Semiconductor Manufacturing
Know where every lot sits across a hundred-step routing, what was recorded at each step, and which tool it ran on.
Semiconductor work breaks ordinary manufacturing software in one specific way: a routing is not eight operations, it is dozens or hundreds, each one with its own tool, its own recipe reference and its own measurement. WorkCell models that as a versioned routing with a real operation per step, so WIP is visible by lot and by step rather than by a planner's whiteboard. Operators track in and out at terminals, recording quantity, scrap, reject reason and measurement results at the step they are standing at. Lots keep their identity from incoming material through packaging, so a yield question resolves backward through every step, every operator and every tool it touched. The same database schedules those tools against real, finite capacity.
Mid-sized fabs, compound semiconductor and MEMS lines, photonics and power device makers, test and packaging operations, and module builders who take in die and ship finished assemblies.
| Standard | What It Requires |
|---|---|
| ISO 9001 | The quality baseline customers audit against, covering identification and traceability, control of nonconforming output, and corrective action. |
| IATF 16949 | Automotive-grade devices add PPAP submission, traceability of safety-related material, and a documented reaction plan when a process drifts out of control. |
| RoHS | Restricted substances in electrical and electronic equipment must stay below threshold, which means holding a declaration per material and per package type. |
| REACH | Substances of very high concern above 0.1% by weight must be declared through the supply chain, so candidate-list exposure has to be answerable per part. |
| EAR | Export-controlled process technology and device data must be restricted to authorized persons, with access governed by the system and auditable afterwards. |
Incoming substrates, chemistries and die arrive against a receipt that records the lot and its certificate. Every issue to a production lot preserves the link, and every track-out writes the step, the tool, the operator, the quantity moved and the quantity rejected. A yield excursion three weeks later is traced by asking which lots passed through one tool in one window, rather than by cross-referencing run sheets. Packaged units carry serials that resolve backward to the device lot and the material it started as. WorkCell does not model a wafer map or per-die coordinates; traceability is at lot and unit level.
Every track-in and track-out with the step, tool, operator, timestamp, quantity and reject reason, kept as the transaction rather than transcribed from a run card.
Measurement results captured at the step against the routing revision in effect, so an out-of-spec reading is attached to the lot rather than to a logbook page.
Generated from the lot record, tying the shipped quantity to its material lots, steps completed and inspections passed.
Severity-classified nonconformances with disposition and the 8-D corrective action that closed them, linked to the lot and the step that produced them.
With a hundred sequential steps and lots splitting across tools, nobody can answer where a customer's lot is without walking the floor. The planning spreadsheet is a day behind by lunchtime, and the honest answer to a delivery question is a guess dressed up as a commitment.
The data exists on paper travellers and in tool logs, but it was never joined. When yield drops and the suspicion lands on one tool in one week, correlating which lots passed through it means manual cross-referencing, and the answer arrives after the next three lots have already run.
Everybody knows the bottleneck tool is the constraint and nobody can say what fraction of its time is productive. Without clean per-step time and quantity at the tool, the case for a second tool is built from anecdote, and SEMI E10 and E79 style metrics stay aspirational.
A lot started today finishes in six weeks, through shared tools, with scheduled maintenance and qualification runs competing for the same slots. An infinite-capacity plan cannot see the collision, so commitments are made against capacity that was already spoken for.
Long sequential routings with real step-level WIP
A routing carries as many operations as the flow actually has, each with its own work centre and standard times. WIP is reported by lot and step, so where a lot sits is a query and not a walk.
Lot genealogy maintained by the transactions
Receiving records the material lot, issues preserve the link, and every track-out writes step, tool, operator and quantity. Genealogy is a by-product of running the lot rather than a parallel log somebody keeps up to date.
Measurement and inspection at the step
Inspection templates and AQL sampling plans define what gets measured where. Results are recorded at the operation, and an out-of-spec reading raises a severity-classified nonconformance against that lot.
Finite capacity scheduling of constrained tools
The scheduler plans against real tool and labor capacity rather than infinite capacity, and proposal runs let a planner test a sequence before committing it. You see which lots move when a tool goes down for maintenance.
Time and quantity captured at the tool
Terminals capture clock-on, clock-off, good quantity and rejects per step, which are the inputs utilization and yield analysis need. WorkCell has no SECS/GEM, OPC-UA or MTConnect integration, so there is no automatic signal capture and no packaged OEE dashboard.
Role-based access over controlled process data
Permissions are enforced per role at the data layer, with tenant isolation and single sign-on, so visibility of process technology and device data is governed by the system and leaves an audit trail.
Versioned routings carrying every step a lot actually ran, with effective dating.
ProductionFinite scheduling of constrained tools and track-in, track-out at the step.
QualityMeasurement records, severity-classified nonconformances and 8-D corrective action.
InventoryMaterial lot traceability from receiving through packaging, with QC hold states.
Track-in and track-out at every step, with quantity, scrap and measurements captured there.
ERPPurchasing, inventory, scheduling, shop floor and job costing on the same database as execution.
APSFinite capacity scheduling across shared tools with long cycle times.
QMSInspections, nonconformances and corrective action tied to the lot and step that produced them.
Board-level assembly with component lot and date code traceability.
Chemical ManufacturingLot traceability and inspection records for process chemistries and precursors.
RoHSWhat the restriction requires and which declarations WorkCell keeps for it.
Tier SuppliersBuilding to customer releases, flow-downs and long-horizon schedules.
What is ERP software for semiconductor manufacturing?
It runs purchasing, inventory, scheduling, execution and quality on one database, with routings long enough for a real process flow and lot genealogy captured at every step. The difference from general ERP is that WIP position and step-level results are transactions rather than a separate tracking spreadsheet.
Do I need a dedicated semiconductor MES or can an ERP handle WIP tracking?
If you need wafer maps, per-die coordinates, recipe download to tools and automated SECS/GEM data collection, you need a dedicated fab MES. If you need lot-level WIP across many steps, genealogy, measurements and scheduling on one system, WorkCell covers that without a second platform.
Does WorkCell support SEMI standards like E10 and E79?
WorkCell captures the per-step time, quantity and reject data those equipment metrics are calculated from, but it does not ship E10 or E79 reports and it is certified to nothing. Treat it as the data source your own utilization and productivity analysis runs against.
Can WorkCell handle lot splits and merges?
Partially. Lots carry identity through a routing and quantities can be moved and rejected per step, but there is no packaged split-and-merge model that preserves a child lot's parentage automatically. Tell us your flow before you commit, because this is where fab requirements most often exceed us.
Can we see which lots ran through one tool during a bad week?
Yes. Every track-out records the work centre, the operator and the timestamp alongside the quantity, so filtering by tool and date range returns the affected lots directly. That is the query a yield excursion actually needs, and it replaces cross-referencing paper run sheets.
See it run on your parts.
Tell us how many steps your flow runs and how you track WIP today, and we will tell you straight whether WorkCell is a fit.