Abstract
Cycle time reduction plays an important role in improving the competitiveness and sustainability of a semiconductor manufacturer. However, in the past, cycle time reduction was usually unplanned owing to the lack of a systematic and quantitative procedure. To tackle this problem, a systematic procedure was established in this study for planning cycle time reduction actions to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of a semiconductor manufacturer. First, some controllable factors that are influential to the job cycle time are identified. Subsequently, the relationship between the controllable factors and the job cycle time is fitted with a back propagation network. Based on this relationship, actions to shorten the job cycle time can be planned. The feasibility and effectiveness of an action have to be assessed before it can be taken in practice. An example containing the real data of hundreds of jobs has been used to illustrate the applicability of the proposed methodology. In addition, the financial benefits of the cycle time reduction action were analyzed, which provided the evidence that the proposed methodology enabled the sustainable development of the semiconductor manufacturer, since capital adequacy is very important in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.
Highlights
The cycle time of a job is the time required for the job to go through the factory
This study aims to establish a systematic procedure for planning cycle time reduction actions to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of a semiconductor manufacturer
Enhancing the competitiveness and sustainability has been pursued by every semiconductor manufacturer
Summary
The cycle time (flow time, or manufacturing lead time) of a job is the time required for the job to go through the factory. (1) Each job represents an opportunity cost for the factory. (3) In a semiconductor manufacturing factory, the risk that a wafer is contaminated increases if the cycle time is long. These issues are related with cycle time, cost, and yield (i.e., product quality). Support from the government enabled the continued growth of semiconductor manufacturers in some regions, such as Taiwan and South Korea. After such support disappears, how to continue to maintain competitiveness and sustainability becomes a big problem. That helps to expand the market share and to ensure sustainability
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