IBM aids ADI

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. (ADI), a leading semiconductor manufacturer, have announced the completion of an engineering and design collaboration on a customised, highly-integrated supply chain solution.

As part of the project, IBM and ADI engineers worked together to customise a suite of supply chain planning tools and software to enable ADI to accurately model its supply chain and optimise production plans to match customer demand.

The project was led by IBM engineers within the Technology Collaborations Solutions group using IBM’s Operational Framework for Advanced Supply Chain Planning software solution as a platform. The engineering team also collaborated with supply chain experts from IBM's internal supply chain, who shared best practices on how the company maintains a low inventory while meeting customer expectation.

Anthony Yu, Vice President of Semiconductor Industry in IBM’s Engineering & Technology Services division, said, “In the labs, warehouse and data centre, IBM engineers worked side by side with ADI engineers to apply IBM’s industry knowledge and intellectual property to help ADI improve their overall business processes.”

ADI manufactures and ships more than 10,000 different end items to more than 60,000 customers all over the world. Using the new solution, ADI can more accurately match supply with demand at any given moment.

The semiconductor market is historically cyclical and components have long manufacturing cycle times, typically 10 to 16 weeks, encompassing wafer fabrication, wafer test (probe), assembly, final test and packaging. Throughout the manufacturing process, the number of flow combinations increases as chips from specific wafer designs are assembled into a variety of different packages and styles which are then tested for various combinations of speed, accuracy, resolution, or power consumption.

IBM said the resultant improvements in order and delivery processing from employing the supply chain solution will allow ADI to rapidly respond to market fluctuations and customer needs while accurately balancing supply and demand.