Roadblocks to productivity improvement in the semiconductor industry

Summary form only given. Semiconductor manufacturing is one of the most complicated production environments for such reasons as: reentrant product flows; variant batching; clean room environments (imposing constraints on the layout and operations); complicated equipment to fix; and inherent conflict between the need for customized products on the one hand, and high volume, low cost production on the other. Opportunities for productivity improvement, what the authors call “visions of excellence in semiconductor manufacturing” are hindered by these roadblocks. They propose some indicators for the identification of each of the top five roadblocks and the possible industrial engineering solutions for tackling each of them. These top five roadblocks have been identified based on their industry experience and the interviews they have had with many managers in the semiconductor industry