Rapid Manufacturing @ Intel

At Intel, product development and manufacturing share equal roles in advancing new products to market and, like the technology they’re producing, the factories must move at full-speed in order to stay ahead of the competition. “You need fast factories” in order to respond to the pace of change in the electronics world, admits Bob Baker, senior vice president of Technology and Manufacturing at Intel. Once a chip is given approval for fabrication, the manufacturing engineering team follows Intel’s Copy Exactly! ethos to assure that all new or modified manufacturing processes can be redeployed for the new product.

Unlike many of its competitors, who tend to allocate a small portion of their factory floors to testing of new processes and equipment, Intel uses a dedicated test manufacturing lab to verify all the processes and equipment to assure they meet the goals outlined by the product design and engineering teams. Every detail of the proposed manufacturing process modifications are analyzed in the lab with exacting detail, down to the type and color of gloves used by the research team, and then certified for deployment into the factories. This process also requires the involvement of the supply base, which is brought in early in the process to improve communication. Once the process or equipment has been certified by the research team, it is meticulously copied—down to the number of bends in piping or the type of fluorescent lighting used in the building—at every production facility dedicated to the new product or process. Intel believes this attention to detail has enabled it to launch new processes and equipment across its manufacturing footprint faster, with minimal downtime and errors. “Over the past couple of years, we focused on factory throughput time. That’s kind of core; how fast can you turn those new designs? How fast can you put product through the factory once you get an order?” Baker says, noting the company was able to cut throughput by 50% when it started 45nm production in 2007, with an additional 62% achieved throughout the product’s run. The company’s $7-billion investment to produce its 32nm Westmere technology at its plants in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico—Intel produces 75% of its semiconductors in the U.S.—is likely to result in further advancements in production efficiencies.

While throughput and efficiency are critical to any manufacturing enterprise, Intel must also concentrate its efforts on improving its ability to respond to customer needs in a timely manner: “When a customer calls for an order, what percent of the time are we able to answer that day that we can deliver that product when they need it or give them a commitment when we can deliver it? You think about Intel being complicated with multiple factories around the world and multiple assembly tests on a number of products. How fast are we able to respond to the market? Just say yes and make sure that we’re delivering the product on time,” Baker says, noting the clock keeps ticking on the technology revolution.