This year at Tensoft FSM's annual user conference, we had the privilege of hearing from several really terrific guest presenters and panelists.  Semiconductor supply chain consultant Charlotte Diener kicked things off on the first day with her presentation on "Planning Rhythm."  Here's a brief description of what she covered: "Just as world-class manufacturing operates to the drum beat of critical equipment, the excellent supply chain operates to a regular rhythm of processes.  The use of a process rhythm is critical to the performance of supply chain planning, irrespective of software."  This presentation explored the critical processes necessary in semiconductor planning, their frequency and duration. A great session and a very warm response from MOMENTUM 2011 attendees! 

On Day 2, Ron Jones of the N-Able Group provided some fascinating - and very sobering - insight into "The Tragedy in Japan and the Semiconductor Supply Chain."  He covered how the immediate and subsequent events of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan are impacting products and markets around the world, and discussed both possible recovery scenarios and implications to supply chain management in the future.  Ron has been doing a great job covering this topic in his newsletter too, so be sure to sign up for that on www.n-ablegroup.com if you're interested.

Following that, Ron moderated a panel discussion on supplier integration.  The conference agenda described this session as follows: "Supply chain execution is about the fabless company managing the process.  It is also about partnering with your suppliers, exchanging data across your production flow, and communicating the right information to all parties on a timely basis.  Our supplier panel brings together leading industry suppliers (UMC, AMKOR) with fabless companies and an electronics supply chain experts to discuss relevant and current topics important to the semiconductor Industry.  Panelist presentations and a moderated Q&A session provide interesting and helpful insights for all participants."  The guest panelists were Amkor's Trisha Giacopazzi, UMC's K.T.Goh, Dean Strausl from V-Case (and the former Executive Director of the Electronics Supply Chain Association), and the VP of Operations at iWatt, Alex Sinar.  Apologies to our attendees that we didn't plan more time for this distinguished group - this session could easily have stretched to half a day or more!

One small world observation during the conference this year: unbeknownst to us, 2 of the guest presenters had worked together some years ago, and had a chance to catch up over lunch.  Great to see such a strong degree of collegiality among both guest presenters and conference attendees!