Evaluation of an electronic spare parts catalogue

Analyse, standardise, automate

Besi, a company that develops, produces and sells chip assembly machines for the global semiconductor and electronics industry, asked Intelliact to evaluate an automated solution for its electronic spare parts catalogue. At the same time, the company was looking for a solution for 3D assembly instructions. As both requirements are based on the same data, it made sense to evaluate both areas together.

Project challenges

Synchronising different systems and different processes

From Excel files to Word files to XML export with 3D: Besi had countless different manual work steps that needed to be standardised and automated with an optimal solution. To create a solid starting point for this, Intelliact first analysed the many different requirements in the company: Who are the users, what are the user stories, where does the data come from, where is it used and which components or information are required effectively.

The biggest challenge was the attempt to combine both the electronic spare parts catalogue and the assembly instructions in one solution. It turned out that this was technically possible, as both areas were based on the same data. However, it was not truly worthwhile as a tool solution. Accordingly, the focus was placed exclusively on the spare parts catalogue and it was decided to tackle the assembly instructions in a separate project at a later date.

IMPLEMENTED BY INTELLIACT

Evaluate different architectures, find the optimum solution variant

Based on the collected requirements, Intelliact defined the necessary main objects - e.g. master material, master BOM, CAD or 3D viewing - to generate a spare parts list in 3D. The next step was to set up specific use cases and to analyse and evaluate various possible architecture variants. One key question was, for example: Is there a best-in-class tool that can meet all requirements, or can each individual function be built using SAP components?

In a second step, Intelliact carried out the benchmarking. In other words, a shortlist of possible software and providers was drawn up, precisely documented and presented to the customer with all the pros and cons in concrete proposals. Intelliact then created a complete set of specifications for the selected providers for the chosen architecture, i.e. a system-neutral list of requirements with all the necessary functions, including daily planning of the benchmark. Intelliact also conducted the price and contract negotiations for Besi with the various solution providers and made reference visits to industrial companies that already had the solution in operation. In the end, the appropriate software was selected and implemented at Besi by the relevant provider.