Evaluating capacity pooling strategy in semiconductor manufacturing: a productivity perspective study

Abstract

Recently, increasing attention has been focusing on the concept of the borderless fab, which expands capacity through a manufacturing strategy rather than capital investments. In a borderless fab, the capacity of several wafer fabs is pooled, and partially completed wafers are allowed to move from one fab to another. This paper proposes a model to evaluate the potential benefits of adopting capacity pooling from the macro-viewpoint. We demonstrate our model using actual full-scale fab-level operational data, and the result reveals that capacity pooling can improve monthly capacity by 3% on average.

Keywords:

• manufacturing strategy
• capacity pooling
• borderless fab
• performance evaluation
• semiconductor manufacturing

Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by the National Science Council, Taiwan (NSC 97-2221-E-009-113) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (96A0280J8).

Notes

Notes

1. Please refer to Fare et al. (1994) for comprehensive information.

2. However, we are not able to reveal any detailed information due to manufacturer confidentiality.