How ERP Consultants Helped Digitize a Semiconductor Manufacturer’s Operations

This success story showcases how an ERP consultants (Odoo) helped a semiconductor manufacture to digitize their operations.

We had this client who is based in southeast Asia and producing power modules. Their product is used in the industrial equipment and electric vehicle components. The were running their factory 24*7 along with high care on precision and quality control. They were already known for providing a fast turn around and consistent output thereby making them preferred supplier regional original equipment manufacturers.

What challenges they faced

So, the day we met them i was surprised to see that they were still on spreadsheets and used to juggle their operations. We saw that their production supervisor was walking on the cleanroom to cross check the wafer status. Apart from that, their purchase team never had the idea about the actual burn rate of the materials like how they were being consumed. Along with that, the were maintaining quality assurance logs which were manually entered and most of the times there were delays in the reports.

The stakeholders said that the main objective was also to see the routine audit which was becoming their biggest pain point. And the plant manager also spoke to us saying that they were loosing around half a day each week just to synchronize the data between the teams. Well, this was something thing that was actually slowing their growth and was adding costs that were unnecessary. And this is where our augmented ERP consultants came into the picture.

Stakeholder objectives & expectations

The CEO of the company was having one goal and that was focused towards the real time visibility. He wanted to reduce all of the manual coordination and be able to make decisions base don their data and not assumptions or guesswork.

KPIs were set up for on time production, accuracy of material consumption, and reduction in their rework processes. So, the CEO gave us a clear indication that he wanted a system that works smoothly inside their high precision manufacturing environment.

Let’s check the scope of work

We provided them with our Odoo Consultant who had to map their end to end flow. Now, let me brief you on what the scope included –

• Production Planning
• Inventory & Material Tracking
• Quality Management
• Procurement
• Maintenance Logs
• Costing and Reporting

Their manufacturing plat was having multiple cleanroom zones along with custom routing zones with strict traceability needs. Foremost thing is that each of their wafer, module, and batch was in need to be traceable start to finish.

Solution we implemented

We deployed Odoo module which included – manufacturing, inventory, purchase, quality, and maintenance. Each of their routing steps we broke into micro operations so as to match cleanroom process. Apart from that, we add added custom screens for operators that would allow them to read logs without the need of a mouse or keyboard.

Also, we automated quality triggers so that whenever a batch will cross a step, the quality check alerts appeared instantly. Machine counters were introduced that allowed us to capture utilization data without any human input. One day, one of their supervisor joked during the testing and said that if this was already there two years ago i would have slept much better.

What execution challenges were there

The people within the cleanrooms were overthinking that this new system slow them down. Some of the people were fearing that device screens would interfere with the shift routines. To overcome the challenges we use our expertise where in we started running hands on sessions within the production line to build comfort for the employees.

Few of their machines were not updated to the latest firmware and they refused to sync. For this we built a middleware to bridge them. So, yes within few weeks adoption was on rise as the operators now saw how much less they has to write manually.

Results & Business Impact

Well, what the data was gathered as per that within the first quarter they were able to –

• Drop production delays by almost 22%
• Reduce material wastage by 13%
• Get real time visibility into WIP improving their decisions in the daily meetings
• Reporting of QC team was reduced from hours to minutes
• Check machine utilization data for the first time

Now, as they have a digital backbone, the client is looking to expand into two more lines without losing control.

Client’s Feedback

The COO said, “Your ERP consultants that we augmented didn’t just install a system. They understood our floor like someone who had worked here.” The operators are using the new screen which saves their time during each batch cycle and management is appreciating the clarity they have at hand that is used in their weekly reviews.

One of things we liked about this project was that our ERP consultants built a process friendly interface that actually fits the behaviour of cleanroom. The custom routing logic matched perfectly with semiconductor production, capturing the machine data reduced human error and improving traceability. All in all, the solution blended Odoo’s flexibility with the discipline required in fabs.

The client is now running a stable digital operation in real time with Odoo as the core. All of their departments are connected and we continue as their long term Partner for growth.

To know more how our ERP consultants can help you streamline your bottlenecks and operations, drop us a line at sales@apagen.com or call us on +91 9971800665.