Expect to see analytics get AI and that will hit Yield Dept groups big time.
That's where the bulk of the fab support headcount is, and it is ripe for AI displacement.
Give it 3 to 5 years and the fabs will largely be what some refer to as Alien Dreadnought factories, with barely a human to be found.
The humanoid robots will be the final transformation, even though it is unlikely they will ever replace all the technicians. But they could replace at least half of them.
@b5 I was in a few roles over the years where everyone hung out in the cafe and seemed to have a lot of free time, and got out of those roles as quickly as I could.
Virtually none of those people still work for Intel, and that is because eventually some upper manager realized they were not needed.
ROC should have seen this coming a mile away.
I'd say YA and DefMet get taken out by metro vendors adopting AI analytics.
Might keep a few Engineers to review the results but the need for all that manual effort is like so last year.
@b4 There is no escaping automation. Doesn't matter if you help or not.
The fabs have a long term roadmap for getting to a fully automated fab and they will never stop pushing in that direction.
You are correct that ROC was an intermediate step. Same is true for outsourcing and moving roles to low cost geos. All these are efforts to gain cost savings until the roles can be fully automated.
Best option is to see what is coming and find a way to remain useful.
If I were in the fab, I'd be going to school like my working career depended on it, because it does.
Good. The ROC team I joined to 8 hours in breaks and worked 4 hours. Crazy lazy.
If you took a job in the ROC you have been providing them the data to automate you out of a job. I tried to tell this to people that we all so excited to get out of the FAB. Replacing them with AI was the goal from day 1.
@ac Online is fine but better to get a degree in computer science with robotics and AI as the focus.
Even going back to school at 40 might enable someone to stay employed up to 65, and will put them on a steeper salary curve too.
For anyone in their 20s, I think it is either do this or learn to weld or something, although I hear that robots like to weld too.
@ad I particularly like the DefMet hit, 'Enjoy The Silence', although I usually refer to them as Depeche Mode.
Not sure I'd call that metal.
@aa Australian metal band
@a4 There are so many free materials online for anyone to "re-skill" in AI
Defect Metrology
@a1 what is DefMet?
The fab workers who reskill in AI and robotics should be in a position to do really well, maybe making as much as engineers.
Those who coast will be pushed out, in a steady stream of restructurings as the company adapts to this step-function change in factory automation.
If the techs can get Intel to pay for part or all of their re-education, then that is even better.
This has DefMet written all over it.