Background

In the semiconductor industry, which is expected to continue growing in the future, there is a serious shortage of human resources, and with the diversification of employment types and age groups, ensuring worker safety has become even more important. In addition to designing equipment based on safety, the industry strives to increase the safety awareness of each individual to prevent hazards.

Tokyo Electron has one of the highest hazard prevention focuses in the industry, and is also promoting various initiatives for its business partners to prevent incidents. The joint development with HACARUS, and application of edge AI, to eliminate human errors for a safer workplace is part of this important effort.

Outcome

The newly developed tool not only helps turn safety management tasks from analogue to digital, but also thanks its digital nature allows for new tasks to be performed that were previously impossible.

Instant Incident Detection
As the entire process, from image capture to AI analysis is completed on-site, it is possible to catch incidents in real-time as events unfold – this greatly increases the possibility of preventing hazards from turning into mishaps as they occur.

Perpetual Monitoring
The tool enables constant monitoring, which is difficult to do with safety measures dependant on human supervision. In addition, the image feed before and after an alert is automatically recorded, making it possible to check and review the circumstances which led to an incident, enabling enactment of future countermeasures.

Cost & Resource Efficiency 
The tool is highly resource efficient, enabled by HACARUS’ expertise in sparse modeling, and experience in developing AI models from small data, overcoming the limitations adherent to conventional AI, which typically require large amount of data for training and retraining (in this case image data). This leads to cost reduction not only at the time of introduction, but also after the start of operation when models are enhanced.

Future Outlook

Our goal of digital transformation in safety management has only just begun. We will continue to work with our many partners to achieve a safer and more secure working environment.

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About Tokyo Electron
Main Business: Semiconductor Production Equipment Business
Established: November 1963
Headquarters: Akasaka Biz Tower 38F, 5-3-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Toshiki Kawai, Representative Director, President & CEO
Capital: 54,961,190,000 yen
URL: https://www.tel.co.jp/

HACARUS Workplace Safety AI Modules
https://hacarus.com/services/workplace-safety/hazard-prevention/