The Simulation and Forecast Model for Human Resources of Semiconductor Wafer Fab Operation

The efficiency of fabrication (fab) operation is one of the key factors in order for a semiconductor manufacturing company to stay competitive. Optimization of manpower and forecasting manpower needs in a modern fab is an essential part of the future strategic planing and a very important to the operational efficiency. As the semiconductor manufacturing technology has entered the 8-inch wafer era, the complexity of fab operation increases with the increase of wafer size. The wafer handling method has evolved from manual mode in 6-inch wafer fab to semi-automated or fully automated factory in 8-inch and 12-inch wafer fab. The distribution of manpower requirement in each specialty varied as the trend of fab operation goes for downsizing manpower with automation and outsourcing maintenance work. This paper is to study the specialty distribution of manpower from the requirement in a typical 6-inch, 8-inch to 12-inch wafer fab. The human resource planning in today’s fab operation shall consider many factors, which include the stability of technical talents. This empirical study mainly focuses on the human resource planning, the manpower distribution of specialty structure and the forecast model of internal demand/supply in current semiconductor manufacturing company. Considering the market fluctuation with the demand of varied products and the advance in process technology, the study is to design a headcount forecast model based on current manpower planning for direct labour (DL) and indirect labour (IDL) in Taiwan’s fab. The model can be used to forecast the future manpower requirement on each specialty for the strategic planning of human resource to serve the development of the industry.