The hidden productivity: How to get more out of your equipment

In this paper, we present the use of a system aimed at improving the productivity of equipment, piloted at an Intel production facility for 300mm 45nm high volume manufacturing. We show that true toolset utilizations may be significantly lower than what is recorded, owing to various process and tool-related delays that occur during the tool `busy' or `running' state. We then demonstrate through a pilot case study how these delays were reduced by 37% and variation in delay was reduced 17-40% as well. This improvement represents an equivalent of up to 3-4% improvement in true utilization, far more than any single project or even aggregation of projects on the roadmap for availability improvement.