Capital equipment reuse: from strategy to execution

Due to several environmental factors such as the sub-$1,000 PC and the Asian Financial Crisis, Intel made a paradigm shift in 1998. The focus shifted from technology ramps at any cost to a concerted effort to reduce costs within the factories and thus reduce the cost per die produced. Since capital equipment purchases were the highest factory expenditure item, reduction of capital expenditures became an area of primary focus. In the past, equipment had been reused but no formal integrated system existed that could maximize the savings to Intel. As a result, a new reuse system had to be developed and implemented. First, we refined the system used to determine standard reuse opportunities. Then we challenged the method by which reuse options were determined by developing a new methodology called strategic reuse. Next, we developed a system to facilitate the reallocation of tools to other factories. The successful execution of these reuse opportunities required that detailed systems be implemented to track the conversion information.