Methods and apparatus are provided for the chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) of a surface of a work piece. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention the apparatus comprises a plurality of CMP systems, a plurality of load cups for loading unprocessed work pieces into and unloading processed work pieces from the plurality of CMP systems, a plurality of cleaning stations for cleaning processed work pieces unloaded from the CMP systems, and a single robot configured to transfer unprocessed work pieces to the plurality of load cups and to transfer processed work pieces from the load cups to the plurality of cleaning stations.