PDF Solutions (NASDAQ: PDFS) today announced it is collaborating with SAP SE to connect factory data, including data collected and managed by its Exensio analytics platform, to the enterprise resource planning (ERP) data in SAP S/4HANA to enable greater efficiencies in semiconductor manufacturing. This connection of the “top floor” to the “shop floor” will be accomplished through PDF Solutions’ new Sapience Manufacturing Hub. The intended outcome of this collaboration is greater financial insights based on the analysis of manufacturing data, resulting in more accurate profitability analysis, increased revenue, and reduced costs
“Our customers are seeking more ways to leverage their process and product data as part of their Industry 4.0 initiatives,” said Kimon Michaels, Executive Vice President, Products and Solutions at PDF Solutions. “Collaborating with SAP was a logical next step for us because of the complementary synergies across our organizations. The Sapience Manufacturing Hub is designed to provide businesses that use SAP solutions with direct access to new sources of data that can be correlated with existing ERP data, providing unique insights to help our mutual customers achieve sustained profitability in semiconductor manufacturing.”
As more companies adopt Industry 4.0 strategies, one of the challenges that organizations face is the ability to easily connect financial and operational data in a meaningful way that can deliver visibility into the relationships between the supply chain and the shop floor with ERP. It can be difficult for organizations to easily visualize the cause-and-effect relationships across these data sources, resulting in limited financial insight into areas such as manufacturing waste, capacity, or utilization, and the impact they have on corporate profitability.
“Collaborating with PDF Solutions will enable us to accelerate the Industry 4.0 transformations that are happening today across the semiconductor and electronics ecosystem,” said Jeff Howell, Global Vice President and Head of High-Tech Industry Business Unit at SAP. “For companies that still control their own semiconductor manufacturing, the Sapience Manufacturing Hub will enable business visibility that delivers additional ROI from the data they already collect and store but are not using to its fullest potential.”
SAP is expanding its vertical solutions with an ecosystem of industry cloud solutions. The solutions leverage SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), with advanced technologies, and are interoperable with SAP’s intelligent suite. PDF Solutions is an SAP partner and is working with SAP to create offerings that meet specific manufacturing requirements to provide customers with tools to help achieve positive business outcomes. PDF Solutions Exensio Process Control and Exensio Manufacturing Analytics products are part of SAP’s portfolio of industry cloud solutions. Both of these solutions are key modules of the Exensio analytics platform and provide data from the shop floor to the Sapience Manufacturing Hub. They are now available on SAP Store.