A system approach to controlling semiconductor manufacturing operations

Abstract

Semicoductor manufacturers, faced with stiffening competition in both product cost and quality, require improved utilization of their development and manufacturing
resources. Manufacturing philosophy must be changed, from focusing on short term results, to support continuous improvements in both output and quality. Such improvements demand better information management to monitor and control
the manufacturing process. From these considerations, a process control methodology was developed using concepts and tools from cybernetics and statistics
and was successfully applied in semiconductor fabrication plants. Three case studies are included to demonstrate the use of the methodology on specific manufacturing problems.