TRIZ Paper: Japan TRIZ Symposium 2009


An Innovative Approach on Module Ionizer Efficiency Management
Paul Devaraj (Intel, Malaysia)
The Fifth TRIZ Symposium in Japan, Held by Japan TRIZ Society on Sept. 10-12, 2009 at National Women's Education Center, Ranzan-machi, Hiki-gun, Saitama, Japan

Japanese translation of slides by Tetsuya Ohta (SANNO Inst. of Management),

Introduction by Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.), Nov. 28, 2009

[Posted on Sept. 23, 2010] 

For going back to Japanese pages, press buttons.

Editor's Note (Toru Nakagawa, Sept. 20, 2010)

This is one of the four real case study papers presented by Intel Malaysia last year at the 5th TRIZ Symposium in Japan, 2009.  In my "Personal Report of Japan TRIZ Symposium 2009", I wrote

It is our pleasure that Intel Corp. has contributed 4 real case-study papers this year again to our Symposium.  Two engineers coming from Intel Malaysia gave 2 Oral and 2 Poster presentations, covering their colleagues' works as well.  The 4 presentations from Intel Malaysia are reviewed here in sequence.  (Last year, Amir Roggel gave a Keynote Lecture, and 4 more people gave 4 real case-study papers .) 

The present paper written by Paul Devaraj reports a problem solving in the ionizer module of a test handler.  It describes the toolbox set regularly used in Intel Malaysia and quite natural use of them in solving real problems.

This page is composed as follows:

[1] Abstract

[2] Presentation slides in English in PDF 
     Presentation slides in Japanese translation by Tetsuya Ohta in PDF

[3] Nakagawa's introduction in English (Excerpt from "Personal Report of Japan TRIZ Symposium 2009")

Top of this page Abstract Presentation slides Presentation slides in Japanese Nakagawa's Introduction   Nakagawa's Personal Report Japan TRIZ Symposium 2009   Japanese page

[1] Abstract

An Innovative Approach on Module Ionizer Efficiency Management

Paul Devaraj (Intel, Malaysia)

Abstract

Delta designed - RFS test handlers are an automatic device handling machine that’s been in service all across Intel Test Factories worldwide for many years. They are reasonably reliable and relatively easy to maintain. However there are some key weaknesses in some of their systems that needed our attention. One such ‘Achilles heel’ was their ESD Ionizing system. Not only was it unstable, but it was also very expensive to maintain. Annually Intel Test factories world-wide spend hundreds of thousands of US Dollars to maintain them. This represents a key challenge. The control system of this feature often fails, the Ionizing probes often accumulates dust particles which reduces the Ionizing efficiency of the system. This paper discusses the key design weaknesses of the DELTA RFS test handler’s ESD Ionizing System and how the team innovated and improved the system with TRIZ problem solving technique while maintaining output Quality. The simple and effective strategies from TRIZ have been a unique eye opener to us to ‘see’ the problem in a different perspective. This eventually solved the 5 years old problem saving Intel USD1.2Million in 4 years. TRIZ once again proves as great problem solving tool which resulted in increase management focus in this ‘art’ recently.


[2]  Presentation Slides in PDF

Presentation Slides in English in PDF (21  slides, 343 KB)

Presentation Slides in Japanese in PDF (21 slides, 345 KB) (Japanese translation by Tetsuya Ohta (SANNO Inst. of Management)


[3]  Introduction to the Presentation (by Nakagawa)

Excerpt from: 
Personal Report of The Fifth TRIZ Symposium in Japan, 2009, Part D. Case Studies in Industries
by Toru Nakagawa (Osaka Gakuin University), Nov. 28, 2009
Posted on Dec. 4, 2009 in "TRIZ Home Page in Japan"

 

Paul Devaraj (Intel, Malaysia) [E01 O-2] gave an Oral presentation, read by S. Selladurai, on "An Innovative Approach on Module Ionizer Efficiency Management".  The Author's Abstract is as follows:

Delta designed - RFS test handlers are an automatic device handling machine that’s been in service all across Intel Test Factories worldwide for many years. They are reasonably reliable and relatively easy to maintain. However there are some key weaknesses in some of their systems that needed our attention. One such ‘Achilles heel’ was their ESD Ionizing system. Not only was it unstable, but it was also very expensive to maintain. Annually Intel Test factories world-wide spend hundreds of thousands of US Dollars to maintain them. This represents a key challenge. The control system of this feature often fails, the Ionizing probes often accumulates dust particles which reduces the Ionizing efficiency of the system. This paper discusses the key design weaknesses of the DELTA RFS test handler’s ESD Ionizing System and how the team innovated and improved the system with TRIZ problem solving technique while maintaining output Quality. The simple and effective strategies from TRIZ have been a unique eye opener to us to ‘see’ the problem in a different perspective. This eventually solved the 5 years old problem saving Intel USD1.2Million in 4 years. TRIZ once again proves as great problem solving tool which resulted in increase management focus in this ‘art’ recently.

The slide (right) is a nice introduction of the TRIZ Toolbox used in Intel (or Intel Malaysia).  This describes that after the problem definition, the methods of Functional analysis, Cause & effect chain analysis, and Trimming are commonly used for all the problems. Then, depending on the nature of the problem, different sets of tools are used in the typical sequence of modeling the problem, using an appropriate tool, and generating solutions by the assistance of model of solutions.  The tools contain the Contradiction matrix, Physical contradiction method, Scientific effects DB, Su-field model, and ARIZ.  Note that this is not an exhaustive list, the Author writes.  

The problem statement of the present case is shown in the slide (below-left).  And the Functional diagram of the present system is illustrated in the slide (below-right).  It is noticed that the present system has three sets of ionizers having their own DC power supply.

  

Thus, at the step of Trimming, it was natural to think of the trimming of the three sets of ionizers with individual power supplies into one set.  The solution idea is shown below in the initial form of overview (below-left), and in the final form of concepts actually adopted (below-right). 

  

One more step was taken for solving the key challenges with the introduction of feedback (below-left).  The final results of this TRIZ case study are summarized in the slide (below-right), in comparison with the results of former non-TRIZ approaches for the same problem. 

 

[*** The solutions of this case study seem quite natural.  Probably this is yet another case demonstrating that finding problems to attack is more important and valuable than the actual work of solving them.]

 

Top of this page Abstract Presentation slides Presentation slides in Japanese Nakagawa's Introduction   Nakagawa's Personal Report Japan TRIZ Symposium 2009   Japanese page

 

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Last updated on Sept. 23, 2010.     Access point:  Editor: nakagawa@ogu.ac.jp