Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
Wright Williams & Kelly (WWK), the cost and productivity modeling company, is now providing free general information in an electronic newsletter, and has lowered the cost to start using it’s flagship TWO COOL(R) cost of ownership (CoO) modeling software. The company’s “Applied Cost Modeling” newsletter features free excerpts from the book “Hi-Tech Equipment Reliability: A Practical Guide for Engineers and Managers.”
TWO COOL V3 provides GUI with simultaneous data entry and results panels (source: WWK)
The CoO and overall equipment efficiency (OEE) modeling software, now version 3 (see figure), is the de facto standard for fab industries, since it was derived from original SEMATECH CoO modeling work and is compliant with SEMI standard E35. Previously, the software was licensed with a minimum of 10 seats. Through the end of May 2009, the company is offering a 1-seat license for $4,995, including free attendance at a training which will be held at SEMICON West/InterSolar 2009 on July 16 at the San Francisco Marriott. The company also offers a 1-seat license to qualified universities for just $495.
“It has been over a decade since we offered a 1-seat license to TWO COOL,” stated David Jimenez, WWK’s president. “However, this is the ideal time for our clients to invest in improving their cost competitiveness, and WWK is dedicated to helping them achieve these goals with the smallest cash outlay possible.” It is incredibly useful and flexible for anyone working with high-tech manufacturing technology. However, as with any flexible modeling tool it is utterly essential to have proper inputs, so take the training if you license a seat.
This editor has been working productively with versions of this software since 1992, and used it to model the integration costs of different low-k dielectric technologies for a Materials Research Society presentation in 1997 (Session N3.10). For the last 12 years, CVD SiOC has been the dominant low-k dielectric, as predicted by the cost model. More about CoO, as well as the right way to estimate real fab costs for different tools, will be covered in the next BetaSights Newsletter. –E.K.