Disclosed herein is a system and method for producing semiconductor devices using overlays, the method comprising associating one or more patterned overlays with respective ones of reserved regions in a layer template, receiving a layer design based on the layer template, identifying the reserved regions in the layer design, generating a production layer design based on the layer design, the production layer design describing at least one production overlay in one of the reserved regions, and fabricating one or more devices based on the production layer design.