Staying ahead in manufacturing and technology-the development of an automation cost of ownership model and examples

Staying ahead in manufacturing and technology is a challenge for us to do more with less in all aspects of our business. This includes strategies to drive down costs by eliminating waste and enhancing productivity, while driving yields up and enhancing our pace to meet the rapid pace of market pressures. Some of the strategies include managing risk, closing capability gaps, and cost reduction, with this message as motivation, we have undertaken the effort to understand how automation is addressing several of these areas, with an eye toward the bottom line implications of these efforts reduced cost and risk at the High Volume Manufacturing (HVM) stage of a manufacturing process. The fundamental core to this work is a better understanding of cost, i.e., automation dollar cost contribution per wafer from development through HVM, and the benefits derived.