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The semiconductor industry in Taiwan has received excellent performance ratings in the past. SinoPac’s statistics in January, 2016 found that two of the top four global packaging and testing companies are from Taiwan, including ASE Group and SPIL. In the IC packaging process, the wire bonding machine requires careful attention. It is also costly at approximately 50% of the equipment investment. Thus, this paper focuses on wire bonding machines’ production problems. According to the on-site interviews, three key control modules are identified, which may change a machine to an out-of-control state and are responsible for 90% of the defective products. A mathematical model is developed to determine the optimal production time of an imperfect production process. Taking the time value of money, the objective is to minimise the total of the set-up cost, inventory cost and the defect cost. Besides applying MacLaurin Series, a math property and an effective solution range are derived to help obtain near-optimal solutions. For the justification of solution quality, the bisection method working on practical data is used. Finally, managerial insights are explored from observed outputs through the changes of various parameters. Moreover, these explorations are confirmed by experts in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores whether the recognition of asset impairments provides an opportunity for earnings management by examining changes in the performance. First, we apply a dynamic data envelopment analysis model to evaluate the operating performance of Taiwanese electronics firms for the period from 2004 to 2013. Statistical tests are next applied to assess the average efficiency variation between the periods before and after firms recognise asset impairments. Several empirical findings are as follows: managers recognise asset impairments when their firms have poor performance as compared to other firms that do not record any asset impairments recognition, and that their performance keeps on improving in both the year of recognising asset impairments and the year after asset impairments recognition. That is, managers tend to recognise asset impairments to improve operating performance, while the firms are performing poorly, supporting the opportunistic behaviour theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a global supply chain quality management (SCQM) framework as an extension of the traditional supply chain operations and quality management. Three distinct groups of variables are adopted in this study to illustrate the conceptual framework: a hierarchy of design variables, a hierarchy of system variables, and a hierarchy of problem solving methods. The aim of this theoretical framework is to offer practical guidelines to global business leaders and their value chain partners. This study also involves interviews with senior executives from a multinational enterprise in Taiwan. Four major SCQM themes are identified - design for six sigma (DFSS); international standards; supply chain management (SCM); global leadership and human resource management. In this study, we also view the cycle of decision making as an integral part of any global SCQM strategy. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to develop priority indices for the following three hierarchical levels: environmental scanning, strategic choice, and tactical choice. The presented framework adopts a systems approach and ensures that quality conscious products are designed, manufactured, and distributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work, based on a real case, presents a model to estimate indirect workforce requirements of semiconductor fabrication facilities (fabs) so that the workforce can be fairly allocated. There is a concern in a real setting to fairly allocate the overall corporate workforce among the fabs, particularly when they compete in performance, and properly determining the actual requirement is the most critical in the decision process. The actual requirements of the workforce, especially the indirect workforce, for fabs may be indeterminate due to the lack of a well-defined workforce-output relationship. This paper presents a non-parametric frontier approach for estimating the indirect workforce, and the estimate is based on the best past performance adjusted to reflect the expected productivity growth. An empirical study was conducted in a leading foundry in Taiwan that has a number of 8-inch fabs. The proposed (re)allocation approach can provide an explicit decision support mechanism to balance the workloads in light of various production environments to enable an equitable basis for performance evaluation to foster constructive competition among the fabs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The competitiveness of an individual firm depends upon the competitiveness of the value chain to which it belongs. The core constraint of virtually every chain is that chains are structured, measured and managed in parts, i.e. vertically disintegrated, rather than as a whole. Assessing the performance of vertically disintegrated firms can provide an insight of how each firm acts in such a value chain. This paper aims to study the operating performance of the vertically disintegrated chain in the integrated circuits (IC) industry. A performance evaluation was completed for 48 leading vertically disintegrated semiconductor companies in Taiwan, including 17 in design, 10 in fabrication and 21 in packaging/testing, using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach which inherently recognises tradeoffs among various measures. The empirical results indicate that the IC design firms perform better than IC fabrication and IC packaging/testing firms. Overall, semiconductor firms in Taiwan still have room for performance improvement. In addition, the empirical results suggest that an IC company's scale of size does play an important role in influencing its operating efficiency. One can increase performance by consolidating with other smaller units to achieve an optimal size. In addition, an analysis of operating performance by DEA can provide a semiconductor firms' operations with insights into resource allocation competitive advantages, and help with strategic decision-making, especially regarding operational styles under an intense competitive environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although nearly two decades have elapsed since the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) announced the ISO 9000 series standards in March 1987, there have been few attempts to explore the reasons why certified firms may fail to maintain ISO certification. In this paper, survey data from certified firms in Taiwan are used to examine the differences between firms that maintain certification and those that do not in terms of the benefits that firms felt they had obtained from certification. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) is used in order simultaneously to assess group differences across the 16 multiple dependent organizational benefit variables, covaried for company size and certification motives. Our findings show that those certified firms that maintain certification gain more benefits from the standards than those that do not. This study also demonstrates that firms' motives for obtaining certification have an impact on the strength of the relationship between the maintenance of certification and the benefits gained. However, company size does not appear to affect the strength of the relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a semiconductor supply chain becomes widespread and the competition pressure is very fierce, the detrimental effects of increasing varieties and variations are magnified in the supply chain. But many important issues, such as different service priorities, adaptability, controllability and scalability of performance metrics, have not been addressed in the literature. Conventional modelling techniques of supply chain operations are no longer effective for supply chain configuration. Therefore, a proposed empirical model was first built to catch up the relationship between supply-chain configuration and metrics under the influence of the variability sources. Next, an optimal supply chain configuration model is formulated as a polynomial goal programming model to accommodate different goal objectives. Finally, an efficient solution methodology is further developed to find out the optimal supply chain configuration. Our results show that our proposed approach can easily be adapted to the practices in semiconductor supply chain, and the solution methodology developed in this paper is truly promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing companies in newly industrialized countries contribute substantially to their global innovation networks. Those manufacturers perform not only production and physical distribution functions, but also design and engineering functions in the processes of bringing new products world-wide. This paper examines the relationship between manufacturing strategy of those original equipment manufacturers (OEM) suppliers and network innovation agility. No single best strategy can fit all OEM suppliers. They can choose either to be dedicated OEM service providers or to sell their own-brand products. Either strategy can be effective in terms of innovation agility. However, once the OEM manufacturing strategy has been chosen, a manufacturer should adopt an appropriate way to manage its product innovation process. A dedicated OEM supplier should emphasize manufacturing flexibility and pursue a product modularity strategy to enhance network innovation agility, while cross-functional integration is the key for successful manufacturers with own-brand products. For both dedicated OEM suppliers and own-brand ones, market orientation is essential for network innovation agility. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing and its related technologies are now becoming the leading trend in the development of the manufacturing industry. One of the key drivers of Industry 4.0 is big data analytics, which can transform large amounts of data into useful information, enabling astute and rapid decision-making strategies when combined with expert domain knowledge. The semiconductor industry is the most important high-tech industry in Taiwan, but it is also one of the most energy-consuming industries in the country. Therefore, it is critical to improve the efficiency of the manufacturing process and reduce the overall energy consumption of facility systems. This research demonstrates how to apply big data analytics in the semiconductor industry to explore the relationships of various machine parameters, develop predictive models for machine energy efficiency and apply optimisation tools to minimise energy consumption, while meeting the production demands. An empirical study is conducted in conjunction with a semiconductor corporation in Taiwan, targeting the air compressor system in its factory. The research framework is shown to be capable of assisting semiconductor fabrication plant decision-makers in optimising machine configurations, resulting in more than 10% savings on energy consumption and significantly decreased manufacturing costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have stressed that manufacturing system flexibility research requires a quantitative model allowing a manufacturing system to prioritize its flexibility dimension and promote the performance of the manufacturing system. A quantification model presented in the present research is demonstrated to assess the degree of environmental uncertainty and illustrates a method for delivering the requirement of flexibility improvement for the manufacturing system so that the company is able to prioritize the types of manufacturing flexibility which a manufacturing system requires in an uncertain environment. Quantitative approaches including quality function deployment (QFD), analytical hierarchy process (AHP), and grey relational analysis (GRA) have been employed to find a means for improving the flexibility of a manufacturing system to cope with environmental uncertainty. QFD is the focal approach for the deployment of the integrated structure of the research. AHP is applied to explore the relative weighted importance of environmental uncertainty factors, while GRA is used to find out the relationships between manufacturing flexibility and environmental uncertainty. A combination of these approaches reveals a useful tool for managers to prioritize the types of flexibility which a manufacturing system requires for coping with an uncertain environment. In particular, the present research studied the manufacturing flexibility requirements of a food company in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An inter-metal dielectric (IMD) is deposited between metal layers to provide isolation capability to a device and separate the different metal layers that are unnecessary in the conduction of electricity. Owing to the complicated input/response relationships of the IMD process, the void problem results in electric leakage and causes wafer scraping. In the current study, we combined neural networks, genetic algorithms (GAs) and the desirability function in order to optimise the parameter settings of the IMD process. Initially, a backpropagation (BP) neural network was developed to map the complex non-linear relationship between the process parameters and the corresponding responses. Moreover, the desirability function and GAs were employed to obtain the optimum operating parameters in respect to each response. The implementation of the proposed approach was carried out in a semiconductor manufacturing company in Taiwan, and the results illustrate the practicability of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pigment industry provides a wide range of products with small lots to its customers so the strategy is for mass-customisation. In this study, six factors are proposed and analysed to explore their influence on the customisation level. A regression analysis is conducted for the relationship between the six affecting factors and the level of mass-customisation. Data from a real pigment company in Taiwan is used as a case study. The results indicate that all the proposed factors, return of investment of inventory, inventory turnover, capacity efficiency, capacity utilisation, rate of delivery on time, and time for finishing a unit of a job, statistically affect the mass-customisation level in the pigment company. A company can decide its mass-customisation level according to the proposed relationship model of affecting factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]