As we enter week 5 of the MIT.nano ramp-up, our technical team is evaluating how the new gowning procedures have been working out, and what we can do to improve them.
As a reminder, the engaged locker numbers in CORAL are supposed to match the tags on the hangers in Fab-12, or the physical locker numbers in Fab-39. On Friday morning, we observed the following:
22 hangers were occupied in CORAL in Fab-12, in the gowning area we observed:
- 8 of 22 correctly placed & labeled, with gown with nametag on the CORAL hanger number!
- 10 of 22 labeled, but on the wrong hanger vs CORAL
- 4 of 22 reserved in CORAL, but no matching nametag on any gown
Additionally,
- 1 gown from someone who did not engaged in CORAL
- 3 gowns on a hanger without any nametag or other ownership indication
This high error rate suggests that our system is not clear enough, and that there is confusion about the procedures. As a result, this week in Fab-12 we will try out a few strategies to make things more intuitive and improve our success ratio.
We appreciate your help with this team effort, and a good contribution is to double-check and make sure your gown is on its matching CORAL number.
Some new procedures we’ll try:
- Adding label tape to the hanger for your name (similar to Fab-39 locker tape), so you can wear the plastic nametag inside the cleanroom and don’t need to remember your number (see photo above).
- Adding a computer to the gowning area so you can check/engage right there (e.g. if you forgot the number or forgot to engage).
- Signs & reminders where meaningful
As always, please email mitnano-feedback@mit.edu with any questions or suggestions.