Our product innovation goals need to match our strategic goals – if we want to grow and best support our customer community, our product development needs to be a central component to our strategy. Strategic product innovation will focus on what ease of use or functionality blocks are needed to move us where we need […]
Semiconductor Industry Revenue and Variable Consideration
Semiconductor Industry Revenue The value chain in the Semiconductor Industry can have companies selling directly to end customers for their products, or through distribution and contract manufacturing channels to reach your end customer. When you are selling through an extended value chain the end price for the product sold may not be known at […]
Why You Need an ERP Partner, Not an ERP Vendor
When you make a decision to purchase an ERP system, you’ll almost certainly also be making a decision on an implementation solution provider as well. Some companies define the relationship with their solution provider as a customer/vendor relationship – a relatively adversarial relationship where the vendor must be closely managed and their “feet must be […]
An Introduction to Standard Costing in the Technology Industry
[The following is a partial transcription of the beginning of a recorded Tensoft SemiOps training webcast, which is available to anyone who’s interested – see video here.] “While semiconductor manufacturing is a process, it also has fixed outcomes, which makes it unique. So it’s not really process manufacturing like food, oil and gas, or paint […]
Tensoft SemiOps SI (Supplier integration): How It Got to Where It is Today
Tensoft has been helping semiconductor manufacturers integrate efficiently with their supply chain partners since 2001. During that time, we’ve built integrations to all of the Tier 1 semiconductor supply chain partners, most of the Tier 2 partners, as well as even some very small partners that we worked with as “one-off” integration efforts. As you […]
What Does Tensoft SemiOps Have That My Spreadsheet Doesn’t?
If you’ve been in the semiconductor industry for any length of time, you’ve probably seen some of the world’s most spectacular spreadsheets. You may have even created one of these masterpieces of supply chain planning and execution yourself. If so, our hats are off to you! The semiconductor supply chain is famously complex, so managing […]
What’s Missing in Traditional ERP Inventory Systems?
It’s not that traditional ERP Inventory systems don’t work for everyone – they just don’t work well for fabless semiconductor operations. Trying to make them fit is much like trying to force your left foot into your right shoe – you may be able to jam it in, but it won’t be comfortable or highly […]
Lot-Based vs Demand and Supply-Based Planning in Semiconductor Industry
Planning is, ideally, about supply and demand. Semiconductor supply is a flush of all inventories and WIP to all possible outcomes – to include multiple end products from a single wafer, to include other variables like binning or programmability, or whatever model you may have for finalizing finished parts. Demand is ideally forecast and actual […]
Standard vs Actual Cost: Choosing the Best Method in the Semiconductor Industry
Within the fabless semiconductor industry the standard cost approach is usually the norm, but some still argue for the use of actual cost. In reality, actual cost methods – such as specific identification, moving average, FIFO, and LIFO – are less able to deal with the complexities of the semiconductor industry. Actual cost is a […]
How to Get an Industry-specific Fabless Semiconductor ERP That Works for Both Finance and Operations
In today’s post-modern ERP world, many emerging companies reject the monolithic “all-in-one” solution of the past. Instead, they’re opting for a best-of-breed cloud approach, which is now well-supported by current integration technologies. So, this popular approach no longer requires a large IT department (and budget). Consequently, it’s easier than ever for mid-sized companies to get […]