Lam Research Shipping Knowledge Center

Lam Research Corporation engineers, manufactures, and maintains semiconductor processing equipment used in the creation of integrated circuits.

Overview

One of the projects I was pulled into involved the shipping of developmental parts. Lam had grown very quickly over the last couple of years and there was a lack of information on the appropriate shipping process to use for different situations.

Challenges

• There was a reliance on tribal knowledge for continued functioning of the system
• There were copious emails flying around whenever a problem would arise. This sucked up everyone’s time without quickly solving the issue.
• People were constantly getting locked out of the SAP system.
• There were multiple locations to look for documentation, which was often missing.

Solutions

• I built a knowledge repository within SharePoint for all of the documentation. I also moved away from using static documents, PowerPoints, and PDFs and implemented a web based information architecture.
• I created an auto response help desk, with built in email links to the appropriate parties, when a user encountered locking issues.
• I tracked the issues as they came in to identify common culprits and eliminated those bottlenecks.
• I developed a training course utilizing video walkthroughs of each step in the forms.

Results

• The training program I built was passed by 410 users. These users were instructed in the correct way to utilize the shipping process for developmental parts.
• Locking issues were completely resolved. Initially people were running into a locking issue without knowing how to deal with. After the training users were aware of how to deal with a lockout, why they happen, and who to contact. Before the training, I had developed an auto email response at the help desk to eliminate locking questions. These two solutions completely eliminated our locking issues.
• Building up the training documentation and requiring a mandatory training helped reduce the email requests flying around by 73%.