Manufacturing performance evaluation in wafer semiconductor factories

Purpose - To provide an overview of the most commonly used performance and productivity evaluation metrics in the semiconductor industry in order to understand both the impact of the different metrics and the relationship between them, and to identify emerging opportunities for future research. Design/methodology/approach - A range of recently published works (1988‐2003), which aim to provide engineering‐oriented approaches for the analysis of manufacturing operations in the semiconductor industry, is reviewed and critiqued to help researchers and practitioners to well understand the impacts of implementing such performance metrics. After a background on performance management, the metrics are sorted into sections and analysed both individually and in comparison with one another. Findings - Information about each performance index, mainly indicating how it is applied to semiconductor fabrication, as well as the internal and external factors that affect it. A list of relevant scientific works related to these topics is presented. Research limitations/implications - This paper only focuses on a review of manufacturing performance in the semiconductor industry. Nevertheless, the analysis does not limit the applicability of some concepts to other types of manufacturing industries. Practical implications - A very successful source of information and analysis that has general applicability as a reference tutorial for practitioners and researchers within the operations and production management community, and especially for those working with the integrated circuit semiconductor industry. Originality/value - By adding a management dimension, this paper is a useful synthesis of practitioners' insights and of the contents of research papers that have been traditionally engineering‐oriented. This analysis has general applicability as a reference tutorial for practitioners and researchers within the operations and production management community.