Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/594816
44 SMT Magazine • November 2015 lot of different things go into that calculation in terms of time frames. When does the cus- tomer want it? How long it is going to take for you to build it? When do you need all the ma- terial here? That's a great example, because the data is in the database, but you need a view that goes and translates all of this data, runs a simulation on it and tells you, "Look, for this customer or- der, you're going to need these 100 components, and you're okay for 90 of them, but I want to highlight to you that you're in trouble for ten of them, because for five of those, the good news is you do have orders on your suppliers to get those in, but they're not coming in on time, so go do something about that. The other five, I didn't see any plan when I did the simulation to say that you have any plan for those. You don't have them on hand, you don't have them on order, so you have to either get busy or have a plan of action where you don't need those five items." Once you have your ERP system, there's no magic button that's going to give you that anal- ysis, but in Portus it'll give you that analysis and it'll give it to you in a layered way. For example, it'll tell you, "These five items are the ones that are not on time." Well, you're going to want to know much more about each of them. The good news is each of those part numbers is blue and underlined, so you'll click on the first one and it'll give you all the dynamics. Here's the purchase order, this is why it's late, and histori- cally who we have bought it from. We integrate information from outside your four walls. Who has that component available? You may want to drill further and say, "Why don't I have enough of this? Where has the in- ventory gone? What have been the recent trans- actions?" All of that stuff is in there in the data- base, but you need the analytics and the layered approach for it to actually give you a story with actionable things to do. "Okay, then I know it's these five parts. That purchase order is the purchase order I've got to expedite. I'd better call this supplier and ask them to deliver it sooner." That's actionable, but in the regular database, there's nothing like that. In the database, all you know is this is how much you have on hand, and this is how much you have on order. Matties: You mentioned you're connected to the outside component. Are companies like digi-Key plugged in? Moradkhan: Yes, like component suppliers. Matties: Are you going into their database, or how is that connected? Moradkhan: We have both. With some of them, we've advanced to what's called technically a Web service, meaning that when one of our us- ers says, "I want to know market availability for this part," an immediate request is made at that point to the supplier, and the supplier responds and then we present that data there. Matties: that's really streamlining their purchas- ing process as well. Moradkhan: It's huge, especially if you've got- ten to that screen because you realize that, on a different screen, it said, "Hey, you're in trouble. You need this component." Now all of a sudden you say, "Oh and it's also telling me where in the world I can get it." That's when it really be- comes powerful, rather than going and calling people or doing Web searches to find out where it is and so on and so forth. Matties: it's done for you. Moradkhan: With a couple of other suppliers, we do that on a nightly feed. They provide us a nightly feed, and then we make that available. Matties: What's the revenue model there? Are you making revenue off of that exchange? Moradkhan: No. For us, we fundamentally see ourselves as a software company that caters to our customers. We're not an advertising com- pany. It just makes everything easier, because it's a win/win/win. For the supplier, it's free ad- vertising. For our customers, it's very relevant information that they need, and it's right there when they need it. For us, it adds to our value proposition, so it's symbiotic. If it's highly sym- biotic and no one has to worry about the mon- ey, it usually just ends up helping everybody. ImProvING ProDUCTIoN eFFICIeNCIeS WITH beTTer DATA STrATeGIeS FeaTure INTervIeW