S5E46 Carrie Hurlbut | Environmental, Health, & Safety at ASM

In this episode, Aaron Moncur interviews Carrie Hurlbut about her career journey and her role in leading environmental, health, and safety (EHS) initiatives at ASM, a global semiconductor equipment manufacturer. Carrie shares insights into the EHS field, the challenges of balancing practicality and creativity, and the importance of mentorship in her career development.

Main Topics Covered:

• Carrie's background and transition from biological sciences to engineering
• Understanding the role of EHS and its day-to-day activities
• Overview of ASM and the semiconductor industry
• Mitigating environmental and health risks in the manufacturing process
• Leveraging data analytics for better EHS outcomes
• The future of EHS and sustainability in the semiconductor industry
• Carrie's career path and the influence of mentors
• Balancing practicality and creativity in EHS projects
• Advice for engineers considering a career in EHS

About the guest: Carrie Hurlbut, the Director of Global Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) and Corporate Responsibility at ASM. With over 15 years in EHS roles, Carrie has led initiatives that bridge engineering with sustainability and workplace safety on a global scale. Her journey from studying biological sciences and environmental engineering to driving strategic EHS programs uniquely positions her to share valuable insights on aligning corporate responsibility with innovation, fostering inclusive leadership, and navigating the complexities of the semiconductor industry.

Links:
Carrie Hurlbut - LinkedIn
ASM website 

About Being An Engineer

The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.

The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us

Chapters

• 0:03 Carrie Hurlbut's Career Journey and Introduction to EHS
• 2:36 Understanding the Role of EHS
• 4:55 Overview of ASM and Its Industry Role
• 7:55 Mitigating Environmental and Health Risks
• 10:21 Data Analytics and EHS Outcomes
• 15:59 Future of EHS and Sustainability
• 18:18 Balancing Practicality with Creativity in EHS
• 22:01 Career Path in EHS and Mentorship
• 28:48 Memorable Experiences and Final Advice
• 34:15 Conclusion and Contact Information

Transcript

Aaron Moncur: 0:03

Do you want to automate but don't have time to develop the skill set, try our Easy Motion hardware and software bundle. It's like T slot extrusions or automation programming. The functional elements are already built for you. All you need to do is connect them together to create fast, easy and endlessly customizable motion solutions. Learn more at Team pipeline.us. You Hello and welcome to the being an engineer podcast. Today's guest is Carrie Hurlbut, the Director of Global Environmental Health and Safety and corporate responsibility at ASM with over 15 years in EHS roles, Carrie has led initiatives that bring engineering with sustainability and workplace safety on a global scale. Her journey from studying biological sciences and environmental engineering to driving strategic EHS programs uniquely positions her to share valuable insights on aligning corporate responsibility with innovation, fostering inclusive leadership and navigating the complexities of the semiconductor industry. Carrie, thank you so much for being with us today.

Carrie Hurlbut: 1:31

Thanks for having me.

Aaron Moncur: 1:32

So what made you decide to become an engineer?

Carrie Hurlbut: 1:37

Well, I come from a family of engineers, for one, but I always had just maybe a really strong affinity for for the sciences growing up, always my favorite classes in school, and that's kind of what led me to pursue a degree in biological sciences at Clemson, just taking classes that I had a real interest in without, You know, kind of a strong career goal in mind. This decision to then pursue an engineering degree was really to take my education to the next level, be able to use my science background and engineering to solve problems and really grow in my career. I definitely think that it did open, you know, a bunch of additional doors for me.

Aaron Moncur: 2:25

Yeah, awesome. As a kid, were you one that was building with Legos and, like, putting forts together and taking apart bicycles, or, you know, the typical pre engineering childhood?

Carrie Hurlbut: 2:36

Yeah, Absolutely. I have two brothers that are mechanical engineers. My dad, my uncle. So, yeah, that was kind of exactly how it went. So

Aaron Moncur: 2:47

you're, you're in EHS now, or environmental health and safety. Tell us a little bit about what that is. I don't know that we've had that role on the podcast before, and I feel like I could, you know, loosely define what that means, but I I don't know that I've ever even talked with someone who's that's their dedicated role so far. So help, help us understand what is that role like? What does EHS mean, and what are some of the like, the day to day activities and overall objectives of that role?

Carrie Hurlbut: 3:19

Yeah, you know to ask, I don't think I knew what EHS was in college, you know, certainly not in high school, but it stands for environment, health and safety, and it's really a multi disciplinary field that focuses on Protecting the environment and human health and workplace settings. So basically, what we do is we develop and implement programs that are designed to minimize or eliminate risks. Really the primary objective is to eliminate injuries, fatalities, illnesses, environmental harm, of course, and property damage.

Aaron Moncur: 4:04

And do you find that most of your time is spent on on the E, the H or the s, or is it kind of an even mix across all three? Yeah,

Carrie Hurlbut: 4:13

that's a great question. It is it just depends. You know, every single day is completely different. I really don't know what's going to happen day to day, but it's definitely more on the E, the H and the s these days, because as ASM has grown, we've also kind of expanded our team, and there's kind of a dedicated global environmental team now. Now we still support that team at each of our sites, but as we've grown, we've kind of split a little bit and much more focused on the health and safety from me and my team.

Aaron Moncur: 4:55

Cool, very cool ASM, can you talk a little bit about who. ASM is, and what you do in the industry? Just briefly,

Carrie Hurlbut: 5:03

yeah, ASM supplies wafer processing equipment to the leading semiconductor manufacturers. Most of it is for the deposition of what we call thin films. So we design, manufacture, sell and service these tools to supply our customers with the advanced technologies to produce semiconductor devices. So we're a global company. We have over 4500 employees located in 16 countries, countries, 65 nationalities. We have 7r D centers, and we've just been experiencing crazy growth. We've added over 2000 employees over the past two years. So pretty exciting time to be in this industry. Yeah,

Aaron Moncur: 5:56

wow. What a great problem to have so fast. What? What is it like? I know you're not doing the engineering per se, but maybe you can speak just briefly to what, what the engineering is like in the semiconductor industry. And since you're obviously most familiar with ASM, what's the day in the life of a ASM engineer like?

Carrie Hurlbut: 6:21

Well, at an R and D center, it's very diverse, right? We not only engineer and innovate with our tools, but we also do the same with our processes. So we have process engineering teams that are trying to develop and create those new, those newest thin films. And then we also have hardware engineering teams that are trying to innovate our tool sets again, to develop the kind of the latest and the greatest at the R and D centers we interact with all these you know, these engineers each and every day, as we try to make sure that what we're doing, we can do it in a safe manner and and also protect the environment at the same time,

Aaron Moncur: 7:15

when it comes to environment, health and safety, what are some of The major risks that you work towards mitigating each day. Yeah. So

Carrie Hurlbut: 7:25

you know, inherently, the tools use chemistries, and a lot of the chemistries that they use to deposit these films are highly reactive. They may be pyrophoric. Those are the chemistries that we're working with to deposit those films, and then the process is only so effective or efficient, so we're always trying to minimize the amount of environmental impact as well. So there's the safety aspect, just with with that's inherent with the materials that we're using, and then there's the environmental impact in that the processes aren't 100% efficient, so there's always this excess of material that we need to safely discharge.

Aaron Moncur: 8:12

What are some of the solutions that you use for discharging the excess chemistries these days? Yeah, so,

Carrie Hurlbut: 8:18

um, there's kind of a, kind of a wide variety of what we call abatement devices. And they use either a burn, so sometimes we have to we burn natural gas and then burn the excess emissions. Or they use kind of a burn, wet scrub. So we we burn and then we kind of rinse, the rinse the excess process through water. And then there's like, wet, burn wet. So there's got, like a kind of a whole host of different styles of abatement. There's also kind of a dry absorbent that can be used to absorb, you know, the excess emissions. There's all sorts of technologies, and we use them all, to be honest, we tried to use what's the best for, for what we are, you know, what we are discharging,

Aaron Moncur: 9:15

going, going back to the explosive growth. I shouldn't use that word explosion.

Carrie Hurlbut: 9:20

Yeah. No, not in the semiconductor

Aaron Moncur: 9:23

exponential growth that ASM has experienced recently. What? What do you think accounts for that? I know there's been this whole, like, Chip shortage, you know, starting with COVID. I think I heard there's factories that, like, burned down, and that's really where a lot of the chip shortage came from, not just supply chains being interrupted by COVID, and then we've got AI that is just taking off right now. Huge

Carrie Hurlbut: 9:48

factor, yeah, yeah. All those are big. Just the technology, just the advancing technology needs more and more tips, and, you know, more and more high and. More and more chips are just needed for the advancing technology. Okay?

Aaron Moncur: 10:03

So it's less to do with, you know, the COVID supply chain interruption, which probably has largely corrected itself at this point, and more to do with just emerging technology. Ai exploring more chips. So this, this is not a a quote, unquote problem that's going to go away, not

Carrie Hurlbut: 10:21

at all, not at all. And that's why I think we're investing so much money in the in the US, you know, in the semiconductor industry, and growing it, growing it here, yeah.

Aaron Moncur: 10:32

Okay, great. So one of the things that you've worked on is data analytics and implementing that into an enterprise system. How has this been leveraged for better? EHS outcomes?

Carrie Hurlbut: 10:47

Yeah, you know, this is still, you know, very much a work in progress for us. You know, for about, I'd say, you know, at least 12 years now, we've been gathering data from our entire workforce and what we call incidents, so proactive or reactive incidents or observations. So we've asked that any employee who identifies or is exposed to any safety or environmental event, you know, report the details of this incident into our enterprise system, which we we which we call shield, and then we use the system, of course, to, you know, to follow up on these events and implement corrective actions and root cause but, but what we've amassed is just, you know, a ton of data of when accidents or near misses occur, but not only when, but like, where they occur, you know, who's involved. Um, and we've always been able to kind of use this data to identify trends. Um, but now we really want to take it to the next level, like, you know, use some predictive analytics, um, to pick up on the trends that we don't see Right? Um, try to identify proactively, like, what might be happening, what might happen yet, and really use this data to obviously attack our problem areas, and, of course, like, stop something for happen, happening, you know, almost like Minority Report type things, but yeah, we really want to move more from reactive safety, which is kind of how it works, with the collection of this data, right? We're collecting data on accidents and near misses that have occurred, and we really want to move to that proactive approach.

Aaron Moncur: 12:40

Do you find that it's challenging to get employees to report these incidents?

Carrie Hurlbut: 12:47

So it's really kind of a constant drum beat of encouraging, reporting, encouraging leaders and managers to support when you know when things are reported. So it's definitely something that we are constantly reinforcing and working on. And I think you know when we can show what we're using this data for and how we might be able to prevent things from happening. Hopefully that'll be even more supportive of why we report.

Aaron Moncur: 13:24

I imagine on occasion, there might be employees who feel like being compliant with some of the rules and regulations that are put in place for EHS might feel like a burden or like it's it's encroaching on their productivity. Is that ever an issue that you need to deal with? And if so, how do you handle those situations? Yeah,

Carrie Hurlbut: 13:50

yeah, absolutely, of course. And with that, you know, that expectation we have just growing like crazy over the next few years, we want to be really careful with that, because we want employees to join an organization that has a safety culture and a safety mindset. So right off the bat, when they start as a new employee, they feel supported, and I feel, you know, that safety is important. So to do that, we're really trying to foster their safety culture. It's like our top top priority. You know, of course, that really starts with visible executive leadership, but we also encourage safety leadership at every level. We want every single person to model and prioritize safe behavior and really try to integrate, you know, integrate it into the DNA of our employees and again. So when. Do employees start? They just feel it right, like this is a safe company. This is how we behave, not kind of learn bad behaviors. That's probably not the right word, but so we really have, you know, this year, especially, we've really been prioritizing safety engagement, so lots of communications, lots of training, lots of continuous education programs where we really kind of reinforce that safety regulations are not a barrier to productivity, but, you know, actually a way to ensure, like long term, long term operational efficiency. So it's definitely always a struggle, but that's kind of our mindset and our goal, especially with all these new people coming on board. Yeah,

Aaron Moncur: 15:54

yeah. With with the growth that you're seeing and that you expect to continue seeing, how do you think that EHS is going to change over the next five to 10 years, if at all, maybe it's just, you know, keep doing the same thing. I don't know. Yeah,

Carrie Hurlbut: 16:10

over the next five to 10 years, we will have to, of course, kind of morph along with the organization. But I do see us getting more involved in sustainability activities. It's just kind of a huge I don't want to say it's a big buzzword, but a lot of the semiconductor manufacturers, you know, as well as equipment manufacturers have very like accelerated sustainability initiatives. And for example, ASM is pledged to meet a target of zero, net zero emissions by 2035, and a lot of our Yeah, our peers have done similar. A lot of our customers have also done this. So super aggressive GHG emission reduction goals. So that means for my team, I think that we'll not only have to support these initiatives to reduce the emissions at our own sites, um, but we also have to support, you know, all the research and development activities, um, for our product, you know, to help our customers also reach their targets.

Aaron Moncur: 17:36

Got it? Okay? Great. Well, let me take just a short break here and share with the listeners that the being an engineer podcast is brought to you by pipeline design and engineering, where we don't design pipelines, but we do help companies develop advanced manufacturing processes, automated machines and custom fixtures, complemented with product design and R D services. Learn more at Team pipeline.us. The podcast is also sponsored by the wave, an online platform of free tools, education and community for engineers, Learn more at the wave. Dot, engineer, we're speaking with Carrie Hurlbut today, Carrie this, this next question here, this might be a little bit of a challenging question to answer. I don't know. We'll see, and it's open to some interpretation even, but the question is, can you think of or share an instance where you had to balance practicality with creativity in an EHS project and like, what did that look like, what? What did you learn from the experience?

Carrie Hurlbut: 18:43

Um, you know, honestly, I feel like we get creative every day. Okay, um, you know, working, working in a really fast paced, um, research and development environment. Um, is definitely challenging and definitely have to get creative, because we're often testing new innovations, new hardware, you know, before maybe a fully vetted solution or procedure is really ready or in place. So this is kind of, I mean, this project like these is where I think, you know, ASM really excels at collaboration. So, so I guess kind of what it looks like would be, you know, a process team, you know, brainstorming with facilities, with equipment engineering, with hardware engineering, with product safety, with EHS, to find that kind of creative path forward where we can accomplish the goal, the testing, whatever it may be, safely. Again, it's it's not going to be that perfect solution that we would offer to a customer. And. Um, but it's a test that we're going to do in our lab. And so, like most often, what it would, you know, be, would be writing, you know, like writing out each step that we're going to do. We call it a pre Task Plan, and sure, others call it something different, but we literally write step by step, what we're going to do, how we're going to do it, who's going to do it, what the risks are, and and then we identify what measures we're going to take to minimize that risk. Yeah, so it definitely takes some creativity. A lot of times.

Aaron Moncur: 20:41

You know, when you say that it, it seems almost deceptively simple, right? I'm just going to write out every step that we're going to take, and I'm going to write down who's involved, right? But I bet that's so powerful, even as a preliminary tool in starting your risk assessment and risk mitigation.

Carrie Hurlbut: 21:00

Yeah, absolutely. And like, sometimes these pre test plans actually end up becoming, perhaps you're not the start of the of the real procedure, of the real thing. But, yeah, it's deceptively simple, but there's lots of eyes on it with everybody, maybe, like, taking, like, maybe just a little bit different look at it. And sometimes just, that's what we need, right? We because sometimes, with EHS, maybe we become a little bit too hyper, focused on, on doing it one way, the you know, this way, but someone's like, Well, how about we try and then we do this, and it's actually kind of a fun process, especially when we succeed. Yeah, right. Everyone like that.

Aaron Moncur: 21:53

I imagine there are some engineers listening to this right now who are thinking, huh, EHS. I've never really thought about that before, but that sounds kind of cool, like keeping people safe. I could feel fulfilled doing that. What? What does the like career path development look like for an engineer who might like to move into that field? Yeah,

Carrie Hurlbut: 22:14

it definitely is rewarding. You know, there's definitely a satisfaction of of doing your part to protect the environment and making sure your work for your workforce goes home each night to their families, right? You can definitely find that that rewarding piece my path was probably a little bit different than everybody else's path. There are degree programs where you can get a degree in environmental, health and safety. I don't know that those existed back, you know, back when I graduated from high school, but you can go that very direct route. Also, I know a lot of people that have engineering degrees, maybe chemical engineering or electrical engineering, and have decided that they want to change careers and make that sweat that swap. And I think if you're considering making a change to EHS, and maybe you're already working somewhere, I would suggest, just like reaching out to your local team, your local EHS team, you know, they're always looking for advocates, right? They're always looking for people to lead an initiative, a safety initiative, or be a leader for their area. So I think that's a great path to take, if you're thinking about it. Maybe just, you know, see if you can work with the team. See what you think, get some experience. I know the EHS team is always grateful for this type of support. And I think it's, you know, valuable experience,

Aaron Moncur: 23:53

yeah. How about mentors? Did you have any mentors coming up in this role and, like, what? How influential, how important was that, you

Carrie Hurlbut: 24:05

know, um, you know, when I reflect back on on my career, and I did a lot, you know, kind of thinking about this podcast, I feel like super, incredibly fortunate. Um, I, I had my first internship after I had already graduated from Clemson, I was at the University of Maryland. I was pursuing a bio engineering degree, and I got an internship with the Environmental Resources Department at Northrop Grumman. They're a big defense contractor, and this was in Baltimore, and I joined this amazing team of environmental engineers, and I think that's when I first realized that this could be my career. You know this, I don't think I've never heard of VHS, and being hired into that team, I. Um, yeah, I just again. I just feel so fortunate. And that summer internship actually extended into a part time position when I went back to school in the fall. And then the following semester, my manager at the time, Jay Holly, he convinced me to take a full time position at Northrop Grumman and have them start paying for my degree. Um, you know, at that point, I was working part time, I was taking out student loans. Um, and he said, Why don't you come to work for Northrop Grumman full time transfer to a night school program at Johns Hopkins, and, you know, we'll start paying for your tuition, and you'll get paid a salary. And I was hesitant, which is funny, right? Like, I was like, why? I don't know. I don't know. And he's like, trust me, like, this is the smart move here. And, yeah, he had to actually convince me of that. And that's where, also at Northrop Grumman, I was assigned as the environmental engineer at their advanced technologies Laboratory, which is a small semiconductor foundry that's also in Baltimore. And I got, you know, I gathered such great experience. You know, I completed my degree at night. And you know, I'm just forever grateful for, you know, that team. And then, you know the opportunity convincing me to take the opportunity. You know that I, you know, I can't say enough. And then still, when I was still at Northrop Grumman, maybe, you know, you know, about seven years later, still in Baltimore, another Northrop Grumman employee for a different division gave me an opportunity to move from being an environmental engineer to becoming an EHS manager at their night vision site in in Tempe, Arizona. And you know, again, I'm moving from, you know, an engineer to a manager position. I was hesitant, you know, I wasn't sure, but this gentleman, Kevin, you know, assured me that this was a good move. I won't let you fail. And that's kind of how I managed to go from, you know, an environmental engineer to to EHS and again, like forever grateful for for Northrop Grumman and and that team for showing me a career path, you know, and then, and then helping me to make the right decisions, yeah, yeah. And always supporting me on the journey. I still talk to them to this, you know, to this day. And that's, you know, 19 years ago now, or something. I guess I think you said in the beginning I was had 15 years of experience. I think it's more like 20 almost. But yeah, I the mentors were everything.

Aaron Moncur: 28:05

Yeah, that's, that's huge. I mean, how important it is to have good mentors that help you make decisions that maybe you don't see yourself at the time.

Carrie Hurlbut: 28:13

I didn't, I really didn't. I had some sort of strange loyalty to the University of Maryland. I'm sure they did not care whether I left their program or not, right? But, yeah, yeah, I reflect on that a lot, and I'm very thankful, yeah,

Aaron Moncur: 28:30

how interesting these at the time might seem like small events change the course of our of our lives, of our careers,

Carrie Hurlbut: 28:40

exactly, exactly? Yeah,

Aaron Moncur: 28:44

well, looking back reflecting of the past 1520, years of your career, especially in EHS what? What's one of the most memorable or or rewarding experiences that you have had in that that EHS environment?

Carrie Hurlbut: 29:02

One of my, I would say, my favorite projects that did involve some engineering was it was at the Phoenix site and was completed as a partnership with our facilities team and the direct, you know, she's now the Director of Facilities at the Phoenix site, but yummy, Taylor, because our site is an R and D campus. You know, much of that time that water isn't even seeing any process. It's just flowing into the scrubber and down the drain, right? And so we put in a water reclamation system, um, and it reduced water usage at the site by over 60% Wow, um, and at that time, yeah, that's at that time, it achieved a 30% reduction in ASMs global water use. We so we. Reduced at 60% of Phoenix and then, and so it was just a huge, huge win, right? That is amazing,

Aaron Moncur: 30:07

yeah. What a story. Yeah,

Carrie Hurlbut: 30:13

yeah. And now we're, she and I are planning or working on a new site in Scottsdale, and we're already talking about the water reclamation system there, and we're hoping to upper game, you know, get at least 80% efficiency. So, you know, that was kind of like a fun one. I remember, you know, the high fives, whatever, when that one went online.

Aaron Moncur: 30:42

Wow, that's incredible. What an amazing feeling that that must have been. What? What advice would you give to engineers who are considering either a career in EHS or a career change to EHS?

Carrie Hurlbut: 31:00

Um, I would I would say, try to find an internship, gain some job experience. I think that's huge. Obviously, that was a real game changer for me. Um, it is definitely a challenging but rewarding career, and not a single day is the same. But as I said earlier, you know, it really does give you an opportunity to make a difference. So what if that's what you're looking for? And I think we all are, I would definitely recommend it, but I guess the best advice I can give you is to try to get some experience. I think that will help when you go to the job market. I'm always looking for new hires, but new hires with some experience. So, and that could be an internship, but that could be, you know, perhaps you working on just projects at your site, even though it's not your primary role. But I think that the job experience is really important

Aaron Moncur: 32:13

What type of person or for people with what type of characteristics or behaviors or preferences, would you not recommend moving into EHS,

Carrie Hurlbut: 32:31

I think you have to be a team player. You know, I mentioned a couple the example where we get creative, and you can see that it's like we're working with a very diverse team with the same goal. You have to be able to be a team player. It's not really for the lone wolf. I would say it's also important to be able to try to get out and meet people, touch people, talk to people, be willing to listen when they bring a concern to you. So if you are someone that might not like to have that social interaction with people, maybe not the right position. Um, because it's really important that you're approachable. I think in my mind, um, that people will come to you. You had mentioned, you know, you don't want people hiding things. You want them to bring them forward, that they're worried, that they're concerned, that this is happening or or they're struggling. Um, so I think it's really important to kind of have that sort of a personality, as well as being a team player. Because you really, you know, there was a time where I felt like I knew every single person at our site, and I think, and I love that, and I thought that that was very important. Now that we've gotten a lot bigger, I don't know that that's possible, but I do think that it's, it's an important piece of the job.

Aaron Moncur: 34:04

That's great, very actionable advice. Okay, well, Carrie, I think we'll, we'll wrap things up now. Is there anything that we haven't covered that you think we should talk about Before ending this episode?

Carrie Hurlbut: 34:21

Not that I can think of. You know, I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you today. It's, it's been fun. Love to share my career journey, and if anyone wants to reach out to me, they are, are more than welcome to do that.

Aaron Moncur: 34:36

Great. What's the best way to for people to get a hold of you? I

Carrie Hurlbut: 34:39

think the best is probably just to message me on LinkedIn.

Aaron Moncur: 34:42

Okay, so not going to give out home addresses, not today, maybe on your return trip to the show. Okay, all right. Well, Carrie, thank you so much for being with us today and sharing your career journey and some insights into the the marvelous world of EHS.

Carrie Hurlbut: 35:00

Thank you.

Aaron Moncur: 35:02

I'm Aaron Moncur, founder of pipeline design and engineering. If you liked what you heard today, please share the episode to learn how your team can leverage our team's expertise developing advanced manufacturing processes, automated machines and custom fixtures complemented with product design and R D services. Visit us at Team pipeline.us. To join a vibrant community of engineers online. Visit the wave. Dot, engineer, thank you for listening.