Benchmarking semiconductor manufacturing

We are studying the manufacturing performance of semiconductor wafer fabrication plants in the US, Asia, and Europe. There are great similarities in production equipment, manufacturing processes, and products produced at semiconductor fabs around the world. However, detailed comparisons over multi-year intervals show that important quantitative indicators of productivity, including defect density (yield), major equipment production rates, wafer throughput time, and effective new process introduction to manufacturing, vary by factors of 3 to as much as 5 across an international sample of 28 fabs. We conduct on-site observations, and interviews with manufacturing personnel at all levels from operator to general manager, to better understand reasons for the observed wide variations in performance. We have identified important factors in the areas of information systems, organizational practices, process and technology improvements, and production control that correlate strongly with high productivity. Optimum manufacturing strategy is different for commodity products, high-value proprietary products, and foundry business.