It's the Most Indispensable Machine in the World--and It Depends on This Woman

[dalton99a]

3. Kick

“There’s a hose that isn’t doing what it’s supposed to,” she declared.

A blockage in the water line meant the hose wasn’t cooling properly—and now it was having some heat issues. When she touched the hose, Hall could feel a minor distortion. Which had the potential to be a major problem. Even this barely perceptible warpage could bring the whole machine down if the hose burst. That rupture would activate the leak sensor and trigger an immediate stop—the equivalent of smashing one of those red emergency buttons.

ASML’s engineers knew this circuit was under strain and had a plan to address it during the next scheduled down. But that was still three weeks away.

They could wait until then. Or she could just solve the problem now.

Hall laid out the situation to a Micron official and he authorized her to proceed with the repair on the spot.

And that’s when she reached for two Home Depot buckets.

She needed the orange pails that cost $3.98 at the hardware store before she could fix a machine that sells for a few hundred million dollars. To swap out the hose without spraying water everywhere, Hall drained the water line until both tubs were almost full. She carefully replaced the Teflon hose, attached thermal sensors for monitoring and shut the door behind her.