Equipment Utilization Tracking and Improvement in Semiconductor Industry in Probe and Final Test Areas

Semiconductor manufacturing follows a cyclical business model in which demand varies considerably. The need to increase equipment utilization is paramount, especially to survive a down cycle. A small investment in maintenance can increase utilization considerably but the first step is to measure equipment utilization. Companies with multiple factories must enforce standards across all the factories to ensure fair comparison. Measuring equipment utilization should include enough detail so that losses can be clearly identified, specially the conditions and factors that cause them. These losses can be addressed with proactive and reactive maintenance to drive utilization up. Due to the multitude of factors that contribute to losses, actions implemented to correct them may not have the anticipated effects. A careful analysis of utilization trend is also necessary to quantify the effect of such actions. Companies normally have different equipment tracking applications across factories with overlapping functionality. Consequently, factory to factory equipment utilization comparisons are not possible. Systems upgrade and maintenance becomes difficult due to multiple software enablers, operating systems, and database versions. To address all these problems, a global application has been developed at Freescale Semiconductor Inc. to track and increase equipment utilization.