Since building its first GaAs wafer fabrication facility in 1997, RF Micro Devices has grown into the world's largest consumer of GaAs substrates. The vast majority of these wafers pass through its internal MBE facility for the deposition of HBT and PHEMT epilayers before being kitted into lots for the 4- and 6-in GaAs wafer fabs. Rapid growth, a continuing push to reduce costs, and commitment to shipping the highest quality epiwafers have been primary forces driving activity within our MBE operation. In this paper, we present an introduction to RFMD and its GaAs HBT and PHEMT manufacturing capabilities and scale. This will be followed by a discussion of strategies applied to increasing operational efficiencies, reducing costs and reducing process variation. This includes maximizing system uptime and developing a process that is well-documented, automated as much as possible, and robust such that output is consistent regardless of having half a dozen different types of MBE systems, a dozen engineers and several dozen MBE technicians operating the equipment. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.