Standard Steel LLC
North America’s only producer of forged steel wheels for railcars and locomotives
Case Study
How Standard Steel brought payroll precision to the pay complexity behind North America’s only forged rail wheel production
Standard Steel’s UKG Pro WFM platform gave the company a strong workforce foundation. What they needed next was a way to handle the highly specific pay rules behind forged rail wheel production: piecework, shop bonuses, holiday pay, jury duty, and bereavement pay. CloudApper extended UKG with the process layer needed to turn those complex rules into accurate, payroll-ready outcomes.
- Manufacturing
- UKG Pro WFM
- Complex Pay Rules
- Piecework Pay
- Payroll Accuracy
1795
Forging heritage behind Standard Steel’s manufacturing expertise
Only
Producer of forged steel wheels for North American railcars and locomotives
Precise
Pay calculations for piecework, bonuses, and holidays
Industry
Rail Manufacturing
Enterprise System
UKG Pro WFM
Primary Gap
Complex Pay Rules
What They Make
Forged Rail Wheels, Axles & Railcar Components
Solution Area
Payroll Process Layer
Heritage
Producing Forgings Since 1795
CloudApper AI + UKG Pro WFM
CloudApper AI extended UKG Pro WFM with a custom process layer for complex manufacturing pay rules, turning shop bonuses, piecework, and non-worked pay into accurate payroll-ready data.
Download the full case study
Get the complete implementation details, pay-rule logic, and UKG Pro WFM workflow details that aren’t on this page.
- Complex pay calculation walkthrough
- UKG Pro WFM process-layer architecture
- Piecework, bonus, and non-worked holiday logic
- Payroll accuracy and team-impact breakdown
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The challenge
The pay rules behind rail manufacturing needed more precision than standard workflows could provide
Standard Steel was moving to UKG Pro WFM, a strong foundation for overall workforce management. But the company’s shop-floor pay rules reflected the realities of a highly specialized rail manufacturer. They needed payroll precision for piecework, shop bonuses, and non-worked pay without sending teams back into spreadsheets and manual calculations.
Shop bonuses followed changing rules
Bonuses involved shifting weekly percentages, flat dollar additions, job codes, departments, and labor categories — creating calculations that needed to be handled consistently before payroll processing.
Piecework pay had to run alongside regular hourly pay
Standard Steel needed daily piecework earnings calculated against employee performance and specific job steps, while also protecting regular pay from accidental overpayment.
Non-worked holiday rules required precise averages
Holiday, jury duty, funeral leave, and bereavement pay required weekly averages that combined regular pay and bonuses, including special handling when employees worked on holidays.
The solution
A process layer that made UKG work for Standard Steel’s exact pay rules
CloudApper AI integrated with UKG Pro WFM to automate the pay logic Standard Steel needed. Instead of forcing payroll teams to work around the system, CloudApper created a tailored process layer that calculated complex pay, prepared the final data, and sent it back into UKG for payroll processing.
Holiday and overtime interactions
Holiday pay interacted with overtime calculations in ways no existing payroll template handled — leading to underpayments that went undetected for weeks.
Holiday pay interacted with overtime calculations in ways no existing payroll template handled — leading to underpayments that went undetected for weeks.
Full implementation details in the PDF
See how CloudApper configured shop bonuses,
piecework pay, and non-worked holiday
calculations with UKG Pro WFM.
piecework pay, and non-worked holiday
calculations with UKG Pro WFM.
The results
Payroll precision for complex manufacturing pay rules
The impact was payroll precision at the point where manufacturing complexity usually creates risk. Standard Steel gained the ability to run highly specific pay rules inside its UKG Pro WFM environment, reduce payroll stress, and make sure employees received accurate and timely compensation without manual recalculation cycles.
Precise
Pay calculations for complex piecework and bonus structures
Accurate
Compensation across regular pay, piecework, and non-worked holiday rules
Reduced
Human-error risk from manual payroll calculations
Stronger
Return on the UKG Pro WFM investment through tailored capabilities
Holiday and overtime interactions
Holiday pay interacted with overtime calculations in ways no existing payroll template handled — leading to underpayments that went undetected for weeks.
Holiday pay interacted with overtime calculations in ways no existing payroll template handled — leading to underpayments that went undetected for weeks.
Full impact details in the PDF
Calculation logic, implementation details, and
pay-rule outcomes.
pay-rule outcomes.
How CloudApper extended UKG
- CloudApper AI Platform
- Custom Payroll Process Layer
- Shop Bonus Calculation Logic
- Piecework Pay Automation
- UKG Pro WFM Data Flow
Trusted by enterprises
G2
4.9/5
UKG Marketplace
4.7/5
- FedRAMP Ready
- SOC 2 Compliant
- GDPR · HIPAA · CCPA
- AWS Partner
Same situation?
Manufacturers often run into pay rules their enterprise system was not originally configured to support. CloudApper closes those payroll precision gaps in weeks, without replacing the system your teams already rely on.
CloudApper helped us automate several complex payroll calculations, including shop bonuses, piecework pay, holiday pay, and bereavement pay. The implementation went smoothly, and the solution has been running flawlessly. The team was excellent to work with and very responsive throughout the process.
Angela N. Wolfley
Human Resources Supervisor · Standard Steel, LLC
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More from your UKG investment - without waiting on roadmaps or IT backlogs.
CloudApper is the process layer that extends enterprise software – enhancing what UKG already does, adding what your business specifically needs, in weeks not quarters. Because the organizations that move fastest are the ones that don’t wait to unlock what they’re already capable of.