stale ERP data turns S&OP reviews into a guessing game. See how real-time, cert-linked stock data cuts ghost inventory, spot buying, and margin leakage.

The scrap rate formula, two worked examples in real £ figures, and a straight answer on what a good target actually looks like for metals manufacturing.

Stop typing mill certs and chasing broken XLSX files. Learn how databases and AI kill manual errors, cut scrap and restore real-time traceability.

Stop typing mill certs by hand. Kill manual data entry and 1985 tech—use AI to track materials, link mill certificates and slash scrap and delays in real time.

Accelerating digitalisation with electronics manufacturer Philtronics Limited

Discover how AI and digital transformation help manufacturing businesses optimise operations, reduce waste, and accelerate growth across metals, steel, and other sectors

How FLS Logistics used data and analytics to reduce transport emissions, cut costs, and help customers understand their environmental footprint.

Working with international renewables group to accelerate digitalisation

FLS Logistics cut 50% of admin time by replacing spreadsheets with a data warehouse. Near real-time visibility without adding IT headcount.

A company-wide digital review for Midland Steel delivered a transformation roadmap for rebar supply operations across Ireland and the UK.

How Polar Ice, Ireland's leading dry ice supplier, took its first steps towards digitalising its operations with Nightingale HQ.

How TMD Technologies streamlined back-office operations with no-code digital tools and technical training — with measurable quick wins from day one.

AI cutting optimiser software for metals manufacturers. Reduce rebar scrap by 50%, generate optimised cut lists in minutes. Stop wasting material you paid for.

Plain-English guide to AI in metals manufacturing — what it does, what it does not, and where GoSmarter fits in your workflow, from mill certs to cutting plans.

Cloud MES software: what it is, how it compares to on-premise on real total cost of ownership, and how specialist metals AI tools like GoSmarter fit in.

A practical guide for metals manufacturers: go from spreadsheets to GoSmarter in 30 days, step by step. No IT project required. Most teams are live within days.

How GoSmarter's cert and traceability data feeds a QMS, what to check before integrating, and how to shortlist a QMS that actually connects.

GoSmarter delivers AI tools for metals manufacturers: mill-cert automation, cutting optimisation, inventory traceability, and production planning. No IT needed.

In-depth resources on AI for metals manufacturing — covering mill-cert automation, cutting optimisation, traceability, and more.

How GoSmarter compares to SAP, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Epicor, and Sage planning modules for metals-specific production planning, cutting optimisation, and cert traceability.

One page comparing GoSmarter against every alternative metals manufacturers consider: ERP planning modules, cutting tools, mill certificate software, distribution point tools, and spreadsheets.

Evaluation criteria for AI software vendors in metals manufacturing: domain fit, cert coverage, integration, pricing, and the questions to ask before you sign.

Immutable audit trail for metals — mill certs, inventory, and orders linked end-to-end. Satisfies ISO 9001 Clause 8.5.2, IATF 16949, and AS9100.

Integrated planning and materials alignment for metals: every cut plan and order runs against live, verified stock. Stop planning against guesses.

Every term your team throws around — mill certificates, heat numbers, EN 10204, yield rate, cutting optimisation — defined in plain English. No MBA required.

Stop typing mill cert data by hand. MillCert Reader extracts heat numbers, grades, and properties from any PDF in seconds. 120+ hours saved per year.

Eight tools claim to read mill certificates automatically. Here's what each actually handles, and which is right for your metals manufacturing operation.

Enterprise-grade AI tools for metals SMEs — no IT department, no implementation project. Point-and-click. GoSmarter: live in a week.

How to calculate the real ROI of AI in metals manufacturing — mill cert automation, cutting optimisation, and benchmarks from Midland Steel.

Scrap and yield optimisation for metals manufacturers. Average scrap: 3–8%; best practice: ≤2.5%. GoSmarter cuts it by 50% — proven at Midland Steel.

Shop floor planning software for metals: live cut plans, real-time stock allocation, and order tracking. GoSmarter deploys in days, not months.

Still planning production in Excel? GoSmarter replaces spreadsheet chaos with a live planning system for metals — cutting, inventory, and order tracking.

GoSmarter: steel distributor software for stockholders and service centres. Real-time inventory, automated cert management, AI cut plans. No ERP project.

GoSmarter's tier-based platform lets metals manufacturers start with traceability foundations and unlock more AI as they grow — proven ROI at every step.

GoSmarter isn't right for every metals operation. Four honest reasons companies trial it and decide not to proceed — and what to do if any apply to you.

A practical guide to changing how your team works in the first month with GoSmarter — parallel vs. cut-over rollout, shop-floor champions, and first-month KPIs to track.

GoSmarter uses Clerk for authentication and enforces tenant isolation on every API request.

How GoSmarter uses AI to process mill certificates - what data is sent, where it goes, and how it's protected.

GoSmarter provides a REST API and MCP server for third-party integrations, custom workflows, and AI agent connections.

Calculate the weight of steel, stainless, aluminium, and non-ferrous metal shapes by grade and dimension, including pipe by NPS or DN size.

Calculate scrap rates instantly. Enter your bar length and cut dimensions to see waste percentage, pieces per bar, and how to minimise steel cutting waste.

Azure platform certifications that apply to GoSmarter's deployment, and how to request compliance evidence.

How GoSmarter aligns with SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, and other compliance frameworks - what applies and what we can demonstrate.

Complete onboarding guide for new GoSmarter.ai customers - setup, configuration, training, and first week action plan for operations and production managers

Complete guide for system administrators and power users on configuring GoSmarter, using advanced features, and maximising ROI through customisation

Generate optimised cutting plans from your inventory and open orders, review the proposed cuts, and track production through to completion

Complete guide to the GoSmarter dashboard - navigate your AI production assistant and access key tools for metals manufacturing efficiency

Where GoSmarter stores and processes your data - UK and EU for our own infrastructure, with named US transfers for identity and billing sub-processors.

See how you can upload and manage certificates for traceability

Complete guide for quality assurance managers and compliance officers on using GoSmarter's MillCert Reader AI to digitise mill test certificates and ensure material compliance

Straight answers to the questions buyers, procurement teams, and operations leads ask before signing off on GoSmarter.

GoSmarter encrypts all data at rest with AES-256 and in transit with TLS 1.2+ - across database, storage, messaging, and AI services.

Frequently asked security and compliance questions about GoSmarter - data residency, AI, encryption, and access control.

GoSmarter's browser security controls - Content Security Policy, secure token storage, and supply chain protections.

Production planners' guide to GoSmarter's Long Product Planning feature: create efficient first-draft cutting plans that minimise waste and meet order requirements.

How to log in to GoSmarter, get set up, and meet Hex, your onboarding assistant.

Learn how to use GoSmarter's AI tools for metals manufacturing including inventory management, order tracking, cutting optimisation, and mill certificate management

Plain-English definitions of steel industry terms and software concepts: mill certificates, EN 10204, heat numbers, cutting optimisation, yield rate, AI, cloud platforms, and more.

Comprehensive roadmap for deploying GoSmarter across your metals manufacturing business with structured phases, best practices, and change management strategies

GoSmarter runs on Microsoft Azure - containerised API, managed database, and isolated AI processing jobs in UK and EU regions.

A functional design document covering product flows, influence mapping, traceability, and buyer expectations.

Your discovery checklist, configuration guide, and ROI calculator for a GoSmarter implementation — designed for customers and implementation partners using any of the five rollout packages.

How GoSmarter detects, responds to, and communicates about security incidents.

Learn about GoSmarter's flexible integration approach: from independent use to full API integration, designed to work alongside your existing systems

Learn how to create and manage inventory items using our Production Planning Inventory

Complete guide for inventory managers and operations teams on using GoSmarter's Metals Manager capabilities to track materials, suppliers, and orders in real-time

Create and manage customer orders, track requirements and allocations

How GoSmarter handles personal data under GDPR - data processing practices, subject rights, and our sub-processors' DPAs.

Fast reference for common tasks and operations in GoSmarter

Your GoSmarter rollout plan based on your plant type, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) setup, and product mix — with clear milestones and outcome targets you can measure from day one.

Learn how to log scrap, track waste trends, and review record history.

GoSmarter's security, compliance, and data protection practices - built on Microsoft Azure with UK and EU data residency.

Understand and create Tags and Tag Rules, and see how they get automatically applied to your inventory.

Using the GoSmarter UI to filter, sort, search, see tutorials, and more.

Guide for production managers on using GoSmarter's scrap management features to track, analyse, and minimise waste in metals manufacturing.

Solutions to common problems and error messages in GoSmarter

What GoSmarter does, who it's for, and how to get started with AI-powered compliance and traceability for metals manufacturers.

Azure Cognitive Services (now part of Azure AI services) is a collection of pre-built AI APIs you can call to add intelligent features to your applications. The services are grouped into five categories: decision, language, speech, vision, and search.

Database improvements can mean improving the design, the performance, and the security of the database.

Long products are steels in linear cross-sections: bars, rods, rebar, angles, channels, and beams. The flat-vs-long distinction matters for cutting and traceability.

Long-range, low-power sensor networks (LPWAN — LoRaWAN, Sigfox, NB-IoT) let businesses connect sensors over wide areas on low power. Explained, with applications in manufacturing and stockyards.

EN 10204 defines mill inspection certificate types in steel. Guide to types 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, and 3.2 — when each is required and how to manage them.

A heat number identifies a steel batch from a single melt. Fundamental to traceability — losing them is how compliance falls apart. What they are and why they matter.

A mill test certificate (MTC) proves a metal batch meets a stated grade. What an MTC contains, why traceability depends on it, and how to stop drowning in PDFs.

Natural language processing, computer vision, and other AI capabilities can be integrated into existing applications as event-driven services. How it works, with a real example from mill certificate processing.

AI product development is the development of an AI solution — either from scratch or by building upon an existing AI capability — into a product other people can rely on. What the lifecycle actually involves, beyond the initial model.

An artificial intelligence strategy provides a roadmap for executing a business's AI priorities — including, crucially, deciding where AI is and isn't the right tool for a given problem.

Artificial intelligence is a broad area of computer science concerned with building computer programs that can perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence. What it is, how it works, and where it does (and doesn't) fit in manufacturing.

Amazon S3 is a highly scalable object storage service that can be used to store any amount of data for a range of use cases. Learn how manufacturers use it at GoSmarter AI.

AWS provides pay-as-you-go access to vast data storage and computing capabilities and allows you to scale the costs as you grow. What it is, its key services, and where manufacturers typically use it.

Amazon Redshift is a cloud-based, managed data warehouse service from Amazon Web Services. It allows you to integrate, store, and query large quantities of data efficiently and securely.

Azure Batch is a cloud-based job scheduling and compute management service that provides parallel batch processing for intensive workloads.

Azure Data Factory allows you to integrate data from several sources for transformation and analytics. Learn how manufacturers use it to break data silos at GoSmarter AI.

Automate the execution of your business processes across diverse apps and services. Learn how manufacturers use Azure Logic Apps at GoSmarter AI.

Microsoft Azure provides pay-as-you-go access to vast data storage and computing capabilities and allows you to scale the costs as you grow. What it is, its key services, and a real example of it powering a manufacturing platform.

Business intelligence refers to the systematic collection, integration, analysis and reporting of data from all areas of your business to drive better decision making.

Cloud data development is the process of migrating your data storage solution onto a central, cloud-based resource upon which analytical environments and business intelligence tools can be built.

Cutting optimisation calculates which cuts to make from stock lengths to fulfil orders with least waste. How it works and how AI makes it significantly better.

Collecting data can help solve business problems and make better decisions — and for metals manufacturers, it starts on the shop floor and at goods-in.

Data modeling helps businesses to build products that use data efficiently and meet business goals — the discipline behind how manufacturing systems link orders, inventory, and traceability.

Data platform auditing reviews your data platform for security, compliance, and structure — increasingly important as manufacturers digitise traceability records.

Developing a data platform can transform your organisation's approach to storage and analysis of data — the foundation manufacturing traceability and reporting are built on.

Data platform security auditing reviews the security of your data platform and provides recommendations for improvements.

Data science auditing is a review of your data science solutions to assess their quality, security and compliance.

Data science consulting helps businesses build better products and make better, data-driven decisions.

Learn about creating custom data science solutions that can provide valuable, actionable insights to help grow your company.

Data science strategy is as much about planning and executing your businesses, data and AI initiatives as it is about building internal skills and culture.

Data science helps businesses to build better products and make better, data-driven decisions — from demand forecasting to cutting optimisation in manufacturing.

Closely linked to a business strategy, a data strategy is simply the roadmap of how a company will utilise data to optimise their business.

Data visualisation makes data insights accessible to everyone and empowers your teams to take data-driven actions efficiently.

Data warehousing helps all teams within a business make better informed decisions based on accurate insights.

Database maintenance helps teams to ensure that accurate data is reliably available. Discover how it underpins AI and analytics for metals manufacturers at GoSmarter AI.

A centre of excellence gives your AI and data initiatives a home. Learn how metals manufacturers build one to drive real progress — not just pilot projects that go nowhere.

Dynamics 365 Field Service enables companies to analyse progress and make better offsite business decisions.

Dynamics 365 has become a key figure in the cloud CRM and ERP space in terms of market share and frequency of use — including as an ERP for metals manufacturers.

ERP software manages core business functions. Many metals manufacturers find it struggles with mill certs, cutting plans, and inventory.

BigQuery is a fully-managed, serverless cloud data warehouse that scales with your needs and is easy to set up and manage.

Google Cloud provides pay-as-you-go access to vast data storage and computing capabilities and allows you to scale the costs as you grow.

IBM Cloud provides pay-as-you-go access to vast data storage and computing capabilities and allows you to scale the costs as you grow. Read more at GoSmarter AI.

Jupyter is an open-source project that supports interactive, collaborative data science and scientific computing across all programming languages. Learn more at GoSmarter AI.

Metals inventory means tracking material by grade, heat number, cert status, and order commitment — not just counting items. How to manage it properly.

Microsoft Power Platform helps a broader range of people build solutions without deep coding skills. Covers Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and more.

Microsoft Project Bonsai is a low-code AI platform that can be used to build AI-powered systems that can provide guidance to operators or be used to control industrial equipment to optimise process variables, leading to an increase in production efficiency and reducing equipment downtime.

Power BI integrates data from several sources, allowing users to create interactive reports and dashboards.

Python has a wide variety of applications including data science and software development.

Rebar is deformed steel bar embedded in concrete for tensile strength. For cut-and-bend manufacturers, it is a high-traceability, compliance-critical product.

Remote support tools let a technician or support representative connect to a remote computer or system over the internet and work directly on it — without an on-site visit.

Steel traceability means proving what material you used, where it came from, and which certificate backs it. Why it matters and how to maintain it.

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the connectivity of computing devices that allows them to interact with each other.

Yield rate is the percentage of input that becomes finished product. In metals, every yield improvement goes to the bottom line. How to measure and improve yours.

Nightingale HQ CEO Ruth Kearney attends Innovate UK's Horizon Europe Cluster 4 event, seeking partners for clean steel and advanced materials research.

CEO Ruth Kearney to speak at Advanced Technologies Industries & Manufacturing Cluster.

Nightingale HQ joins Welsh manufacturers at AI & Advanced Manufacturing Showcase with TWI and HVM Catapult

Nightingale HQ delivered onsite and online AI leadership training at Tata Steel UK’s Port Talbot site, helping cross-functional teams adopt AI securely and at scale.

Learn more about AIFightsBack - a series of 10 online webinars for businesses looking to learn how AI can create value.

Ruth Kearney joins Nightingale HQ as Product & Commercial Director. Learn more about Ruth's rich experience and background.

Accelerate your digital transformation with GoSmarter In A Day workshops which combine the automation of a business process with training to help your staff to do the same.

GoSmarter is now a Supporting Partner of the National Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition, helping manufacturers cut scrap and plan faster.

Nightingale HQ is named Best GreenTech finalist at the 2025 Wales Technology Awards for GoSmarter.ai's work cutting scrap in metals manufacturing.

Our CEO Steph Locke speaks to Silicon Republic on building a solid foundation in data science. Discover more today.

Nightingale HQ delivered an AI Readiness workshop to the full leadership team at Tata Steel UK, one of the UK’s most strategically important industrial businesses.

Nightingale HQ featured in Business News Wales after offering Free AI & Automation Software to businesses.

Business Wales featured Nightingale HQ in their success stories and are recognising how GoSmarter.ai is helping steel manufacturers stop wrestling with spreadsheets and start using AI.

We were featured in the Cambridge network, after offering free AI services to SMEs across the UK and beyond.

Nightingale HQ appoints Ruth Kearney as CEO to lead expansion of its manufacturing AI tools across the UK, Ireland, and Europe.

Businesses offered free AI and automation software to help cope with Covid-19 impact

We featured on the Cardiff University Home of Innovation blog.

Press release: Nightingale HQ joining EIT Manufacturing

Ruth Kearney speaks at the 2024 European Manufacturing Conference in Brussels on sustainable manufacturing and GoSmarter's greener software approach.

We were featured in the Covid Loan Tracker, a community of 50,000+ small business owners across all 50 states

Nightingale HQ appoints Chris Wilson as CTO to lead technology vision and drive digital innovation for manufacturers across the UK and Europe.

Learn more about our experiences at Data Platform Summit 2019 in India. Discover now at Nightingale HQ.

Ruth Kearney met Welsh Government in Ireland to talk Wales-Ireland trade as GoSmarter scales with customers across both markets.

We were featured in Electronic Specifier for offering businesses free software to cope with Covid-19.

Nightingale HQ has joined a EU focus group on AI alongside 100 European SMEs. Learning more about AI adoption and how we are shaping policy.

Nightingale was FSB member of the month for September 2020. Learn more at Nightingale HQ.

We featured in a Forbes story on 5 startups helping companies during the Covid-19 pandemic

The Federations of Small Businesses ran a story on how Nightingale HQ are bringing automation and AI to SMEs across the UK.

Learn more about our data science bootcamp, delivered by Steph Locke, Nightingale HQ CEO and data scientist and Microsoft AI MVP.

Nightingale HQ joins Wales Business Insider's international trade roundtable, discussing ESG standards and export opportunities for Welsh businesses.

Latest news, press releases, and company updates from GoSmarter AI - announcements, partnerships, and industry insights

GoSmarter has won the British Stainless Steel Association 2026 Sustainability Award for cutting waste, scrap, and carbon for stainless steel firms.

GoSmarter.ai launches free digital tools for steel manufacturers — Scrap Calculator, Scrap Logger, Offcut Manager, and Emissions Calculator.

GoSmarter AI's rebar cutting optimiser uses genetic algorithms to slash rebar waste, cut costs, and lower carbon emissions. No guesswork. No offcut mountains.

The inaugural Wales STEM Awards took place last month, shining a light on the outstanding STEM businesses that are driving the Welsh economy.

Nightingale HQ at UK Metals Expo 2025 — Ruth Kearney's highlights on CBAM, energy costs, global steel oversupply, and sustainability innovation.

We're attending Impact festival 2021. Find out everything you need to know here.

Insider Media featured NHQ in a story on our successful £50,000 grant from the Innovate UK

Gender inequality is a huge issue in manufacturing. Discover our blog post on 30 inspiring women lighting the way for all genders.

The Irish National Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference Nov 23 - 24

It feels like yesterday that NHQ made it to the final of Boostup in 2020, pitching data solutions to the Eroski challenge.

It’s a Wrap – Our Year in Review

A Welsh artificial intelligence (AI) platform for metals manufacturing pitched a £500k EIS raise to Women Angels of Wales in Cardiff. See the problem, the products, and how to invest.

Nightingale HQ co founders Ruth Kearney and Steph Locke are speaking at Manufacturing Expo Wales in Cardiff, sharing practical insights on turning AI ambition into real industrial impact.

NHQ panels at Manufacturing Solutions Conference 2023 in Limerick to discuss digital manufacturing and the Reimagining Reinforcement Steel project.

Nightingale HQ's key takeaways from Tech UK's event on entering the German market — practical guidance on trade, legal setup, and NRW investment support.

A bit of AI podcast with Microsoft folks Henk & Amy.

Midland Steel cuts 10 hours of manual admin monthly using GoSmarter's MillCert Reader to automate mill certificate data extraction and document renaming.

Acquistion International's 2019 Influential Businesswoman Awards votes Nightingale HQ CEO Steph Locke Most Innovative Woman in Artificial Intelligence.

Nightingale HQ joins the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator. Discover more today.

Richard Jackson, Cloud Software Engineer at Nightingale HQ, presents at DDD South West 2023 on .Net, Azure and Umbraco.

Ruth Kearney promotes STRADA — an EIT-funded leadership programme for women in manufacturing — at Dublin's National Manufacturing Conference.

Nightingale HQ joins EU-funded consortium with Midland Steel, KUKA, and VTT to cut rebar waste in steel manufacturing and reduce carbon emissions.

Ruth Kearney speaks at the Northern Ireland Manufacturing Conference in Belfast on AI tools for steel and STRADA's women in manufacturing programme.

Nightingale HQ is a finalist for the Wales STEM Awards 2026 Sustainability Award, and Steph Locke is shortlisted for STEM Woman of the Year.

Nightingale HQ appoints safety and compliance expert Wendy Owen as Board Advisor, strengthening governance as GoSmarter enters its next growth phase.

Nightingale HQ CEO Ruth Kearney will speak at 11:20 on 27–28 May 2026 on the Robotics and Automation Stage at the National Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition in Dublin.

Nightingale HQ closes its angel investment round and appoints Gourav Tandon, founder of Source Code Control India, to its board of directors.

GoSmarter Toolkit Delivers Waste and Emissions Reductions in Rebar Manufacturing POC trails

Strategic collaboration between Nightingale HQ and Kings College London

Nightingale HQ have joined the WiC Accelerator. Learn more about what joining the programme means for our business.

Nightingale HQ and CTAG complete a 12-month Digital Twin project, cutting production scrap by 50% and saving manufacturers a month of admin work per year.

Nightingale HQ can intelligently adjust where and when data processing occurs to minimise its carbon impact.

Nightingale HQ was selected from 330 applicants as one of 55 Tech Nation Rising Star 3.0 finalists. Read our blog post to find out more.

Nightingale HQ is shortlisted for AI Tech Innovation of the Year at Insider's Made in Wales Awards 2026, for the impact of GoSmarter.ai on Welsh manufacturing.

New collaboration with Irish Centre For Business Excellence ICBE

Ruth Kearney and Steph Locke travelled across North and Mid Wales with cluster leaders to share practical approaches to continuous improvement through modern technology.

Nightingale HQ are invited to the Made Smarter Emerging Technology Show. Read more about this year's agenda.

Ruth Kearney joins IDEAM's Conference on Digitalisation of Manufacturing in Limerick to discuss AI adoption and digital tools for SME manufacturers.

Wales Technology Awards 2025. Nightingale HQ take Best Greentech Award

GoSmarter heads to Mid Wales in April to show manufacturers what AI can actually do for them. No jargon. No pitch. Just what works.

24 staff at Welsh electronics manufacturer Philtronics ran a practical AI workshop with Nightingale HQ, producing usable outputs and a live AI roadmap within hours.

Read on for our rising stars tech nation interview with CEO Steph Locke. Discover more today.

Joining advanced manufacturing board

We're very excited to be joining Procter & Gamble's Supplier Academy as part of the class of 2021.

Ruth Kearney presents at EIT Manufacturing's Smart Data in Manufacturing event in Darmstadt on AI and data strategy for German SME manufacturers.

GoSmarter featured in Startups Magazine for offering free AI and automation tools to SMEs, including Social Listening, FAQ Chatbots, and more.

MillCert Reader is now live and it’s saving hours for Production Managers

Read on for Nightingale HQ's interview for the Wales Stem Awards 2020. Learn more on our website today.

Impact Festival, EIT Manufacturing and the road to net zero.

Steph Locke elected chairperson of the EU Digital SME Alliance AI Steering Committee, championing SME AI adoption and shaping inclusive EU AI policy.

STRADA launches an EIT-funded pan-European leadership programme for women in manufacturing. Nightingale HQ leads the digitalisation masterclass.

Futureproof your skillset with Machine Learning, R, Data Visualisation and PowerBI. Learn more at Nightingale HQ.

Nightingale HQ has teamed up with the ICBE network to bring three webinars on AI in Manufacturing as part of the AIFightsBack series. Learn more today.

TechRound interviews Steph Locke, CEO of Nightingale HQ, on AI adoption for UK SMEs and how automation can help businesses scale post-COVID.

Think you know your reinforced steel? Put your rebar knowledge to the test with our interactive ShapeCode Quiz and enter to win a Shape Code Champ t-shirt!

GoSmarter featured in The Irish Times on how AI is helping Irish businesses innovate and grow — practical AI adoption for SMEs post-pandemic.

This week we're attending Digital Manufacturing Week in Liverpool, we're looking forward to the MX awards where we're supporting Helen Anderson of CPI TMD.

Nightingale HQ attends Digital Manufacturing Week 2021 in Liverpool, with CEO Steph Locke giving an AI talk in the Industrial Data & AI Theatre.

Nightingale HQ featured in ThinkBusiness.ie.

Steph Locke spoke at a FinTech Wales coding bootcamp in Cardiff: what the room looked like, what she said, and why Nightingale HQ keeps showing up.

CEO Ruth Kearney presents 'Toolkits for Smart Manufacturing' to the industry cohort taking the 'Certificate in Leadership in Digitalisation of Manufacturing'.

Our CEO Steph Locke was listed among the UK’s most 100 inspirational female entrepreneurs in 2021. Click to find out more at Nightingale HQ.

Nightingale HQ's Richard Jackson attends Microsoft Reactor and Umbraco London, sharing insights on .NET, Azure, and open-source community development.

Our CEO, Steph Locke, has been busy this last month, featuring on three episodes of Utilizing AI.

Wales 247 ran a story on Nightingale HQ's successful £50,000 grant application.

Nightingale HQ leads digitalisation on an EIT Manufacturing-funded project with Midland Steel and KUKA to cut rebar waste and carbon emissions.

Innovate UK will be supporting us with our innovation and internationalisation efforts.

Nightingale HQ have been shortlisted for two Wales Start-Up awards 2021. The awards are taking place on September 9 in the Depot, Cardiff.

Cardiff-based Nightingale HQ (NHQ), has launched GoSmarter.ai

Nightingale HQ's Autumn 2026 events calendar — Belfast, Cardiff, Birmingham and the Netherlands. See where to meet the team and get in touch.

Nightingale HQ releases Whitepaper on Sustainable Serverless Computing for Manufacturers

Meet the Nightingale HQ team behind GoSmarter, the metals manufacturing AI platform built to cut manual admin, improve traceability, and speed up production.

BlogSmarter AI is GoSmarter's AI research and content assistant — surfacing practical insights from industry data and producing compelling blog posts for metals manufacturers.

Former CTO of Nightingale HQ, leading cloud-native software development and technical architecture for AI manufacturing solutions

Dr. Brian O'Halloran is a highly experienced data scientist and leader with expertise across manufacturing, telecoms, insurance, and media industries in Ireland and the UK.

Grace O'Donnell is a marketing analyst and communications specialist at GoSmarter AI, with a Masters degree in PR and expertise in content creation and consumer market trends.

Cloud Solutions Architect Engineer specializing in scalable cloud infrastructure and AI solution architecture for manufacturing

Freelance personal assistant and Founder of My Discombobulated Brain

Software engineering intern with aerospace engineering background, developing AI and cloud solutions for manufacturing

Cloud Software Engineer. Matt is a seasoned C# developer of over a decade with a focus more recently on Blazor.

Budding data scientist with an entrepreneurial and science communication background.

Data Science Intern building GPU-accelerated cutting-stock optimisation services on Microsoft Azure with NVIDIA cuOpt.

Junior Software Engineer passionate about developing their craft.

Meet the talented team behind GoSmarter AI, led by co-founders Ruth Kearney and Steph Locke, building AI solutions for manufacturing

Agentic AI Engineer building autonomous document processing pipelines and AI-powered automation for the metals manufacturing industry.

AI Engineer specialising in MTC extraction and OCR model evaluation.

Cloud software engineer with expertise in data science, cloud-native development, and data engineering for manufacturing AI solutions

Ruth Kearney is Co-Founder and CEO of GoSmarter AI — driving commercial growth and strategic partnerships to help metals manufacturers adopt AI and digital tools that actually deliver on the shop floor.

Digital marketing intern at GoSmarter AI with Master's degree in Psychology, specializing in marketing psychology

Technologist with a passion for full stack engineering.

Solange Borrego is a Quality Engineer with 5 years of shop-floor manufacturing experience, now pivoting to Data Science and AI applications in metals manufacturing.

Steph Locke is Co-founder and Head of Product at GoSmarter AI — former Microsoft Data & AI MVP building practical tools to cut paperwork and automate compliance for metals manufacturers.

Ambitious digital marketer with a love for words and history of content creation.

Tyree Glasgow-Alexander is a Customer Success Manager at GoSmarter AI, bringing a background in Solutions Architecture and a focus on human-centred outcomes for metals manufacturing customers.

Sales and marketing professional at GoSmarter AI focused on automation, content creation, and driving awareness of AI value for manufacturing businesses

Tech generalist specializing in web development, graphic design, and multimedia content creation for GoSmarter AI

Join Nightingale HQ, the Wales-based, female-founder-led team behind GoSmarter and Florence. Remote-first, flexible patterns, and genuinely fair hiring.

TL;DR: Nightingale HQ is hiring a senior hands-on technologist. You will help us build useful AI products, improve how we write and run software, and reduce the risk of too much technical knowledge sitting with one person. This is a remote-first UK role paying £55–65k. We are open to full-time, part-time, compressed hours, or another working pattern that fits the role. You must already have the right to work in the UK. We especially welcome applications from people based in Wales, where the company is based. If the application or interview process creates a barrier, tell us what would help.

Regional distributors delivering local onboarding, hands-on training, and implementation support for GoSmarter and Florence

Strategic, research, and distribution partners helping GoSmarter and Florence reach metals manufacturers worldwide, from universities to distributors.

Source Code Control India: local onboarding, hands-on training, and implementation support for GoSmarter and Florence from Delhi and Bangalore

Explore investment opportunities with GoSmarter AI (Nightingale HQ Ltd), makers of AI-powered production tools for metals manufacturers.

Reach out to GoSmarter for product guidance, demos, or support. We help metals manufacturers ditch the manual admin and get more done.

Nightingale HQ is the Welsh AI company that built GoSmarter — the end-to-end traceability and compliance platform for metals manufacturers. Founded in 2018 by Steph Locke and Ruth Kearney.

Download logos, photos, and access company information for media coverage of GoSmarter and Nightingale HQ.

GoSmarter is the end-to-end traceability and compliance platform for metals manufacturers, built by Nightingale HQ. It automates certs, cutting, and inventory.

GoSmarter is the AI platform built for metals manufacturers — steel stockholders, service centres, and fabricators who are done wasting time on manual admin. No IT department needed.

GoSmarter is a secure web app for metals manufacturers. Log in at app.gosmarter.ai to access your AI tools: MillCert Reader, Cutting Plans, and Metals Manager.

GoSmarter AI's commitment to highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and ethical conduct in all business operations

GoSmarter's privacy policy — how we collect, use, and protect your personal data in line with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

How GoSmarter uses cookies and how you can control them. We're straight with you: here's exactly what we set, why, and how to turn it off.

A minor upgrade to the dashboard to showcase all the latest developments on the app.

Add mill certificates by hand and edit extracted cert data in GoSmarter when suppliers send photos, scans, or odd formats.

With our mill certificate AI, we do our best to extract information accurately but the low-resolution scan, the signature in Sharpie over a value, and more can make the results incorrect some times. As a result we now give you the ability to make tracked amendments once AI has imported as much as it can from the mill certificates uploaded. This is the first in a line of small features to ensure you have immutable traceability of results.

Depending on your processes, you may need someone to review every mill certificate / material test report to ensure the materials meet the quality your expect. From the mill certificate detail page, or in the bulk edit view, you can now mark mill certificates as having issues or as approved.

We recently improved our tracking of changes in the system. Now you can see across inventory, mill certificates, and orders what changed, when, and by whom. This is critical for your ISO accreditations and meeting your customer’s expectations so they can meet their regulatory requirements. Audit trails exist on every item and items that have been deleted are also recoverable and tracked - this is also useful because they can be restored too!

Until now, tag rules were limited to inventory items - useful, but only part of the picture. Your mill certificates and orders were still being kept in everyone’s heads.

We were exceptionally happy to build GoSmarter with strong customer collaboration. We built it quickly including our development capabilities.

Capture cleaner supplier and customer data in GoSmarter, including onboarding status and geo-location details for carbon reporting.

We started out with modals (views in the middle of the screen) for doing things like creating or editing records. The challenge was when things got complex / detailed like describing orders or rules for inventory. We’ve now moved over to side bars or “blades” that appear on the right-hand side to give you more room and lower risk when working with your data. Data entry still sucks but this will make it suck a little less.

See what's new in GoSmarter: every feature, improvement, and fix, dated as it ships. Browse by type or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Each update on this page now gets its own URL, its own entry in the RSS feed, and shows up individually in search results — instead of being buried inside one long, ever-growing page.

Uploading mill certificates in bulk is faster to follow and easier to trust. You can now see where certificates came from, track progress file by file during multi-file uploads, and get clearer feedback if upload limits are hit part-way through.

Company details, materials, types, stock locations, order statuses, tags and rules used to live on nine separate pages, spread across a long sidebar list. Finding the right screen meant hunting.

Create GoSmarter automation tokens for scripts and tools, without forcing every automated job through the full login dance.

Use GoSmarter's scrap calculator to set a clear scrap rate, track the cost, and stop spreadsheet guesses from wrecking margins.

Integration is critical to manufacturers so we’ve been working hard on making sure our APIs can be consumed and understood.

Today we’ve added some useful features to improve your inventory admin.

Connect inventory to mill certificate lineage in GoSmarter, so stock choices carry the proof instead of another paperwork hunt.

When a customer asks for a material test certificate, you need it to look like it came from you including your logo, your contact details, your registration number, not from the original mill. Until now, that meant exporting the raw mill cert and reformatting it manually.

If your CBAM numbers are still coming from a spreadsheet guess, a 20% miscalculation is a direct hit to your margin. Our free CBAM Import Cost Estimator calculates certificate costs for iron, steel, and aluminium shipments into the EU — enter goods category, origin country, tonnage, and declaration year, and get back the certificate cost in euros, total embedded emissions, and a full methodology breakdown. It covers 13 CN-code categories and ~60 countries with country-specific emissions defaults (Angola sintered ore isn’t Turkish sintered ore), applies the correct year-based markup automatically, and exports to PDF/CSV so finance, purchasing, and compliance are all working from the same figures.

Upload mill certificate images to GoSmarter and pull data from photos or scans when suppliers skip tidy documents.

GoSmarter tutorial mode now gives new users help when they need it, then gets out of the way once they know the flow.

We have improved the support for non-ferrous metals on the app. This includes more detailed materials and types in our default starter lists for copper, nickel, and brass. We have also added more support in our free tools, including our metal weight calculator and our emissions calculator. This update also helps with copper pipes by increasing the available range of calculation methods for different international standards/

We’ve recently expanding how orders are managed to enable you to differentiate between the order and it’s line items and manage them independently.

Walk through GoSmarter features with interactive guides that show users what to do without burying them in stale docs.

GoSmarter now supports light mode for brighter workplaces, while keeping dark mode ready for the people who hate beige screens.

Digitalisation efforts can be tough to pull the business case together for. We regularly support our potential customers on producing business cases for our products so we thought we’d share the love!

Use mill certificate properties in inventory rules, so GoSmarter helps pick the right stock for the job instead of guessing.

With the Reserve stock and connect it for traceability change, we made it so you can pick the items you need to fulfill an order from what you have available. This is great if you hold stock or you want to use as many offcuts etc as possible to fulfil an order before you put out a request for quotes to suppliers, helping you keep your costs down and your material utilisation high.

When you’re dealing with hundreds of mill certificates / material test reports every month, a single table of uploads can be overwhelming.

With the Organisations tab you can now keep track of your suppliers, customers, and other key organisations. Managing this list allows you to track your inventory by suppliers and your orders by customer.

Manage tags directly from your inventory table. You can now manually apply and remove tags on any inventory item without leaving the inventory view. The new “Manage tags” modal replaces the old per-row “Apply tag rules” button, giving you a clearer, more powerful interface for organising your stock.

We’ve added an AI-powered assistant to help you set up GoSmarter faster. Hex lives in the bottom right of your screen and can:

We’ve shipped an upgrade to mill certificate ↔ inventory matching by adding Product Reference as an alternate key alongside heat codes. This matters for people who receive certificates for individual plates etc. that could be from the same heat code as many other items.

We think most things can be a table (putting our engineering hat on there for UX) but tables can be a bit pants on mobile.

GoSmarter now extracts more mill certificate data, including extra chemical composition details from material test reports.

Different metal products need different ways to describe themselves. A round bar needs a diameter, a pipe needs a nominal size and wall thickness, a column section needs a designation like 203UC60. Until now, you had to cram that into notes or leave it blank.

Sign-in is faster and more secure. You can now sign in with your Google or Microsoft work account instead of managing a separate GoSmarter password so there’s one less credential to remember, and it fits straight into however your team already handles SSO. Company membership and roles also now update instantly, so adding or removing a teammate’s access takes effect immediately, instead of waiting for their next login like it used to.

Find the right welding code fast with GoSmarter's free selector, covering major welding code families without guesswork.

Just a quick update to say that now you can export all your mill certificate / material test report data as CSV with ease. This is available as a bulk action on the mill cert summary page. Your data is always yours - you should be able to download it easily.

As well as being able to provide your own branded certificates to customers, we wanted to make it easy for you to provide customers with the upstream certificates.

You can now review order line items before they ship, giving you the QA audit trail to support your traceability.

Especially with CBAM around the corner, you might need to understand the likely carbon emissions associated with some of your steel orders. This emissions calculator allows you to take benchmarks from key sources and get robust estimates.

Another free tool we’ve made recently is the Metal Weight Calculator.

You always need to know what stock you have and make sure nobody uses key items needed for an order. This way you never have to go to a rack to get some bars off a bundle and find the whole bundle has been used.

You can now subscribe to Rule Packs, which are curated, ready-to-use compliance checks for common metals standards, with no manual rule setup required.

Chasing order context and matching mill certificates usually meant hopping between screens, exports, and individual records. Now you can generate a proper certificate pack PDF for an order, ready to share without the extra faff.

Today we’ve launched the first part of our smarter inventory capability.

GoSmarter localisation has started with organisation-level currency settings, making global work less spreadsheet-shaped.

We built a free Standards Library that puts 14 major welding and structural codes — AWS, ASME, API, EN, ISO, CSA, and AS/NZS — side by side in one filterable page, instead of scattered across publisher PDFs and old bookmarks. Every entry shows scope, inspection defaults, material coverage, and prequalification stance in the same 9-field format, with direct links to the source standard so you’re never working from a paraphrase. No login, no integration — just a page you can filter, bookmark, and share a link straight to the standard you need.

Recently, we introduced Smarter inventory enabling you to create tags and supporting rules to enable inventory to be clearly identifiable for certain properties. We first implemented it with manual triggering of rules evaluation to test the solution out in the wild, but of course, it’s not smart enough for our liking!

Scrap is often put in a bin and forgotten about until the bin is overflowing. However, good tracking of it helps you understand which of your processes have th emost associated waste. With GoSmarter you now have two ways of tracking scrap depending on your needs.

Make any GoSmarter tag block a quality review, so flagged stock or cert issues cannot quietly sail through the process.

Your customers expect you to meet detailed specifications, we’re starting to make that as simple as possible from the data-side of things.

Convert between common steel standards with GoSmarter's free tool and stop wrestling regional specs like it is still 1995.

Install GoSmarter as a Progressive Web App and use it from the shop floor without dragging a laptop around like it is 2005.

It might sound simple but every metals business has different things they care about and we want to enable tailoring the app to suit your business as simple as possible.

A REST API included from Starter, CSV export for a simple start, and an MCP server for AI agents. Connect GoSmarter to your ERP without an IT project.

AI-powered cutting optimisation creates production-ready cut plans from your available stock and open orders, cutting scrap by up to 50% in customer trials.

Free calculators and utilities — scrap rate, metal weight, CO2e emissions, CBAM impact — for better production and purchasing decisions. No account required.

AI extracts, validates, and links certificate data automatically, eliminating manual entry and creating a complete digital audit trail from day one.

Automate compliance, traceability, inventory, and production planning with software built specifically for metals manufacturers. Save hundreds of hours every year while improving quality, reducing waste, and staying audit ready.

Configure tags and rules once and GoSmarter classifies every stock item, certificate, and order automatically, for commercial, quality, and compliance purposes.

Purpose-built inventory management for metals fabricators and stockholders. Track every piece of material from goods-in to despatch with live inventory and certificate-linked traceability.