Big data in Intel's manufacturing

According to Ron Kasabian, general manager of big data solutions for Intel's data center group, over the past two years the company has developed more than a dozen data-intensive projects that have bolstered both its operational efficiency and bottom line. Implementing big-data have resulted in millions of dollars of cost savings. Big data and predictive analytics are helping Intel bring new chips to market faster, said Kasabian. There are a huge number of complicated tests on every single chip that comes through the manufacturing process. And as they're ramping up new chips, we uncover lots of bugs and fix them. Every chip Intel makes goes through a quality check, which includes an extensive series of tests. By analyzing historical data collected during manufacturing, Intel can reduce the number of tests it conducts."We're taking some of the information that's coming out of the manufacturing process for those pre-release chips, and looking at it at the wafer level," said Kasabian. "Instead of running every single chip through 19,000 tests, we can focus tests on specific chips to cut down test time."This predictive analytics process, implemented on a single line of Intel Core processors in 2012, allowed Intel to save $3 million in manufacturing costs. In 2013-14, Intel expects to extend the process to more chip lines and save an additional $30 million, the company said. Data-intensive processes also help Intel detect failures in its manufacturing line, which is a highly automated environment. "A lot of what we're doing is pulling log files out of manufacturing and test machines," said Kasabian. "Across our entire factory network, we're talking about 5 terabytes an hour. So it's very big volume."By capturing and analyzing this information, Intel can determine when a specific step in one of its manufacturing processes starts to deviate from normal tolerances. Big data benefits Intel's security efforts too. The company says its big data platform can process 200 billion server events, and provide early warning of security threats within 30 minutes.

Sources: http://www.informationweek.com/software/business-intelligence/intel-cuts-manufacturing-costs-with-big/240150978