Capacity bottleneck utilization system (CUBES)

Abstract

Summary form only given, as follows. One method to lower manufacturing costs in a manufacturing facility is to get more productivity and/or output from same set of tools. If a manufacturing facility is already operating at its manufacturing line capacity, one can not simply add more production lots. This would lead to problems such as high levels of work in process (WIP) and increased cycle times. Manufacturing line capacity is not capacity of every tool in production. It is calculated by taking one tool, the bottle-neck, that has lowest individual capacity and applying that to entire manufacturing line. Therefore by same notion, if capacity of this bottleneck tool can be increased, line capacity would increase along with it. CUBES was developed with this thought in mind. CUBES is a model that has been developed to quickly analyze bottlenecks by calculating tool throughputs and identifying where efficiency losses are occurring. One unique feature of CUBES is that it identifies these losses in a two dimensional grid. The X-axis represents losses and/or impacts due to each E10 equipment state. The Y-axis represents losses and/or impacts due to tool speed degradation, rework, setup and batching. This approach, along with what-if scenario features, enables manufacturing, production, equipment and process personnel to work together. >