Question/Answer

Question/Answer

Semiconductors are among the most complex products manufactured today. That fact, in combi­nation with the pace of change in the industry and the inherent difficulties in managing dynamic production environments, leads to up-and­down performance. After all, the need to produce a portfolio of different products, each of which requires a different amount of time or resources for production, inevitably creates inefficiencies, which result in financial losses. These losses can arise either from a drop in the utilization level of expensive labor and equipment or by an increase in lead times1 as material waits in queues (Pecht & Radojcic, 1998). Traditional methods ...