ABSTRACT
In many high-tech industries, especially in the semiconductor industry, business environments change at a fast pace. and rapid changes in equipment technologies and characteristics follow. Equipment management faces new challenges related to complexity, expensive costs, short life cycle, and extensive use of equipment. Œe traditional maintenance approaches do not seem to deal with these issues e¢ectively. Ever since the late 1990s, the semiconductor industry has started a new trend that moves the Ÿeld of equipment management out of the maintenance era. Before discussing the post-maintenance era, the following sections in this chapter use the semiconductor industry as the primary example to examine the business environment changes that led to the movement of transitioning out of the maintenance era.
