The SEMI Smart Manufacturing Initiative today released the semiconductor industry’s first Benchmark Survey to assess the current implementation level of automation and control measures aimed at increasing productivity and efficiency in front-end semiconductor fabs. Also designed to gauge the readiness of respondents to implement further smart manufacturing measures, the survey was distributed to more than 5,000 contacts across 200 companies that manage device fabrication facilities. The deadline for completing and returning the survey is July 26.
The Benchmark Survey will help participating members assess where their facilities fall on the smart manufacturing implementation curve using methodologies defined in the Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) SEMI Standard as a guide. Fab implementation of the technologies will be categorized by speed, output and quality – all top-level metrics of factory efficiency.
The Benchmark Project
The survey was created by subject matter experts from the Americas Chapter of the SEMI Smart Manufacturing Technology Community. Member companies include Intel, Applied Materials, EMD Performance Materials, MAX International Engineering Group, Cimetrix, Jabil and SUNY Polytechnic Institute. The group collaborated with Advanced Focus, a provider of services to improve manufacturing performance. Focusing on front-end semiconductor processing, the benchmark will later be extended to include the assembly, test, surface-mount and printed circuit board assembling sectors of the electronics industry.
“This survey benchmarks the current level of adoption and implementation of smart manufacturing technologies in the fab and how it affects manufacturing efficiency,” said Zsolt Marcet, supply chain engineer at Intel and current co-chair of the Benchmark Survey team. “It will give valuable insights into the industry as a whole in understanding the role of smart manufacturing.”
“OEE provides an effective metric of how a fab is performing in the transition to smart manufacturing,” said Dinesh Saigal, senior manager at Applied Materials and also co-chair of the Benchmark Survey team.
“This study is unprecedented in demonstrating how smart manufacturing is a differentiator in factory performance,” said Ariel Meyuhas, COO of MAX International Engineering Group and a Benchmark Survey team member. “It will give participants an excellent view of what peers are doing to improve fab efficiency and competitiveness using smart manufacturing metrics.”
“The team SEMI assembled to develop this groundbreaking Benchmark Survey consists of major industry players with deep expertise in factory automation,” said Tom Salmon, vice president of Collaborative Technology Platforms at SEMI and leader of the Smart Manufacturing Initiative. “We look forward to leveraging the survey results to design best practices and guidelines across the electronics manufacturing supply chain and drive the adoption of AI, ML and predictive analytic solutions that fulfill the promise of smart manufacturing.”
