Recipes For Metal,
Priced In Real Time
Turning a paper-and-gut-instinct charge-mix recipe into a data-backed, price-aware web workflow for foundry teams.
Foundries in the metal-manufacturing sector still rely heavily on paper records, Excel sheets, and gut instinct to manage operations. A critical part of their process — creating the "charge mix" (like a recipe for each melt) — is done manually, without real-time price data or decision support. As a result, they often miss out on potential profit margins due to a lack of market-driven adjustments and limited use of technology in charge-mix creation.
The design process
An eight-step process carried the project from raw field research to a shipped, adopted product.
Understand the existing system
Through on-ground research, we discovered that while each foundry has its own way of using ChargeMixes, they typically follow a standard process to create them. Once a ChargeMix is created for a specific grade, it rarely changes. The methods used to build these ChargeMixes also vary — some rely on pen and paper, while others use Excel spreadsheets.
Define the system
Based on our research, we've gained a clear understanding of how foundries approach ChargeMix creation. They generally adhere to a standardized process — Input, Calculate, Output — for developing these mixes, as shown below.
Identify pain points
After conducting user interviews and analysing the system, we pinpointed key challenges, their underlying causes, and actionable opportunities. This process revealed three significant pain points.
Ideate for solution
After compiling insights from both secondary and primary research, our team collaborated to brainstorm and conceptualise the Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
Benefit — a market size of 5–7K foundries in India (~85–95% in the MSME segment), a selling price of ₹30K/year, a sales plan of 50 customers/year, on a yearly subscription model.
Create designs & develop
Once we had ideated on our Minimum Viable Product, we moved directly into designing the initial visual interfaces of the web app. This was quickly followed by its development for testing and launch, ensuring a swift progression from concept to a tangible product.
Usability testing & mvp launch
Once the Minimum Viable Product was ready, we immediately began usability testing with actual users. This crucial step helped us assess the product's feasibility and identify any issues, which we promptly addressed. After reaching satisfactory usage parameters, we proceeded with an MVP launch in a beta phase — validating our hypotheses through real-world market adoption.
Product updates
Upon launching the MVP to the market, our sales and onboarding teams' dedicated efforts successfully secured our initial customers. Reaching the five-customer mark validated our MVP and confirmed Product-Market Fit (PMF). With this crucial validation, we proceeded to refine the product, developing additional modules for Grades and Inventory.
A dedicated module for managing metal grades used across ChargeMix recipes.
Tracks raw material stock and pricing feeding directly into the ChargeMix calculation.
Impact showcase
Since inception, monthly total users have climbed steadily as more foundries adopted ChargeMix.
“With ChargeMix, we've streamlined our material planning. It's cut down our manual effort and made it easier to maintain consistent output at lower costs.”
“MetalCloud's ChargeMix module helped us reduce production costs by guiding us toward more affordable raw materials — all without compromising on quality.”
Foundries were treating charge-mix creation as a fixed recipe, when raw material prices move daily. Bringing price data into the calculation turned a static habit into a live cost-saving lever.
Shipping the leanest possible MVP — just the ChargeMix screens, everything else fed manually — to validate demand before investing in the Grades and Inventory modules the data later asked for.
