Articles

Interview with a Tensoft FSM/Microsoft Dynamics GP Customer

Ted Tresch, Senior Operations Manager, Open-Silicon, Inc.

MURRAY: Open-Silicon has made the transition from internal systems based on QuickBooks and Excel to a more robust, scalable solution delivered by Tensoft. What difference does this make to you personally, on a day-to-day basis?
TRESCH: Well, here’s one example: I enter an order in Dynamics GP, which I can then actually see in Tensoft FSM. I start my material, run it through the entire supply chain and then FSM picks it to when I ship it, and then it pushes back into GP for invoicing. Now I’ve got basically the entire “tomb to womb” process of that order tracked through the system. I can see the history of it, when it’s shipped, everything.

MURRAY: What’s different about Tensoft FSM?
TRESCH: One of the things that Tensoft has done that’s a significant improvement is incorporating the procurement module into FSM. They combined the work order with the purchase order, so when I’m placing a purchase order with a supplier to perform work on a specific lot, all that gets done within FSM, which eliminates a lot of steps. In other traditional manufacturing systems, you have to plan the actual manufacturing of that lot as if a purchase order was released against that work order. Well, within FSM, the work order and the purchase order is one in the same. So when you move a lot to the next step, you do it through a purchase order. You eliminate all that, so you don’t have all those extra steps and it’s the simplification of the process, but at the same time it sets the purchase order, which is tracking costs.

In our model, everything is done with a purchase order. Nothing is done without one. So if your movement of material is by placing your purchase order with the next supplier in the supply chain, you move your materials through that manufacturing process, to the ultimate where the finished product is shipped to your customer.

At the same time, FSM has the ability to do matched scheduling, so you enter your purchase orders in GP, that shows up inside FSM, you run your planning module to identify what materials you’ll need to start and when. It also has the ability to create forecasts into your supply chain to reserve capacity. Once you have those orders in GP, then you start releasing purchase orders, starting your material, and then ultimately, when it’s done, you have a shipment portal out of FSM that drives your pack slips to move your material out the door that ultimately is driven into GP for invoicing. So now you have a match of a pack slip all the way through to an invoice. This is a complete “closed loop” supply chain, so that materials are never lost.

The nice part is that for every pack slip, you can go into FSM and you can push a button that gives you the genealogy of the material that went out the door on that pack slip. It shows you a one screen picture of “Oh, by the way, this wafer lot started three months ago. It yielded X at this manufacturing point and Y at this other manufacturing point. So literally, and in a single screen, you can see the entire history of that lot.

The real value of all this is that we know our true cost of manufacturing, so you can truly understand your profitability. What this does, is in effect “unhide” hidden costs in the manufacturing process, because in this process, yield is a key factor in determining your costs.

MURRAY: Can you quantify how FSM has helped?
TRESCH: Just recently, I would have had to pay 15% more in my overall costs if I didn’t have access to certain information up-front, before I started my production. On just this one project, this probably saved us between $500,000 and $1 million.

MURRAY: Are there other ways that FSM has helped you cut costs?
TRESCH: We’re now able to track inventory so well, we don’t have to put huge amounts of buffer stock aside. Let me explain. When a company is trying to do inventory tracking by hand, using Access and Excel for instance, you have a tendency to put in buffer stock to compensate for potential Excel errors or not being able to react quickly to unplanned yield fallout. With FSM, because we can accurately track our inventory to the nth degree, we can keep less inventory on hand, which again saves us money.

MURRAY: Open-Silicon is somewhat unique in that you’re not just managing your own supply chain — you’re also managing your customers’ supply chain. And, you have quite a few customers. How do you use FSM to manage that?
TRESCH: We have customers where we have agreements for full manufacturing visibility. They can actually go in and audit our total costs, yields, and so on.

The customer WIP data that’s ported out to the customers is a WIP that is within each of the suppliers. What we do is we take WIP tracking data from all the supply data and then we bring it inside, then we parse it by project. So every project now, one can see how much material resides at supplier A, supplier B, supplier C — on a single page, completely seeing their orders-in-process. They can follow the actual manufacturing process and movement of material from supplier to supplier.

We also take data out of the GP/FSM to show customers the last 30 days, by purchase order, what they’ve been shipped. We also give them another tab that shows them “Here’s what I think your orders are to-date, and here’s when I commit to deliver the material back to you.

MURRAY: How else does Tensoft FSM enable business process improvements for you?
TRESCH: What the FSM system does is identify where problem areas are, very quickly.

MURRAY: What’s your experience been like working with Tensoft’s implementation team?
TRESCH: With Tensoft, I can go to them and ask questions like “What’s the industry best-practice that you see in your customer base? How are they handling various situations?” And they sometimes come back to me and ask me the same type of questions. They provide a very rapid comprehension a problem, a suggested solution, and then dialogue to see if it’s right for our needs.

MURRAY: Ted, thanks very much for sharing your thoughts with me today!

For further information, please contact Caprice Murray, Tensoft Director of Business Development, at 888-450-4030 x406 or at caprice@tensoft.com