In recent months, the SEMI Smart Manufacturing Council conducted a survey of global chip makers to assess the status of the industry’s experience with and impressions of the EDA (Equipment Data Acquisition) standards suite to guide current and future initiatives that improve its capabilities, communicate implementation best practices, and foster broader adoption to realize the vision of SEMI’s Smart Manufacturing Community. The target audience was originally thought to be stakeholders in 300mm wafer fabs, but with the growing interest in enhanced data collection and automation for backend (packaging, assembly, and test) factories AND growth in the 200mm wafer fab segment (including new models of 200mm manufacturing equipment), it was broadened to include these domains as well.
Also included in the survey were questions about which KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are most important for effectively running a smart production factory, which manufacturing applications provide the greatest benefit in achieving these KPIs, and what automation challenges must still be faced to develop and maintain these applications. Figure 1 shows a simple conceptual view of these relationships.
Figure 1 – OEE (Overall Equipment Efficiency) KPI in Production Context
In practice, of course, the picture is far more complex, as there are many KPIs that vie for the attention of factory managers, and the mapping between manufacturing applications and KPIs is never 1:1. Moreover, the data collection requirements for a given application are seldom completely served by a single data source, so multiple automation technologies and related industry standards may be involved in a solution architecture. The spreadsheet in Figure 2 conveys a more complete picture of this situation.
Figure 2 – Smart Manufacturing KPIs and Associated Application Support
This presentation covers the highlights from the aggregated responses to the survey which in turn should provide valuable insights to equipment and factory automation specialists and production management teams about where to focus their smart manufacturing investments going forward. The presentation also suggests ways the SEMI Smart Manufacturing Council and the SEMI Standards community can tailor their initiatives going forward to address our common objectives.
