HMT microelectronic AG relies on Abacus PPS

HMT's products are used to monitor and control light barriers in lift doors, access systems, electric motors in the automotive industry, valves in medical technology and production processes, where they convert analogue signals into digital ones. Since the production steps for these integrated semiconductors have lead times of several months and the materials are very expensive, increased planning reliability and, in view of immense material costs, a detailed overview of liquidity became increasingly urgent, reports Sandor Portner, COO at HMT. This called for a suitable ERP system. It was to be used for customer and supplier orders, to monitor both the quality and quantity of materials as well as the delivery reliability of suppliers, and to support capacity planning for internal services.

PPS expert sought and found

In order to be able to implement the complex requirements in the area of order processing and PPS, an experienced partner was engaged in bsb.info.partner, who can demonstrate the required expertise and experience in the implementation of demanding order and PPS processes. The detailed processes were defined in several workshops.

Since the financial modules and also the order processing software from Abacus had already been in use for many years to their satisfaction and Abacus also had its own PPS on offer that seemed to meet all the requirements, HMT's company management decided not to evaluate any further ERP solutions. In addition, it was decided to rebuild the Abacus system from scratch, to create new forms for sales and purchasing, to integrate the PPS into the existing processes in order to enable ordering for the extended workbench, to map variants in the product master, blanket orders as well as orders.

Important working tools

The heart of the solution is the order processing software together with the PPS module. The former manages and monitors all production steps from the actual order to the various production orders. Using the article numbers, HMT's employees are now always aware of how much is in stock and where. If a chip has to be modified due to new customer requests or production-related changes, a new version of the first one is created, and then another, and so on. If a chip type or a production process is changed, in principle only a new variant of the original article needs to be added, which makes all adjustments much easier.

Until now, it was difficult to keep track of the current production orders in the event of supplier delays, reports Portner, who also acts as an AVOR specialist. With the plan manager built into Abacus as a standard feature, he has an important working tool at his fingertips, with the help of which the production orders can be loaded onto the various machines, monitored and thus their work progress can also be checked. If delivery dates are postponed due to delays on the part of suppliers, Portner can more easily adjust the production orders and the scheduling of follow-up operations in the Plan Manager. Thanks to the Plan Manager, he keeps track of the numerous production orders that are being worked on in parallel. These are still entered manually by the production department and reported to the sales department. After the planned installation of the new PPS portal of version 2019, however, the system should then be able to independently report the quantities per unit directly during production.

Consistent batch management and liquidity overview

HMT CEO Andreas Reber appreciates the complete traceability of the batches. According to Reber, this is the only way to guarantee that the strict industry requirements for medical technology are met. The batch number is the common key both in the test system and in order processing.

The outline agreements function is tailored to the sales staff. They provide an overview of what which customer has already purchased from a call-off order. This guarantees the timely scheduling of production capacities. This is accompanied by weekly reports for liquidity planning. In addition, evaluations that bsb.info.partner created especially for HMT are now available to estimate accounts payable and accounts receivable, explains HMT CFO Alain Hirter. All in all, there is now a precise planning overview at the push of a button, whereby production can be precisely evaluated with feedback from the finished parts.

Conclusion: transparent and reliable

With the introduction of the Abacus ERP, the transparency of current production orders, delivery dates and stock quantities has been significantly improved, Portner sums up. In addition, the seamless integration of the ERP programs into the financial software makes it possible to create evaluations that allow precise financial planning, says Hirter.

CEO Andreas Reber is also satisfied with the solution and is pleased to note that the Abacus ERP that has now been implemented is ideally suited to the size of his company, and that it is both stable and reliable.