Managing, measuring and improving equipment capacity and overall equipment efficiency (OEE) using iPLUS

STMicroelectronics has implemented the iPLUS system-Improved Productivity through Learning, Understanding and Solving-to introduce, measure, and finally improve overall equipment efficiency (OEE). The iPLUS system merges equipment information from the automation system with operator and lot information from the CAM system to calculate very precisely the availability efficiency, the rate efficiency and the equipment capacity. The measurements are done in real time and the feedback is directly given to the operators and engineers. This paper introduces the iPLUS system, discusses calculation of overall equipment efficiency, shows how we have implemented iPLUS in our fabs, details how each fab group uses iPLUS to manage productivity and discusses opportunities for improvement found using iPLUS.