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Smart Manufacturing Evolution

Key elements for leaping ahead in factory automation
(Part 3 of 3)

by Scott D. Rothenberg, Managing Director, Deputy General Manager, Applied Materials, Automation Products Group

Part 2

This 3-part blog series was inspired by a live presentation delivered at SEMICON India on September 11, 2024

Live Presentation

“Evolution of Smart Manufacturing: Lessons for India’s Leap Ahead to Advanced Automation.”

Scott Rothenberg

Managing Director, Deputy General Manager
Applied Materials | Automation Products Group

What’s Inside

In part 2 of this blog series, “leapfrogging” and the semiconductor industry’s role as technology pioneer was discussed. This blog now looks at the main elements of a smart manufacturing solution and the roadmap India can follow to take the leap.

Key elements of smart manufacturing

The semiconductor industry led the world in creating automated factories that build the world’s most complex devices. These smart factories have systems that capture and process petabytes of data, making and executing decisions automatically, with virtually no human intervention. There are four key elements to smart factories:

Key Element 1: Material Transport

Material transport is a vital component of an automated factory, involving overhead transport, guided vehicles, robots, or conveyors. To ensure the quality of the final product, human handling is minimized due to the sensitivity of modern semiconductor devices. Advanced software controls the hardware, efficiently routing material to the correct location, considering numerous variables, and swiftly responding to real-time conditions on the factory floor and supply chain.

Key Element 2: Equipment Control Software

The software responsible for operating and controlling the equipment is another crucial element of a smart factory. It goes beyond automating basic start and end operations. Modern engineering software solutions excel at managing numerous process recipes, collecting and analyzing data from countless real-time sensors, and making dynamic adjustments to recipes to optimize product quality.

Key Element 3: Exception Handling Capability

Another defining feature of a smart factory is its capacity to accommodate and address exceptions while operating in full automation mode. For instance, if a machine shuts down while material is in transit for processing, intelligent software will swiftly identify an alternate path to minimize disruption and optimize the overall factory performance, adapting to the altered environment.

Key Element 4: Learning Factory Automation Solution

The final, and arguably most critical, element is a factory automation solution that possesses the ability to learn and continuously improve. Utilizing technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digital twins, these smart factories have access to vast amounts of data and computational power. This enables them to autonomously tackle novel challenges and solve problems that they have never encountered before, making the factory smarter over time.

Roadmap to leap ahead

In looking at the evolution of manufacturing and the introduction of new technologies, we saw how our own industry has had perhaps the most significant impact on developing and implementing advanced manufacturing technologies. We’ve also looked at a very high level, at the key elements required to enable smart manufacturing – whether we call it lights out manufacturing, Industry 4.0, factory of the future, or just “SmartFactory,” which we at Applied Materials use to describe our CIM offerings. The question persists: “What can India learn from 50 years of semiconductor factory automation progress, and how can it leverage these advancements to fulfill Prime Minister Modi’s vision of becoming a global semiconductor powerhouse?” Our belief is that India has a distinct opportunity to establish the world’s most advanced semiconductor factories by leapfrogging technology and adopting cutting-edge automation solutions and practices. Let’s delve into the blueprint, aptly named “Make in India – in the Smart-est Factory.” Here are the five key points to consider:
  1. Full Auto Manufacturing: It is no longer a luxury, but a requirement. Meeting today’s customer requirements for quality and supply chain dependability necessitates factories running with full automation.
  2. Integrated Automation Solution: Avoid the pitfalls of piecing together automation components from multiple suppliers. Opt for a proven, comprehensive solution to minimize costs and deployment efforts.
  3. Scalable Solutions: Choose software that can adapt and grow with your factory for the long term. Look for solutions that support future advanced computing technologies.
  4. Gradual Automation Journey: Start with out-of-the-box capabilities and gradually customize and enhance the system as your experience, needs, and factory evolve. Move at a pace that suits your requirements.
  5. Trusted Partner: Select an experienced partner who understands your automation needs and has a proven track record. Let them handle software deployment, technical support, and enhancements while you focus on other aspects of building and running your factory.
Remember, your partner should have the expertise and a comprehensive suite of software solutions dedicated to automation.

Conclusion

These are exciting times for the semiconductor industry as we embark together on India’s Semiconductor initiative. India has a tremendous advantage in being a new entrant to this market, as it can benefit from all the learnings and costly investments of its peers. But perhaps the area where it has the most advantage comes from the ability to leapfrog manufacturing productivity and quality achievements by adopting state of the art factory automation.

For more information, check out our SmartFactory Semiconductor Blogs and Semiconductor LinkedIn posts.

About the Author

Picture of Scott D. Rothenberg, Managing Director, Deputy General Manager, Applied Materials, Automation Products Group
Scott D. Rothenberg, Managing Director, Deputy General Manager, Applied Materials, Automation Products Group
Scott is a Managing Director at Applied Materials, currently serving as the Deputy General Manager of the Automation Products Group. He has strong experience in building deep customer relationships, partner development, M&A, and product strategy. His global team is responsible for engineering, deploying and supporting SmartFactory® software automation solutions with customers in more than 25 countries, within the semiconductor, display, solar, battery and electronics industries. Scott has more than 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry and started his career selling CMP pads and slurries to hard disk, semiconductor wafer and device manufacturers in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. He has been with Applied Materials for the past 27 years, working within a variety of business groups, including semi and solar services, subfab, and for the past 10 years, automation software. Scott’s undergraduate studies were in Economics and Chinese and he has an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley. Scott lives in Northern California.

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