CEPT-a computer-aided manufacturing application for managing equipment reliability and availability in the semiconductor industry

A ten-man-year computer system development and deployment effort to improve equipment utilization at Intel Corp.´s manufacturing facilities is discussed. The features of the equipment management system and the joint effort by Sematech and Intel to develop an equipment performance analysis system that will lay the foundation for an industry-wide standard are described. The equipment management system was layered on top of the computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) system used in the company. A key by-product of the equipment performance management system introduction is a vastly improved user interface. Application migration in a rapidly changing distributed architecture and integration with expert systems and station controllers are also considered