Learning objectives Understand how robotic automation and artificial intelligence-based fleet management improve efficiency and precision in semiconductor manufacturing. Recognize the unique challenges of modernizing legacy semiconductor fabs and how mobile cobots can address them. Evaluate the strategic and financial impact of automation by shifting the perspective from cost-cutting to long-term gains in productivity, reliability and competitiveness. Automation insights An U.S. semiconductor fab modernized its operations by deploying mobile robots and artificial intelligence-based fleet management software to automate wafer cassette handling, reducing labor strain, increasing precision and eliminating costly production errors. The initiative demonstrates how automation, once considered cost-prohibitive, is now essential for improving productivity, overcoming workforce shortages and remaining competitive in chip manufacturing. There are some 70 existing semiconductor chip plants in America, all of which have opportunities to automate and ramp up production. Automating these facilities eases current workforce issues, boosts reliability and increases overall productivity. Nowhere else was this evident than at one of the country’s oldest semiconductor fabs that was the first to mass produce the new style chips used in electric vehicles, 5G and 6G smartphones, power grids and data centers. The facility, which currently employs 1,800 people, was built back in the 1950s and as part of its modernization, the company opted for the combination of collaborative robots, or cobots, on automated mobile robots (AMRs) along with fleet scheduling/management software. It based the decision on the fact that the older facility was designed for human workers and, as such, its production floor layout lacked big,…
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