Early detection of fault leads to savings and improved employee productivity for semiconductor and electronics manufacturer

Background:

Semiconductor manufacturing facilities observe standards when it comes to air quality – especially its cleanrooms. As environmentally controlled environments where the products are manufactured they need to conform to stringent parameters when it comes to controlling contaminants and other air quality factors like temperature, humidity, and air pressure. Strict rules and procedures are followed to prevent contamination of the product. Without effective control, contamination can wreak havoc on products and processes.

So when Testech Group – a semiconductor and electronics manufacturer and facilities management company based in the Philippines started having air quality issues in its cleanroom, it had to promptly find a solution to resolve it.

Challenges:

Facility managers of Testech observed that the cleanroom of the chip manufacturing division was polluted and they could not find the source of the problem for 5 days. This meant that they were looking at possible operational delays which would translate to significant revenue losses for the company.

They turned to uHoo to help them identify the specific air quality problems in the cleanroom. They installed the device and utilized the air quality data to root out the cause of the issue.

Benefits Achieved:

Early detection of fault in the semiconductor clean room allowed action to be taken early and reinstate status of clean room

Using uHoo they were able to detect elevated levels of nitrogen dioxide and a drop in the air pressure during work hours which led to workers complaining of respiratory ailments such as coughing and difficulty of breathing. The facilities team immediately investigated these findings and discovered a broken booster fan belt in the HVAC equipment located outside the cleanroom. This reduced the air flow in the cleanroom and caused the concentration of nitrogen dioxide to increase.

After finding the source of the problem, they replaced the fan belt and was able to promptly reinstate the desired cleanroom status.

Enhanced smart facilities management services and secured new service contracts by putting uHoo front and center of their offering

As a facilities management service provider, Testech saw the value of leveraging uHoo’s technology solutions to ensure health and safety for its business customers. They know that using uHoo can set them apart from their competitors because they can offer simple and easy data-based solutions to their customers who are looking for ways to improve their air quality. They integrated uHoo into their platform of facilities management services and have secured new customer deals because of their enhanced offering.

Bottomline Results:

By detecting specific air quality issues, Testech Group was able to identify the source of the problem and avoided significant revenue loss. They were able to restore the cleanroom status to compliance standards and protected their workers’ health and wellbeing. Moreover, they were able to enhance their facilities management services portfolio by offering uHoo as the first step to monitoring and measuring indoor air quality.

The only way to manage facilities with stringent requirements such as semiconductor manufacturing is to control the total environment. Air quality factors need to be tightly monitored. This way, costly risks can be avoided and health and safety of the workers will not be compromised.

“Having the ability to measure the indoor air quality can actually detect failures and issues. As long as we can measure, there’s something that can be done” Elmer Lapena, CEO and President, Testech Group