SYSTEMA Blog

May 14, 2025 | Mario Schaarschmidt

Reimagining Production Planning & Scheduling

Discover how SYSTEMA's Advanced Planning & Scheduling solution revolutionizes manufacturing with flexible, real-world planning tools designed to fit your factory's unique needs.

March 26, 2025 | Thomas Leps

Future-Proofing Manufacturing: Why Infrastructure is Key to Adopting Emerging Technologies

Future-proof your manufacturing by ensuring scalable infrastructure and real-time responsiveness to accelerate adoption and maximize results of emerging technologies.

December 23, 2024 | Thomas Leps

Reflecting on 2024: A Year of Growth, Collaboration & Innovation

SYSTEMA reflects on 2024, highlighting key events, industry recognition, and transformative projects for a successful year ahead.

August 06, 2024 | Jim Connett

MES Modeling: Monolithic or Modular Flows?

Explore the choice between monolithic and modular process flows in MES modeling. Discover the benefits and challenges of each approach.

May 22, 2024 | Jim Connett

Steps – The Foundation of End-To-End Traceability in Manufacturing

Get insights into the importance of properly defining process steps in your MES. Hint: they are the foundation of end-to-end traceability in manufacturing.

May 15, 2024 | Dr. Holger Brandl

Scheduling Insights: Achieving Measurable Results with SYSTEMA APS

Discover how SYSTEMA’s Advanced Planning & Scheduling (APS) solution optimized production processes in a semiconductor fab, achieving impressive results.

March 21, 2024 | Jim Connett

RBA Simplified: Good & Bad Weather Days in Semiconductor Manufacturing

Customize your process rules according to specific requirements and streamline the processing of materials in your production line with SYSTEMA RBA.

February 27, 2024 | Jim Connett

The Power of Inaction: Strategic Decisions in Semiconductor Manufacturing

Learn how strategic inaction in manufacturing can lead to better decision-making, optimizing equipment use, and addressing complex variables.

February 12, 2024 | Jim Connett

Send-Ahead Processing: Your Canary in the Coal Mine

Discover how send-ahead processing can optimize manufacturing processes, prevent costly failures, increase efficiency, and reduce scrap counts.

December 20, 2023 | Helen Leps

Celebrating 30 Years of Innovation: A Look Back at 2023

Reflecting on a year marked by global challenges, we bid farewell to 2023, emphasizing positive moments and celebrating SYSTEMA's 30th anniversary, exploring key events, achievements, and insights in ...

December 13, 2023 | Jim Connett

Material Movement Schemes in Manufacturing: A Matter of Priority

Learn about material movement schemes in manufacturing like FIFO, FEFO, and LIFO. Discover how these schemes can impact automation and efficiency.

September 07, 2023 | Dr. Gerhard Luhn

AISSI: Addressing Semiconductor Manufacturing Challenges

AISSI aims to redefine AI-driven semiconductor production planning by elevating efficiency, quality, and enabling small and medium enterprise expansion.

September 05, 2023 | Steffen Clauß

The Challenges of End-to-End Production Planning: Integrating SAP PP/DS and REO

Optimizing production planning is crucial in manufacturing. Learn about the challenges of integrating SAP PP/DS and REO for seamless end-to-end planning.

June 07, 2023 | Viktor Bilousov

Clearing Equipment Integration Hurdles in Semiconductor Manufacturing

Explore the alternative to SECS/GEM for equipment integration in semiconductor manufacturing. Is Robotic Process Automation (RPA) the future?

May 10, 2023 | Dr. Holger Brandl

Optimizing Semiconductor Production with Scheduling, Dispatching, Digital Twin & AI

Learn how combining scheduling, dispatching, digital twin, and AI technologies can deliver significant benefits in semiconductor production.

December 20, 2022 | Helen Leps

2022: Leveraging Data Insights & Adapting to Resource Scarcity

2022 Recap: AI and advanced analytics are critical to the success of manufacturers worldwide, new fabs are taking shape, and SYSTEMA approaches 30 years...

October 20, 2022 | Jan Siebert

Decisions On-Demand to Power Semiconductor Manufacturing

Smart sampling with SYSTEMA RBA decreases production time, minimizes metrology steps, and leverages wafer-level data for other fab optimizations.

May 24, 2022 | Karim Sadek

Process Run-Time Predictions

Predictive capabilities for process run-times can be used for operator guidance, resource optimization, and engineering insights.

February 16, 2022 | Jim Connett

The Tribal Knowledge Pandemic

The importance of carefully documenting manufacturing processes can’t be understated. Here are some tips for creating a shared knowledge base.

December 23, 2021 | Manfred Austen, CEO

2021: A Virtual Rollercoaster of Pandemic Uncertainty and Silver Linings

2021 SYSTEMA experienced an increased demand for manufacturing automation solutions ranging from Industrial Internet of Things solutions up to highly complex Root Cause Analysis solutions.

December 13, 2021 | Jim Connett

Presenting Your Data to Tell A Story

Visualizing data from your MES and other systems provide powerful capabilities including detecting data trends, supporting capacity planning, and much more.

October 21, 2021 | Jim Connett

Manufacturing in the Cloud?

Decades of advances in security and interconnectivity may have you wondering: Is now a good time for manufacturers to move to the cloud?

October 05, 2021 | Jim Connett

Mythbusting the MES

Unpacking common misconceptions and assumptions that exist around the topics of deploying, integrating, and configuring a manufacturing execution system.

September 07, 2021 | Jim Connett

Closing the Inventory Management Feedback Loop

Learn how to leverage the data available via ERP, MES, and shopfloor systems to ensure you have material on hand to fulfill production orders.

August 24, 2021 | Jim Connett

The Modeled Process

A well-modeled MES outlines the plan, design, and golden path to manufacturing excellence if followed.

August 09, 2021 | Travis Stevens

A New Way to Optimize Semiconductor Yield: Make the Machines Hum Again

How to optimize yields in semiconductor fabs using a sophisticated approach to analyze lot and equipment data.

August 05, 2021 | Jim Connett

Human, Machine, or Software?

Artificial intelligence continues to press the boundaries of software capabilities. Is AI capable of advanced reasoning?

July 22, 2021 | Jim Connett

Post-Pandemic: Emerging Trends in Manufacturing

4 emerging trends for manufacturers to consider post-pandemic.

July 07, 2021 | Jim Connett

E10 Unmasked – Closing the Loop

Q & A regarding some nuances with the application of the SEMI E10 standard.

June 21, 2021 | Jim Connett

What Does the Chip Shortage Mean for the Semiconductor Industry?

Manufacturing automation will play a critical role in semiconductor manufacturers’ ability to meet increasing demand for integrated circuits.

June 07, 2021 | Jim Connett

Is It Time For an MES Migration?

Points to ponder regarding MES migration when it becomes clear that your legacy MES no longer meets today’s manufacturing requirements.

May 27, 2021 | Xu Wei

SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud – The Foundation of a Smart Factory

Get an introduction to use cases, features, and benefits of SAP’s Digital Manufacturing Cloud.

March 22, 2021 | Travis Stevens

Build or Buy Your Next MES?

Compelling reasons to consider a standard “off-the-shelf” solution as opposed to building or continuing to invest in a homegrown MES.

February 17, 2021 | Helen Leps

Introducing SYSTEMA Brazil

In this interview with SYSTEMA Brazil’s Managing Director, Jorge Mottecy, we introduce our new team in Brazil.

February 08, 2021 | Ricco Walter

Digital Transformation for 200mm Fabs

As 200mm demand continues to outpace supply across the industry, Industry 4.0 technology has the power to breathe new life into 200mm fabs.

January 18, 2021 | Helen Leps

2020: A year of challenges and digitization

With Covid19 digitalization is more needed than ever. The manufacturing industry took the chance to tackle automation and digitalization with high force.

January 12, 2021 | Dr. Holger Brandl

Predictive Analytics: Enabling robust planning & factory optimization

Insights on predictive analytics to enable factory forecasting to optimize planning and production capabilities.

October 13, 2020 | Dr. Holger Brandl

Spot and resolve shopfloor incidents faster with event stream processing

Using stream analytics to aggregate, combine, compare and model events in real-time, it dramatically reduces the delay between shopfloor incident and action.

October 06, 2020 | Ulf Martin

SAP PM & SAP ME: Effective coordination of maintenance and production activities

Learn how to leverage SAP Manufacturing solutions to coordinate maintenance and production activities in order to maximize OEE.

September 16, 2020 | Axel Wogawa

Industry 4.0: Pros & Cons of Cloud Computing in Smart Manufacturing

Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing in Smart Manufacturing: What advantages does it offer over conventional on-premises computing plus what are the drawbacks?

August 18, 2020 | Jim Connett

The Details Are in the Data

Insights on manufacturing data collection: How should data be collected? When should data be collected? Where should the data be stored?

August 04, 2020 | Jim Anderson

Structuring Successful Manufacturing Initiatives

How to build a strong foundation for successfully achieving manufacturing business initiatives.

July 22, 2020 | Manfred Austen, CEO

INTERFACE Joins SYSTEMA!

Brazil-based INTERFACE team joins SYSTEMA to support customers throughout the Americas region to develop innovative SAP Manufacturing solutions.

July 08, 2020 | Jim Connett

Step Away from the Spreadsheet!

Though widely used, spreadsheets may not be the best tool for collecting, storing, and evaluating information in your manufacturing environment.

June 22, 2020 | Axel Wogawa

Industry 4.0: Cloud-Based Equipment Health Monitoring

Some insights on approaching the development of cloud-based IIoT solutions.

June 10, 2020 | Jim Connett

Business Cycles in Manufacturing: A Commentary

Take advantage of economic cycles in manufacturing, including the downturns, to improve the responsiveness and resiliency of your company.

March 25, 2020 | Manfred Austen, CEO

Business Continuity & COVID-19

Despite the worldwide spread of COVID-19 SYSTEMA continues to support their clients and partners in these critical times.

February 10, 2020 | Ricco Walter

Another big success: The 17th Innovation Forum for Automation

About 330 international participants met on January 23th and 24th in Dresden. Industry and R&D experts shared their experience in factory automation related to the smart factory.

January 23, 2020 | Jim Connett

Managing Through Priorities

Here are some strategies for managing evolving production priorities that will help maximize productivity and production.

December 19, 2019 | Helen Leps

2019: A review

We reflect upon our many exciting and successful automation projects in 2019, we are grateful for those opportunities to grow our knowledge and strengthen the network among our customers and partners.

December 05, 2019 | Dr. Mike Gißrau

Insights on Manufacturing Performance Measurement – Part 2

When optimizing production performance, the more KPIs measured and optimized the better, right? Not so fast! Here are 4 rules for defining SMART metrics.

November 27, 2019 | Jim Connett

Process Capabilities that Save. You. Money.

Implement process capability modules to optimize the run of clean and dirty recipes on tools to avoid unnecessary preventive maintenance activities.

October 24, 2019 | Jim Connett

What’s Old Is New Again with WorkStream Extensions

The top WorkStream enhancements to consider that will extend both the capabilities and the life of your legacy MES.

September 24, 2019 | Jim Connett

The Seven Deadly Sins of WorkStream

A WorkStream administrator repents and tells all. Read how to avoid the Seven Deadly Sins that WorkStream administrators and developers commit.

September 02, 2019 | Jim Connett

Proper Care and Feeding of WorkStream Databases

Expert tips for optimizing WorkStream performance and maintaining your WorkStream database.

August 13, 2019 | Ricco Walter

SYSTEMA expands its footprint in Asia

Opportunity and growth in Singapore’s high-tech manufacturing sector prompts SYSTEMA to open new office in support of local industry.

July 31, 2019 | Yuval Goldenberg

“Customer Experience is Everything” – SYSTEMA and Barkan Winery Present at ISUG 2019

Winery automates material and inspection data using SAP’s MII, PCo and Fiori and builds 4K dashboard to display integrated data from 300+ wine casks.

July 18, 2019 | Jim Connett

Compliance Monitoring in Dispatching

Your factory uses an automated dispatcher. But how do you know it’s actually selecting the best material to run next? Learn about Compliance Monitoring.

July 02, 2019 | Krishnan Ramaswamy

The Fully Integrated Supply Chain – A Fast-Approaching Reality

Impressions from Hannover Messe 2019. An engineer’s review of SAP’s fully integrated, manufacturing supply chain demo and new Open Industry 4.0 alliance.

June 19, 2019 | Manjunath Nagaraju

Application Lifecycle Management for the Digital Age

A roadmap for improving factory application maintenance and support in a way that also accelerates delivery of your manufacturing digitization objectives.

June 06, 2019 | Jim Connett

Logging Strategies in WorkStream™ and COBOL

Tips for investigating, diagnosing, and resolving problems in cumbersome COBOL generated log files in support of WorkStream™.

May 29, 2019 | Dr. Lutz Muche

Research News: Production Forecasting Solutions

Promising research offers solutions for the automatic detection of bottlenecks, forecasting and prediction of dynamic WIP waves, determination of optimal scheduling of equipment-maintenance cycles and...

May 16, 2019 | Erin Peacock

Smart Efficient Batch Processing

Automated dispatching systems allow equipment operators to focus on critical tasks and maximize operator efficiency at batch tools.

May 02, 2019 | Jim Anderson

Dispatching to Reduced Capacity Equipment

Dispatching for maximum production capacity when equipment capabilities are reduced.

April 18, 2019 | Jim Connett

Dispatching: Line Balancing Using Inventory Ratios

A different way of approaching production line balancing by using inventory and critical ratios in your dispatching system.

April 04, 2019 | Dr. Mike Gißrau

Insights on Manufacturing Performance Measurement – Part 1

Alignment of departments' and individuals' performance metrics is fundamental to the success of a manufacturing organization's global strategy. This article outlines actionable strategies for ensuring...

March 21, 2019 | Jim Anderson

Dispatching With Defined Waypoints

A discussion of a unique method of line management used to ensure that certain lots will arrive at defined “waypoints” on time.

March 15, 2019 | Helen Leps

SYSTEMA’s Website is Moving!

SYSTEMA has secured the systema.com domain. This blog provides important information regarding the new website.

March 06, 2019 | Vern Puchalski

Process Capabilities: Static Cases

When you know what is possible with a Process Capability system in your manufacturing environment, you'll want to know how to get started with implementation. This article walks you through the select...

February 19, 2019 | Vern Puchalski

Automation Staff’s Guide to the FAB Manager’s Universe

Key steps to aligning factory staff for improved factory performance

February 05, 2019 | Jim Connett

E10 Unmasked – Part 4, Q & A

SEMI E10 equipment state data questions are answered in the finale of the 4-part series "E10 Unmasked".

January 22, 2019 | Vern Puchalski

Understanding Dispatching Timers

Clarify operator understanding of (and correctly implement) dispatching timers with a little help from Vern Puchalski.

January 08, 2019 | Jim Connett

E10 Unmasked – Part 3, Evacuations, Mindless Robots, and Missing Operators

The third in a 4-part series explaining SEMI E10 equipment states and how they can be leveraged to improve productivity and reduce costs related to capital expenses, raw material, and human labor hour...

December 27, 2018 | Jim Connett

E10 Unmasked – Part 2, The Big Three

The second in a 4-part series explaining SEMI E10 equipment states and how they can be leveraged to improve productivity and reduce costs related to capital expenses, raw material, and human labor hou...

December 13, 2018 | Helen Leps

2018: A Year of Growth & Change

2018 year in review.

December 11, 2018 | Jim Connett

E10 Unmasked – Part 1

The first in a 4-part series explaining SEMI E10 equipment states and how they can be leveraged to improve productivity and reduce costs related to capital expenses, raw material, and human labor hour...

November 20, 2018 | Dr. Gerhard Luhn

On imagination and thinking – the role of expertise in microelectronics, and the link to artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has limits related to true learning, particularly in the microelectronics manufacturing industry where imagination, thinking, and real world expertise are required to discover ...

November 14, 2018 | Vern Puchalski

Dispatching – What is it?

4 key characteristics of an effective dispatching system to achieve overall equipment efficiency. Automation and dispatching solutions for microelectronics manufacturers.