Semiconductor Manufacturing - Design wins and volume production

Customer question: We are in the IC business where we have production volume ramp ups over several years. Is there anyway to put multiple years volume into the system> For instance in the Automotive business you may win the business today but not have the IC designed for 2 years. Then it takes another 2 years to get Automotive qualified and begin to ramp up to full production volumes.

I might try a combination of techniques...to see what works best for you... Consider tracking design wins and production in different pipelines - with different templates(?) if needed...and when you win a design, cut-and-paste it from your design-win pipeline into your production pipeline.

This approach might be helpful by keeping things less cluttered. Reports from the production pipeline provides forecasts for the guys back in the factory and they don't get confused with design wins that won't impact the factory for a year or two.

Reports for the 'design wins' pipeline allow you and your team to focus on what you are doing today to increase long term business...it is more of a 'here is what we are working on right now pipeline...

Using the above approach, the "expected order date" for items in the design-win pipeline is the date you expect to win the design-in....and in the production pipeline "expected order date" really means what it says....

Our experiences with the semi-conductor industry tell us that once the order is placed by the cutomer the in-factory scheduling systems really take over...

I'm am quite sure there is a LOT more to it than what I have outlined, but it is a start....