Welcome to another blog in our ongoing series, Ask Lewis Bass!

This series features actual submitted questions from companies in the industries we provide engineering safety consulting services to.

Topics covered include those associated with our work in 3rd party field labeling, SEMI S2/S8/EMC/F47 testing, CE Marking evaluations, and general engineering questions.

Question:

Hi Lewis Bass,

We have a system that we recently had evaluated to the SEMI S2 and S8 standards. Unfortunately, our client is now requesting some last minute ergonomic-related changes before taking delivery of the system and we are thinking they may affect our current (passing) score for the S8 (ergonomic) portion of the SEMI evaluation.

I am providing a list of these proposed changes for your feedback on whether or not this was cause us to have to re-evaluate or (addendum?) this SEMI S8 portion of the SEMI evaluation. Can you please give me a read on this?

Here is a basic summary of some of the potential changes the client is requesting done:

1. Moving the position of the system’s controls to a new position (different height).
2. EMO button – they want it to be replaced with a different brand button.
3. Increasing the footprint/geometry of the system with additional sub-components that will potentially affect maintenance clearance.

 

Asked by Jesus in Tempe, AZ

Lewis Bass:

Hello Jesus,

Thanks for this wonderful multi-part question about maintaining SEMI S8 compliance in the face of these last minute requests from your client. For anyone reading this blog post who is not already familiar with this standard, the SEMI S8-0218 (Safety Guideline for Ergonomics Engineering of Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment) is a key component of the SEMI S2 guidelines that covers the generally-accepted industry best practices for designing semiconductor equipment with a focus on minimizing user fatigue and injury in the course of operating the equipment.

Semi.org has the following to say about this guideline:

This Safety Guideline provides ergonomic design principles and considerations for semiconductor manufacturing equipment. It also promotes compatibility between the user and equipment in the manufacturing environment. By using this Safety Guideline, equipment suppliers and users can collaborate and design equipment that will minimize fatigue and injury by fitting the equipment to the expected body size, strength, and range of motion characteristics of the user. SEMI S8 provides equipment effectiveness, along with worker safety, convenience, and comfort when operating equipment.

Now, on to the questions at hand:

1. Moving the position of the system’s controls to a new position (different height).

Yes, moving or repositioning the system’s controls can void the passing grade of a system’s SEMI S8 evaluation. I’d recommend reaching out to the company that performed this evaluation for their input on the thresholds (maximum and minimum height) that must be maintained to stay compliant to the previous report’s guidance.

2. EMO button – they want it to be replaced with a different brand button.

This should not be an issue as long as the current EMO button’s position is used and the replacement EMO button has the same functionality 1:1 of the one that was evaluated as part of the previous SEMI S8 report.

3. Increasing the footprint/geometry of the system with additional sub-components that will potentially affect maintenance clearance.

Yes, this will affect the previous SEMI S8 compliance report and may require an addendum report to be performed on the system. Any time a system’s overall size (footprint and geometry) are modified you can be sure that the previous SEMI S8 will no longer be valid as many of the measurements taken for the various tests within SEMI S8 are dependent on the system’s physical properties not being changed. Once more, I would recommend reaching out to the previous company that performed these evaluations for their input here.

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