Improving shipment location and estimated arrival time visualization while tracking about 90 percent of airfreight shipments in real time

Overcoming semiconductor supply chain challenges

Siltronic AG is a leading manufacturer of silicon wafers with production sites in Germany, the United States (U.S.) and Singapore. Since wafers are the basis for semiconductors, which are in most electronic devices, Siltronic’s impacts products from computers and smartphones to solar and wind farms to electric cars. With around 4,400 employees, Siltronic produces and distributes innovative silicon wafers and is a key partner to the international semiconductor industry. Founded in 1953, Siltronic developed its first silicon wafer in 1962, currently supplies the top wafer consumers worldwide and is among the five biggest global wafer producers.

Manufacturing and shipping hyper pure wafers made from silicon crystals is a complex process. Each wafer Siltronic produces is designed to meet strict specifications. They produce the thin, round discs in a variety of diameters, material attributes and surface finishes, depending on requirements. To meet those specifications, the company uses polishing and epitaxy. Siltronic must meticulously manage this highly complex production process to integrate as seamlessly as possible into the supply chain of downstream customers. Thus, having a streamlined and transparent logistics system is necessary for tracking orders and ensuring customers are provided with up-to-date information.

To help accomplish this, Siltronic leveraged Siemens Digital Industries Software’s AX4™ software, which is part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services.

Streamlining complex logistics

Shipping these wafers can be challenging, especially when considering how delicate they are and the varying shipment volumes. For this, Siltronic places the discs in wafer carriers with a capacity of 24 or 25 pieces each. For wafers with a diameter of 300 millimeters (mm), twelve wafer carriers fit into each custom Siltronic Hybox, yielding a capacity of up to 300 corresponding wafers. Siltronics’ shipments span a wide range of sizes, from a single package to several ones.

Additionally, Siltronic coordinates with a variety of logistics service providers and exports most of its wafers by airfreight to its semiconductor customers worldwide. Overcoming this challenge requires communicating across various time zones without requiring in-depth logistics knowledge from supply chain partners.

Siltronic has been working for years to improve how they share shipment and transportation information. An earlier solution was cumbersome to use and could not keep up with their growth, especially since customers now insist on tracking their shipments almost in real time, similar to online shopping. The company also wanted more flexibility for using data standards when exchanging its shipment information.

Rolling out quickly despite the pandemic

Leveraging AX4 from Siemens checked all these boxes. Discussions between Siltronic and Siemens information technology (IT) experts began in winter of 2019/2020. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the project initially came to a standstill before launching the procurement process and getting approval in fall of 2020. Despite some pandemic- related delays, the rollout took place about six months later in spring of 2021.

During the pilot phase, the rollout was limited to the sites in Germany and its partnering logistics service providers. Following a review, they were able to integrate Portland and Singapore, completing the international rollout by the beginning of 2022. The original plan was a three-phase rollout starting with Germany, followed by Singapore and ending in the U.S. However, after the highly successful pilot phase, it was decided to shorten the rollout to two phases and integrate the shipping sites of Singapore and Portland simultaneously.

Improving visibility with an easy-to-use, tailored solution

As mentioned, supply chain visibility is an important aspect to the semiconductor industry and Siltronic’s customers. Once a shipment leaves the facility, customers require regular updates on its current transportation status and an estimated time of arrival.

Previously, customers had to contact Siltronic’s shipping department and then wait while the team tracked the shipment’s current location. However, with AX4, the control tower solution from Siemens Digital Logistics, and its newly implemented tracking and tracing module from BlueBox Systems, they can get all this info with a single click.

“Previously, we needed a few minutes to track an airfreight shipment,” says Martin Obermaier, shipping process and system expert at Siltronic. “With AX4 and its integrated real-time feature, BlueBox Systems for airfreight shipment tracking, a single click in our Siltronic Logistics Control Tower platform is all it takes.”

Additionally, with AX4, Siltronic can achieve cross-enterprise integration of all supply chain partners. The cloud-based solution is tailored to the unique needs and specializations of each partner, providing Siltronic with a standalone solution customized to their precise requirements.

“Our Siltronic Logistics Control Tower has grown to be a valid part of our daily out-bound shipping business,“ says Obermaier. “The customization possibilities of AX4 offer a high level of flexibility, which helps us extend our solution to further use cases based on Siltronic‘s process requirements.“

Tracking and tracing now possible

For this venture, Siemens Digital Logistics partnered with BlueBox Systems, a leading provider of smart, real-time solutions for the air cargo industry, to connect about 40 airlines to the solution. Users have access to the latest information directly provided by the corresponding airfreight carrier, such as modified estimated time of arrivals (ETAs) or delays. Using an application programming interface (API) also ensures data is protected end-to-end. To protect sensitive freight data and maintain the integrity of the supply chain, only authorized parties can access and use the shared information.

Enhancing visibility and efficiency

With the new airfreight tracking module, Siltronic can currently track its outbound airfreight shipments.

“Since implementing AX4 and the BlueBox airfreight tracking module, we are able to track about 90 percent of our outbound airfreight shipments in almost real-time,” says Obermaier.

Access to this tracking information is conveniently possible via an automated subscription request from AX4 to BlueBox in the API, which leads to a clickable hyperlink icon in the AX4 shipment overview.

This allows users to open a browser window showing the current progress of an airfreight shipment with graphical progress indicators and an overview of the airfreight carrier status updates with a single click on the hyperlink icon. This meant no more searching for which carrier’s tracking site needs to be opened in the web and no more manually entering freight bill references on tracking websites.

Integrating the BlueBox airfreight tracking module in AX4 not only led to significantly enhanced visibility, but it also streamlined how workflows can be organized for airfreight shipments as transportation data can be accessed more easily. Now, more internal Siltronic departments besides the shipping teams can gather transportation progress information for outgoing airfreight shipments with a convenient, centralized information point.

Using AX4, Siltronic can develop a hub for shipment and transportation information. Siltronic shipping orders, freight bill and transportation status update information are mostly exchanged by electronic data interchange (EDI) between Siltronic and its connected partner forwarders, with AX4 working as the central data provider. Besides Siltronic shipment documents such as invoices, the platform also allows forwarders to upload freight bills and proof of delivery (POD) documents for the corresponding shipments.

The platform also provides monitoring functionalities for various shipment milestones based on a customized milestone model in AX4.

“Previously, the shipping teams had to manually check if a shipment’s milestone information was missing for a defined deadline and request the missing update by email or phone from the corresponding logistics partner,” says Obermaier. “Since implementing AX4 into our daily shipping business, the platform takes care of this monitoring. If it detects any missing shipment milestone updates to the defined deadlines, it automatically sends a reminder to the affected partner forwarder by email.”

The monitoring functionality also includes customized data plausibility checks. The platform can detect transportation data inconsistencies and an automated email distribution raises them to the providing party.

Planning to extend to inbound

Now that Siltronic has successfully improved the degree of digitalization in its outbound transportation management, it intends to integrate procurement logistics shipments into the solution. As a potential future enhancement, Siltronic aims to also implement ocean freight tracking in its AX4 environment with the support of BlueBox System’s sea freight solution. Meetings with Siemens Digital Logistics have already begun. Siltronic is living up to its role as an innovator in the semiconductor industry and paving the way for future dynamic growth in this critical segment.