Case Study: Photonics & Optical Instrumentation

Laser-Focused Analytics for Photonics Manufacturing

How a global optics leader collapsed a two-day reporting cycle to 15 minutes, lifted first-pass yield by 4.5 points, and freed engineers to innovate
Photonics

Solution

Industry

Photonics & Optical Instrumentation

Tech Stack

1000+ reports delayed, siloed & mistrusted

HQ

7 fabrication plants | 20+ countries served

Solution

Microsoft Fabric + Power BI + Azure ML

Industry

Photonics & Optical Instrumentation

Tech Stack

1000+ reports delayed, siloed & mistrusted

Business Context

Building laser modules and precision lenses is unforgiving: a micron-level variance can scrap a $5000 assembly. The client’s ERP, MES, and SPC tools all held pieces of the story, yet executives waited two days for stitched-together spread—sheets—too slow to catch drift in dielectric coatings or diode alignment.

Challenges

  • Streamlined KPIs missed their SLA each month; engineers wasted 25 hrs/week on manual queries.
  • Model Mismatch ERP logged wafers as “lots,” MES as “batch-es,” SPC as “runs,” producing contradictory yields.
  • Yield Leakage Inability to spot early-shift anomalies cost an estimated $150 K per week in scrap and rework.
  • Eroding Trust Only 42 % of managers said they “fully trust” the numbers used in quarterly reviews.

SmartForge Deployment

Pillar Delivered Capability Photonics-Specific Value
Fabric Lakehouse OneLake ingests 250+ tables every 15 min from ERP; harmonised semantic model across enterprise Aligns wafer, optic, and module hierarchies for apples-to-apples yield and throughput KPIs
Role-Based Dashboards 200 plus Power BI reports (manufacturing operations, supply chain, inventory, sales) Engineers see in-process variance before it becomes scrap

Tangible Outcomes (First 6 Months)

Metric Impact
Report latency 97% faster ↑
First-pass yield 4.5 pts → $1.8M scrap saved p.a. ↑
Quote-to-Ship cycle 35% faster revenue capture ↑
Support tickets 65% IT overhead ↓
Analytics payback Rapid ROI

Footprint

7 fabrication plants | 20+ countries served

SmartForge Tech Stack

Microsoft Fabric + Power BI + Azure ML

Industry

Photonics & Optical Instrumentation

Pain

1000+ reports delayed, siloed & mistrusted

Outcomes

97 % faster reporting +4.5 pt first-pass yield $1.8 M annual scrap savings

What the client said

“We went from arguing about whose spread-sheet was ‘right’ to debating how fast we could reinvest the savings. SmartForge gives us laser-sharp insight exactly when we need it.”
VP Operations,
Global Photonics Manufacturer

Download the Case Study Long Form