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Axcelis

The Company

Testimonial

"PureSafety provides us with a unique combination of high quality semiconductor safety courses, a feature rich LMS and excellent customer support and professional services. I would highly recommend PureSafety to any company looking to improve and streamline the delivery and management of their safety training programs."

Jennifer Chittick
Senior Environmental Health and Safety Engineer

The Company Axcelis, headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts, is a leading producer of ion implantation equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductors. For more than two decades, Axcelis Technologies has delivered vital equipment, services and process expertise to the semiconductor manufacturing industry - helping customers reach higher levels of productivity with each new technology generation.

Axcelis' specialized field service organization encompasses a worldwide network of highly skilled support engineers dedicated to optimizing the performance and operation of Axcelis equipment. With more than 1,500 employees located in 16 countries, Axcelis' 51 offices are also strategically linked to locally stocked parts depots, providing critical parts with minimum delay to our regional full service repair centers.

Today, chipmakers from around the globe rely on Axcelis' tools and technology insights to produce the transistors that power all electronics - from desktops and servers to cell phones, cameras, personal music players and more. Axcelis' equipment portfolio comprises a powerful suite of manufacturing technologies.

The Challenge
Axcelis takes safety very seriously. The company has historically delivered safety training to its 400+ field employees working in its 50 locations in a classroom environment, which posed numerous challenges:

Lack of Relevant Training Content - Axcelis offers niche products and services to the Semiconductor industry and it operates in a unique manufacturing environment. As a result, few training suppliers offered the training courses Axcelis needed, which required them to build custom courses or deliver “generic” safety training.

Limited Training Time and Resources – Axcelis' safety training had to be structured around its production schedules, which resulted in numerous sessions made up of small groups of employees. This was both costly and time-consuming for the company's small group of available trainers who had to plan and present the information. With heavy training schedules and too few actual trainers, the company had few opportunities outside of its core training schedule for much needed refresher training.

Time Consuming Training Tracking and Reporting – The company employed a manual system for tracking employee training completion, which was difficult to maintain and required the dedication of a full-time employee.

High Training Costs – Maintaining an aggressive instructor-led training schedule for over 50 facilities is very expensive. Trainers were required to travel to both domestic and international destinations, resulting in over $100,000 a year in travel and salary related expenses.

Language Barriers – Operating a multi-national organization brings numerous training challenges. Many of Axcelis' international workers needed their safety training in a language other then English. This required the company to hire bi-lingual training staff, which increased costs and added an additional level of complexity to an already complex process.

After years of dealing with these many challenges, Axcelis decided to seek out a more efficient and effective method of delivering its safety training. The company wanted to deliver higher quality, industry specific training that was tailored to the semiconductor industry and in a form that was conducive to a global operation.

The Solution
In 2003, Axcelis turned to online training as a mechanism to best reach its global workforce with the appropriate training message. The company initially turned to ESH Connect, a provider of online safety training focused on the semiconductor industry. ESH Connect offered a unique suite of semiconductor safety courses and delivered them on a third-party Learning Management System (LMS) from an Australian-based company. In 2006, PureSafety acquired the semiconductor safety course assets from ESH Connect. Axcelis moved over to PureSafety's Enterprise LMS in February 2007, which gave them access to an improved training management platform and PureSafety's industry leading suite of 450+ EHS and HR courses.

The Results
Today, Axcelis is training over 1,500 employees globally on the PureSafety platform. All employees are receiving consistent, industry-specific safety training on a more frequent basis due to the 24/7 access that online training affords. In order to improve the training experience even further, Axcelis has also branded the PureSafety LMS - http://ehstraining.axcelis.com/login - and customized many of the training courses that PureSafety offers.

PureSafety has also helped reduce or eliminate many of the challenges the company originally experienced with more traditional training methods. Through the use of PureSafety, Axcelis has been able to:

Provide More Relevant Training Content - PureSafety is the only online safety training provider that offers a suite of semiconductor safety courses. This has helped Axcelis better communicate the company's unique safety issues and policies.

Improve Training Flexibility, While Reducing Downtime – By implementing an online safety training delivery and management solution, employees can access their training 24/7 from virtually any Internet-connected computer – whether at home or work. By providing more flexibility, Axcelis has been able to reduce time in training and increase productivity.

Improve Tracking and Reporting – All training is now scheduled through the PureSafety LMS, eliminating much of the manual components of the instructor-led program. All tracking of assignments and completion records are maintained within the system and reports can easily be retrieved and printed 24/7. The company is also better able to track employee comprehension of the material based on post-test performance.

Reduce Training Costs – The company's training costs have been reduced significantly since implementing PureSafety. According to Steve Roberge, Axcelis' EH&S Director, “Using PureSafety to train our field service staff has saved us approximately $100,000 in annual travel and salary expenses related to onsite training at our various field locations. I would estimate that we are saving over $75,000 a year by conducting the majority of our safety training online through PureSafety.”

Deliver High Quality EHS Training to its Foreign Language Speaking Employees – PureSafety has allowed Axcelis to deliver high quality EH&S training to its global workforce in multiple languages, including Spanish, German, French, and Italian. This has helped the company reinforce its safety message with its foreign language speaking employees and it ensures real transfer of knowledge.