Tool capacity improvement through specialization of operator activities

This paper is a case study illustrating the success of re-deploying a subset of operators to perform specialized tasks to recoup tool capacity. In a large fabricator, where the same tool type is distributed across the floor, and where WIP must be transported by hand to the next tool set(s), operator availability at tools is often compromised. Previous observation studies at a large fabricator measured significant (magnitudes in this paper are normalized to protect the confidentiality of the client) capacity loss on Wet tools due to "Wait for Operator". The plan for the project was to achieve higher and more consistent operator coverage at Wet tools by re-deploying a subset of the department's headcount to perform the WIP transportation. The goal of the project was to show an increase (in actuality a reclamation) of overall tool capacity, through better operator coverage of the tools. Better operator coverage (with the same number of operators) would be achieved by shifting a subset of operator workload to a dedicated subset of operators. Throughout a 6-week period of essentially constant throughput, the increase in capacity was measured by a combination of throughput and cycle time improvements.