Services company makes a business of updating old systems
by Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 1/1/2006 7:00:00 AM
When and how to replace production equipment is a particularly pressing question for manufacturers, given the landscape of choices involved.
That's why Brooks Automation, a Chelmsford, Mass.-based manufacturer of production equipment for the semiconductor and other high-tech industries, was relieved to discover Evergreen Enhancement, which specializes in extending the life of legacy systems.
"We aim at getting more value from existing systems," says William Kerr, president of Evergreen Enhancement. "It's like putting new wine into an old bottle—a solution for companies that can't replace legacy systems without major disruptions or downtime."
At Brooks, Evergreen revived a system that calibrates and tests the positioning mechanisms on wafer-handling robots.
"We didn't have the staff to work on replacing legacy fixtures," says Miguel Ezpeleta, manufacturing test engineering manager at Brooks. "Our original intent was to design [a fixture] that would work on all our product lines, but we couldn't do it ourselves."
Brooks plans to install its new customizable testing system, with some modifications to match local needs, at several facilities. It will be used to run tests on three product lines, as well as in the field-returns department, and the product introduction factory.
Says Kerr, "High-tech manufacturers often are dependent on systems that have been running a long time. They simply can't change to the newest equipment overnight and expect to meet deliveries and remain competitive."
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