The evolution of employee empowerment

The authors present the evolution of employee involvement programs into empowered self-directed work teams (SDWTs) to drive continuous improvement methodologies. With the primary goal of increased manufacturing performance and customer satisfaction, SDWTs are responsible for the day-to-day operations and directions of existing wafer fabs at Harris Semiconductor in Palm Bay, Florida. The authors specifically focuses on the transformation of an employee involvement program into SDWTs to improve key fab performance indices such as throughput yield (TPY), cycle time, performance-to-schedule, and reduction of costs. The process focuses on required skill sets, necessary training to achieve these skills, support group formation, and a performance incentive program. The results described include 10% improvement in TPY over seven quarters; 70% reduction in cycle time over seven quarters; 30% improvement in die yield over seven quarters; and 7.3% budget savings realized from gainshare program during the first two quarters of implementation