ISMI Continuous Improvement Program

“There’s always room for improvement” is an axiom in everyday life, but it’s a creed in semiconductor manufacturing. Spiraling capital and labor costs necessitate that chip-makers squeeze every bit of productivity from their installed equipment bases, a priority goal for many ISMI member companies.

Recognizing the crucial importance of member collaboration, ISMI’s Continuous Improvement Program seeks to coordinate and synergize members’ tool productivity efforts by promoting teamwork, sharing of common problems and best know methods, and implementation of focused, tactical solutions to shared challenges.

The program's goals are designed to provide ISMI members with immediate return on investment (ROI) by:

  • Driving down costs
  • Improving productivity
  • Reducing first-wafer delay (FWD) and set-up time
  • Lowering unscheduled downtimes to support predictable preventative maintenance
  • Reduction of non-product wafers (NPWs)
  • Seamless integration of supplier-induced engineering changes

Other priorities include further reducing FWD in current tools and influencing new-generation tools toward that direction.

Projects include:

  • Manufacturing Cost Waste Optimization - focuses on identified areas within the fab to reduce consumable cost waste and improve quals
  • Equipment Productivity Improvement Teams (EPITs) - works to improve the cost of ownership (COO) of members’ installed base of 200 mm and 300 mm tools
  • Productivity Workshops - shares best known methods (BKMs) among participating members to improve factory productivity in areas not covered by the Manufacturing Methods Council (MMC). Topics include managing fabs during an economic downturn; NPW/fab productivity issues; photo and CVD fab productivity; and high-mix/low-mix factory management
  • Alternate Parts and Services - provides members with access to successful alternative providers of parts and services

ISMI's Continuous Improvement Program also works with industry suppliers in several of its productivity projects. Suppliers gain many advantages by collaborating with ISMI, including access to evaluations, benchmarking and performance metrics, customer networking, and influence in ISMI’s equipment productivity efforts.

Contact:

Tony Speranza, ISMI Continuous Improvement Program Manager
tony.speranza@ismi.sematech.org