In East Fishkill, NY, IBM integrated passive radio frequency identification (RFID) technology with automated materials handling and manufacturing processes to create one of the world's most advanced real-time semiconductor manufacturing plants.

The 140,000 square foot plant produces customized chips for cell phones, video-game consoles and central processing units.

"Before implementing RFID, our employees spent a lot of effort routing wafer carriers, which can contain up to $2 million worth of finished products," says Robert Mayberry, vice president, IBM Sensor and Actuator Solutions, (800-426-4968). "This led to slowing production and decreasing yields."

The solution was to create a container automatically transported by an overhead monorail from station to station. At the beginning of the manufacturing process, an RFID tag on the container is encoded with the information required to fill an order. As the container moves to different fabrication stations, RFID readers scan the carrier's tags to validate its location and instruct the tool to perform the required production steps.

The tags are updated as tasks are completed. Finished product is placed in a shipping container that also has an RFID tag with shipping information.

To communicate information collected by the RFID readers, IBM created a real-time messaging infrastructure running on IBM's WebSphere platform that continually collects information from processes and equipment throughout the plant. "Every part of the process is providing feedback that allows us to sense and respond to the manufacturing environment," Mayberry says. "That way we can either move forward, or do a correction if an issue comes up."

In addition to reducing errors, productivity has risen significantly, as employees can now focus on ensuring that equipment runs at optimal levels and client needs are met. As a result, the plant can devote the equivalent of one person per shift to more value-added manufacturing tasks, rather than having them track materials on the production line, reducing product errors and production delays.