The goal of the InSite | Semiconductor TAP Edition is to allow the factory to operate without the use of paper documents on the shop floor. This may not be practical for all situations. However, any paperwork should be substantially reduced if not eliminated entirely. One of the key features enabling this to occur is the electronic traveler.

Paper Travelers
The traveler is the document that typically is used to accompany a production lot as it moves from workstation to workstation during the manufacturing process. It starts with a list of the projected work steps and is filled out by each operator that works on these steps. The operator fills in the equipment used, the start and stop time of each operation and the quantity of units processed, along with any losses observed. It is the final accounting of what was done and by whom. It is usually collected at the end of the production line and used for data entry into the MES system and as an audit trail of the activities on the shop floor. Paper travelers can become bulky and require the operator to constantly keep the document up to date. In a clean room environment they are usually composed of clean room paper, but are always a source of unwanted particles. Even the pens used to write on the traveler contribute to the poor quality of the air and reduce production yield.

Electronic Travelers
Converting a factory to electronic travelers provides numerous benefits to work tracking. Rather than recording events after the fact, the system records events as they occur. Every activity that was once recorded on the traveler is now done with a computer workstation or automatic entry of some sort (such as scanners or automation). The electronic traveler contains much of the same information as the paper traveler, including the projected workflow, the history of equipment used, the operator, and even the date and time stamps of each operation. Unlike the paper traveler, however, the electronic traveler provides a much broader window into the factory than the paper traveler ever could. In addition to the information already discussed, the Bill of Materials used in processing the lot is available. The actual data values collected can be seen, SPC charts can be displayed and equipment history can be shown for each lot. The traveler becomes the living document that becomes an integral part of how the work is done and the ultimate repository of the history of the lot without doing offline data entry. With Electronic Travelers, every action once accomplished on paper can be accomplished electronically, and provides a much more realistic and detailed view of activities as well as a cleaner environment.