Steelhead Technologies has acquired Visual Shop and Bluestreak, two providers of job shop management and QMS software.
Jeff HalonenSteelhead says customers of all three companies now have access to its next-generation, all-in-one system built on a digital production floor, with automation and AI built in.
"Metal finishing job shops have been under decades of competitive pressure from offshoring, workforce challenges, and volatility in costs,” says Jeff Halonen, CEO/Co-Founder, Steelhead Technologies. “With demographic changes and AI completely changing the operational landscape, the challenges remain as tall as ever.”
Halonen says top government officials and contractors are urgently bringing back work by reshoring and scaling production. He says job shops must leverage technology to rapidly increase capacity and capability while not adding headcount to solve every challenge.
“Steelhead is excited to be their technology partner providing purpose-built technology tailored for metal finishing, supercharged with AI and white-glove service from a knowledgeable team with decades of experience,” Halonen says.
Steelhead says it is accelerating its investment in metal finishing to position job shops for the next generation of manufacturing. It says its teams are continuing to invest heavily in the industry, including its investment in FedRAMP to meet the security and documentation standards CMMC compliance requires, and dedicating engineering, support, and product resources specifically to fine-tune workflows.
The company says customers will benefit from access to the people who know metal finishing and heat treating best, drawing on the long-standing experience at Visual Shop and Bluestreak.
"Visual Shop customers have always loved our vast array of features and our friendly and responsive support team that knows their business,” says Kevin Pluedeman, President of Cornerstone Systems, which produces Visual Shop. “To stay competitive in the long term, we would need to build a new product on a modern platform. Steelhead has a great product and shares our philosophy of providing outstanding customer service."
Todd Wenzel, President and Founder of Bluestreak, says that for over 20 years, their company has powered heat treating and metal finishing job shops with software built to help them scale without compromising on quality.
“Looking ahead, we believe partnering with Steelhead positions us to deliver on that promise at an entirely new scale,” Wenzel says. “By joining forces with Steelhead, we are bringing the institutional knowledge and specialized features of Bluestreak together with Steelhead's modern infrastructure. Our focus remains entirely on supporting customers seamlessly today while building the ultimate, next-generation platform for the next 20 years."
Mary Springer, Executive Vice President of ThermTech, announced its partnership with Steelhead Technologies as it implements its AI-powered heat treating platform.
“For decades, ThermTech has grown by investing in the things that matter most to our customers: our people, our equipment, our processes, and the quality systems that stand behind every part we treat,” Springer says. “Over the last 23 years, we've leveraged and co-developed the Bluestreak QMS, and that investment in capability has been central to how we serve our customers. Moving to Steelhead is the next chapter of that same philosophy, a platform that unites MES, QMS, ERP, financials, and customer service in a single system.”
At Eastern Plating, a plating shop rebuilding and growing after a major flood, taking the shop floor digital has given the team real-time visibility into every stage of production.
"Before Steelhead, we couldn’t see where our parts were at any given time,” says Wayne Wheeler, Eastern Plating. “It was received, a traveler was put on it, and we didn't know where it was again until it shipped. Now we know where our parts are any time once they're in Steelhead, and probably 95% of the phone calls have been eliminated.”
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