When the owner's vision and the right technology come together
Elvir Kučević started out in a small workshop in Pančevo, and today Stahl & Bau Munchen, in its new production hall, manufactures metal railings for the demanding Western European market — with sheet and tube lasers, saws, press brakes, a welding shop and its own powder coating line.
The vision was clear from the start: one integrated system connecting 3D design, sheet and tube cutting, bending, planning and the shop floor. The pieces fell into place when he met the Solfins team and discovered the SigmaTEK portfolio.
The production challenge
A mix of technologies — laser cutting of sheets and tubes, sawing, bending, welding and painting — means managing plate material, profiles and tubes in parallel, along with remnants from previous orders and different machine capacities.
Without a unified platform, manual BOM entry, disconnected tools and the lack of real-time feedback from the shop floor create bottlenecks, errors and unnecessary waste.
The solution: SigmaTEK + Solfins
Solfins implemented the SigmaTEK suite at Stahl & Bau as a single platform — from the 3D model to the machine and back from the shop floor.
Through the SolidWorks integration, the bill of materials is generated directly from the 3D product model, with automatic recognition of materials and sheet thicknesses, eliminating manual re-entry.
SigmaNEST handles CAD/CAM nesting and CNC programming for cutting sheets and plate materials, while SigmaCTL manages nesting and optimization of cutting tubes, bars and profiles on saws, including miter cuts.
SigmaTUBE covers 3D programming for tube cutting, and SigmaBEND handles the preparation and programming of sheet bending with bend-sequence simulation and unfolded-length calculation.
Color Offload enables visual sorting of parts after cutting by color, work order and next operation, while Shopfloor Manager, as the MES layer, brings real-time management and tracking of production from the shop floor, with live statuses of orders, machines and operators.
It all closes with Sigma MRP — production planning, inventory and remnant tracking from the cutting process, with open integration to ERP systems (Pantheon, DelmiaWorks, SAP, Navision).
The result: one flow from 3D model to shipping
Stahl & Bau now operates a closed loop — from the 3D model in SolidWorks and the automatic BOM, through nesting optimization in SigmaNEST and SigmaCTL, bending preparation in SigmaBEND and part organization with Color Offload, all the way to MES tracking in Shopfloor Manager and planning in Sigma MRP connected to the business software.
For the owner, this means less scrap, predictable lead times and the capacity to meet Western market demands without growing the administrative overhead.
The takeaway
When an owner has a clear vision and the right partner, technology stops being a cost and becomes a lever for growth.
Stahl & Bau, Solfins and SigmaTEK are an example of how vision, expertise and software come together into one serious production system.
SigmaNEST Case Study - Stahl Bau Munchen Serbia