One designer and manufacturer of highly-integrated analog and mixed-signal semiconductors achieved stock room proficiency following the implementation of an inventory management solution.
Maxim Integrated Products designs and manufactures highly-integrated analog and mixed-signal semiconductors. Maxim’s San Antonio production facility houses expensive equipment that produces and tests semiconductor wafers. It is home to more than 14,000 parts valued at over $8.25 million. These parts range from $0.20 to as much as $50,000.
As a large manufacturer, Maxim Integrated Product’s inventory is constantly moving. At any given moment, a part may be removed from a stock room to repair equipment. When repairable parts break they are checked back in to the stock room then checked out to the repair vendor. When Javier Saenz joined Maxim as an Inventory Control Specialist for the San Antonio facility, there were eight different departments with over 130 hands responsible for tracking the location and status of parts – using only Excel spreadsheets.
Maxim needed to ensure that inventory counts were accurately maintained and that no parts were lost. “Each department had numerous spreadsheets and their own process for tracking inventory,” noted Saenz. “This system proved to be time consuming and costly. It was nearly impossible to run accurate inventory reports, so we had a lot of redundant and overstocked inventory – tying up a lot of cash.”
Moving Forward
Charged with overhauling and updating Maxim’s inventory tracking system in San Antonio, Javier Saenz and his supervisor, Michael Suarez researched inventory management solutions. Ultimately, Maxim Integrated selected Wasp Inventory Control Enterprise Edition because of the solution’s ease of use, flexibility, and low cost.
Inventory Control was deployed slowly, starting with one small storage room. “We wanted to make sure that the product would work with our complex tracking needs,” Saenz noted. “Once we were comfortable with Inventory Control’s capabilities, we rolled it out to the rest of the storage rooms.”
“The employees were skeptical at first, because they were content using the spreadsheet system – not realizing how counterproductive it really was,” said Saenz. “Once our employees went through training, they saw just how easy it was to use Inventory Control. Everyone was amazed at how quick the inventory tracking process was and the reports that could be produced instantly.”
Success
Once Wasp’s Inventory Control was deployed in all eight stock rooms and all 14,000 parts were labeled with barcodes, Maxim saw instant results. “We discovered we were housing many parts that we didn’t need to keep in inventory. We were able to send those parts back to the vendors, share with other sites, or to one of our other U.S. manufacturing sites reducing the overall cost of our own inventory and freeing up a lot of cash and space,” Saenz noted.
In addition, Maxim Integrated Products reduced the down time of the manufacturing equipment. “With Inventory Control, if equipment breaks down, or goes down for preventive maintenance we can find the parts or consumables to bring the tool back up to production with the click of a button,” explained Saenz. “Ultimately, we’re bringing in more revenue since we’re able to keep our machines running 24/7.”
Maxim is also operating much more efficiently. “We’ve seen a 30% increase in stock room efficiency since implementing Inventory Control. We’re no longer digging through inaccurate spreadsheets to find one part. Inventory Control’s reports provide insightful information, quickly.”
After the success of the San Antonio facility’s deployment, Maxim’s four additional production facilities implemented Wasp’s Inventory Control to achieve the same level of proficiency.
“Wasp Inventory Control has proven to be extremely flexible and has helped us manage all of our parts efficiently,” said Saenz. “Now that all of our production facilities are using Inventory Control, we are able to share parts. We have several parts that cost upwards of $50,000,” Saenz explained. “If we’re able to house one of those expensive items and share it – we have already saved $100,000 on just one part.”
