News

19 October 2009

 

M/A-COM migrates fabs to Eyelit’s MES suite in just 8 weeks

M/A-COM Technology Solutions Inc, which provides semiconductors, active and passive components and subassemblies for RF, microwave and millimeter-wave applications, has selected the manufacturing execution software (MES) suite of Eyelit Inc of Toronto, Canada to replace the legacy software suite at its two wafer fabs in Lowell, MA and Torrance, CA, USA.

Eyelit says that its MES suite will modernize M/A-COM Tech’s manufacturing software infrastructure and lower the total cost of ownership and resource dependences of its older system. The migration also enables M/A-COM Tech to standardize on one manufacturing software provider, simplifying its software architecture while gaining capability and flexibility. It also provides a platform to easily add equipment automation and integrate Quality Management tasks, such as OCAP, QAR, and MRB.

The migration took eight weeks to move the legacy MES data model and active WIP (work-in-process) to Eyelit MES. M/A-COM Tech now has a fully integrated MES, asset management, and SPC (statistical process control) solution. With the new system, M/A-COM Tech eliminated 12 custom software programs, which are now incorporated into the standard Eyelit model. It was also able to add new production areas (not previously modeled in the legacy MES) to the Eyelit model and to preserve the MES/ERP integration with SAP (M/A-COM Tech’s enterprise resource planning system).

“We’ve simplified our model and already eliminated many of the custom programs we needed to augment the limitations of our legacy MES. With our legacy MES product, we questioned the value of our support dollars and what we were getting in return,” comments Charles Gagne, M/A-COM Tech’s director of Wafer Operations. “We’ve been an Eyelit customer, using Operator Station, PRemote and UTIL*eyes, for years... Under new ownership and direction, we were looking for strategic vendor partnerships. Eyelit has always been very easy to work with, which was not the case with our previous MES supplier,” he adds.

“No company wants to replace its MES software in a running factory and we usually recommend more than eight weeks for a migration, but there were time constraints,” says Dan Estrada, Eyelit’s VP sales & business development. “In performing a manual deployment of the MES, we felt we could meet the deadline,” he adds.

“Many semiconductor manufacturers believe it costs millions of dollars to replace their legacy MES systems. Eyelit has demonstrated that it can deliver a proven, low-risk solution for much less, while providing our customers with greater capability and flexibility,” Estrada continues. “With the pending, end-of-life support of HP AlphaServer and HP PA-RISC 9000 server platforms, many companies face a hardware upgrade. Factories running MES software and systems, such as WorkStream, PROMIS, and FACTORYworks (from Applied Materials), are all viable candidates for Eyelit’s migration solution,” he adds. “Companies looking to move to lower-cost software platforms, such as Linux or Windows, would also benefit from Eyelit’s capabilities and cost savings.”

See related item:

M/A-COM Technology appoints director of IT

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