Case study: Hemlock Semiconductor streamlines planning and scheduling via a consolidated maintenance platform

Being a manufacturing leader comes with great responsibility. Take Hemlock Semiconductor (HSC), for example. Few manufacturers in the world make polysilicon to the purity level needed for leading-edge microchips, and HSC is one of them. Founded in 1961 in Hemlock, Michigan, and owned by Corning Incorporated and Shin-Etsu Handotai, the company is a leading global provider of hyper-pure polysilicon for the semiconductor and solar industries, and the only polysilicon manufacturer headquartered in the United States. 

Consistently meeting immense global demand requires maximum asset uptime and availability along with utmost maintenance efficiency and cost effectiveness. After struggling with complicated software systems and high costs, HSC worked with Prometheus Group to consolidate on a comprehensive maintenance platform, which dramatically improved usability, visibility, and planning and scheduling efficiency. The company improved productivity by 30% and achieved its goal of 80% capacity planning, among other valuable gains.

A culture of continuous improvement led to Prometheus Group’s recent launch of graphical work order scheduling software powered by artificial intelligence (AI), offering another opportunity for companies like HSC to further elevate planning and scheduling performance. 

Existing plant maintenance systems had room for improvement

A complex SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and outdated HR reporting capabilities constrained HSC’s ability to effectively and efficiently coordinate plant maintenance at the Michigan site. As a result, corrective maintenance scheduling and rescheduling dominated the work planners’ time, leaving little to no time for scheduling preventive maintenance to avoid asset failures.

For example, planners and schedulers relied on a manual worksheet, which was often inaccurate, to gauge personnel availability. Data transferred in and out of the SAP system was vulnerable to data integrity risks and corruption. Siloed HR and maintenance data complicated planning and scheduling, and any unplanned outage or failure could have repercussions for production, purchasing, HR, and beyond. 

HSC executives needed greater insight into the company’s overall operations, while the maintenance team sought to improve process efficiency, equipment reliability, and plant safety, and to reduce operational costs.

Focus turns to enhancing the ERP’s value with an integrated EAM solution

To help improve the SAP system’s user friendliness, increase maintenance planning and scheduling efficiency, and enhance data integrity, HSC chose Planning & Scheduling for SAP from Prometheus Group. 

Prometheus Group provides enterprise asset management (EAM) software solutions that seamlessly integrate with and improve upon ERP systems from leading providers such as SAP, Oracle, and IBM Maximo. The SAP Solution Extension (SolEx) Partner’s SAP-integrated solution would streamline the user interface and enable consolidation of HSC’s plant maintenance systems and processes, while maintaining a single source of truth within SAP. 

With Prometheus Planning & Scheduling, HSC would integrate its HR and Plant Maintenance (PM) modules for all maintenance planning and scheduling onto one platform, including integrating the HR module across all work centers.

The new solution would centralize access to key plant maintenance data and trend information at the corporate level. It would allow planners and schedulers to focus on the science of planning and scheduling as they supported initiatives such as fully utilizing capacity, improving data integrity, eliminating sources of user error, and ensuring a safe plant environment.

Comprehensive and intuitive maintenance platform exceeds expectations

Only one day was required for solution implementation, with an additional three days required to successfully train all users. Consolidating maintenance processes onto the single, integrated platform enabled HSC to:

• Increase productivity by 30% with automated and streamlined PM processes
• Allow for 20 hours of scheduled preventive maintenance weekly
• Achieve 80% maintenance capacity across all work centers
• Allocate the remaining 20% capacity to break-in maintenance without disrupting schedules
• Decrease non-value-added activities by 30% with proper planning and scheduling
• Save thousands of dollars by increasing plant maintenance efficiency
Reduce IT management costs by eliminating external programs

The qualitative gains were similarly impressive:

• Simplifying the complex SAP system while maintaining all data within SAP increased trust in the information.
• Removing the need to export and import data between spreadsheets significantly strengthened data integrity.
• SAP users outside of the PM module can now track work orders and executives can analyze and forecast costs, all within SAP, eliminating the silo effect.
• Planners and schedulers can now access personnel availability directly from the HR module instead of spreadsheets.
• Schedulers can work in tandem without requiring detailed notes because of streamlined processes and increased planner communication.
• Planners and schedulers can plan work weeks in advance, enhancing employee morale.

Further advancements in planning and scheduling are at hand

Hyper-pure polysilicon made at HSC’s Michigan chemical processing facility can be found in billions of electronic devices around the world, and demand for it continues to surge. Ever-improving planning and scheduling strategies are crucial to remain ahead of the curve.

An AI-powered graphical work order scheduling solution for planning and scheduling, now available from Prometheus Group, is a new option to consider. GWOS-AI further simplifies planning and scheduling processes while also educating its users on maintenance best practices, helping to mitigate the experience gap common with newer maintenance planners and schedulers.

“Our work with Hemlock Semiconductor shows the power of getting the fundamentals right,” explains Bailey Olmschenk, solution engineer manager for North America at Prometheus Group. “Prometheus’ planning and scheduling solution for SAP transformed siloed maintenance processes into a trusted ERP foundation. Building on that foundation, today we offer GWOS-AI, delivering real-time, AI-driven guidance that helps teams orchestrate work as it happens, and shift from reactive execution to data-driven planning and predictive maintenance."