If you are in the business of building semiconductors, one Zoom conversation that you will never have is: “Hey, when do we think is the best time to automate this?” Since roughly 1980, every electronic product you could imagine has been made possible because of automation. At all levels—from design to the billion-dollar fabs through to the million points of testing—automation is there from the beginning.
Automation is and should be an assembly prerequisite, rather than an enhancement of a traditional practice. Some industries succeed at this. Take welding lines in an automotive factory, as an example. Just like semiconductors, these lines are fully automated from day one. While there’s plenty of essential work to keep that line optimized and robust to change orders, the welding task itself is only happening because it is automated. However, in many industries, automation is an afterthought—considered only after a process is stable, “everything works,” and an organization assesses the “risks and paybacks.”