In short
A semiconductor equipment program is run to an insertion window: the slot in a customer's fab when the tool can be installed and qualified. Miss it and the next slot may be a quarter away. Holding the window means holding long-lead parts, subsystem builds, process recipes, firmware and software, factory acceptance and the customer's own readiness, each against evidence, and re-planning the rest the hour one moves. Tymeline runs tool programs that way.
What makes tool programs different
The critical path is physical and spread across suppliers: a chamber component, a laser, a robot, a custom board. Lead times change without warning. The software and process work has to be ready for a tool that exists on a certain date, and the customer's fab has to be ready for it on the same date. A slip anywhere is a slip against a window that does not move for you.
What is held
The commitments behind the window:
- Every long-lead part's delivery date, read from the purchase order and the supplier's mail.
- Subsystem build and test milestones, with their evidence.
- Process recipe and qualification work against the demo and acceptance dates.
- Firmware and software readiness for factory acceptance.
- The customer's site readiness and the installation and qualification plan.
How Tymeline runs it
When a part's lead time grows by ten weeks, Tymeline sees it in the supplier's mail, works out which builds and tests it moves and whether the window is at risk, re-sequences the work that can go ahead, and puts the recovery, an alternate source or a re-ordered build, in front of the program owner the same day. The window is held, and the customer hears a plan rather than a problem.