Critical equipments decision support system for process layout environment: a case of wafer FAB

The high volatility of customer demands and the fast change in technology have resulted in production requirements with high variety and customization. A process layout of production design is capable of offering a high degree of potential product-mix to meet the customers’ requirements. Despite the advantages of the process layout, it is difficult to detect the problems such as smooth processes flows and associated performance in the system while a lot of flows are looping or iterating. This research proposes a decision support system to determine the vital few types of equipment by applying the design structure matrix (DSM) technology if the issues of iterating are largely involved. A industry application in semiconductor wafer fabrication illustrates that our approach is implemented to show the results, which indicate the prioritized processes/equipments based on our finding assisting mangers decision-making for resources allocation and process improvement.