Capacity utilization bottleneck efficiency system-CUBES

One method to lower manufacturing costs in a manufacturing facility is to get more productivity and/or output from the same set of tools. If a manufacturing facility is already operating at its manufacturing line capacity, this task is not trivial. One cannot just add more production lots into the manufacturing line. This would lead to problems such as high levels of work in process (WIP) and increased cycle times among others. Manufacturing line capacity is not the capacity of every tool involved in the production process. It is calculated by taking the one tool, “the bottleneck,” that has the lowest individual capacity and applying that to the entire manufacturing line. Therefore by the same notion, if the capacity of this bottleneck tool can be increased, the line capacity would increase along with it. The bottleneck tool controls the manufacturing line´s capacity. The Capacity Utilization Bottleneck Efficiency System (CUBES) model was developed with this thought in mind. CUBES is a model that has been developed to quickly analyze bottlenecks by calculating tool throughput and identifying where efficiency losses are occurring. One unique feature of CUBES is that it identifies these losses in a two dimensional grid. The S-axis represents losses and/or impacts due to each E10 equipment state and the Y-axis represents losses and/or impacts due to tool speed degradation, rework, setup and hatching. This approach along with what-if scenario features allows manufacturing, production, equipment and process personnel to work together and understand what they must do as a team to increase tool throughput and thereby increase manufacturing line production