Lam Research Classification Taxonomy Development

Lam Research Corporation engineers, manufactures, and maintains semiconductor processing equipment used in the creation of integrated circuits.

Overview

I was tasked with developing the classification schema for the cots (commercial off the shelf) parts Lam uses. Lam was running into an issue with duplicate parts being created due to a inability to easily search for existing parts based on classification attributes.

Challenges

• There was a legacy classification system we needed to utilize in addition to individual business unit requests.
• It’s difficult to visualize such a huge excel spreadsheet with over 600 classes.
• Lots of classification variance between businesses, staples such as McMaster Carr and Digikey, as well as the legacy system.

Solutions

I used a mind mapping software called Coggle to create a visual representation of the merged legacy taxonomy and business unit inputs. This allowed us to more readily see possible merges, duplicates, and classes that could be eliminated resulting in a much cleaner taxonomy. An example is represented below.

Results

• We developed a finished taxonomy with 483 classes. This was a 25% reduction in their previous system due to consolidation and duplication removal.
• Our final Cogggle highlighted the entire system and was an easy tool to use for navigation.