Commissioning a 1.3 million square foot semiconductor fab is hard. Doing it while the facility runs, with zero interruptions to live manufacturing, is another problem entirely.

Robert Lesnau from Stantec and Mike Henry from GlobalWafers America will walk through how the first U.S. based 300mm wafer fab in Sherman, TX was commissioned, greenfield to production in under two years, and how they adapted testing around active production.

Key Takeaways

• Adaptive commissioning beats rigid plans. Real-time prioritization kept work moving around live production instead of stopping it.
• Communication is the best control system. After a near-miss, daily energization coordination meetings unified construction, operations, and Cx.
• Technology amplifies execution. Running 6,200+ assets, 3,000+ checklists, and nearly 300 FPTs kept field execution and project status connected across two contractors per trade.
• Coordination makes zero downtime possible. Systems were tested and available to the owner before substantial completion, with no impact to live manufacturing.