A DEA window analysis on the product family mix selection for a semiconductor fabricator

In a competitive market, semiconductor fabricator must face an environment with multi-product types, multi-priority orders and demand changes in time. Since semiconductor fabrication has a very complicated production process, the above-stated characteristics make the production planning even more difficult. This paper applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) to find a set of product family mix that is efficient for the company to produce. To ensure long-term effectiveness in productivity and in profit gaining, window analysis is adopted to seek the most recommended set of product family mixes for manufacturing by measuring the performance changes over time. With this method, the performance of a mix in one period is compared not only with the performance of other mixes but also with its own performance in other periods. The proposed mechanism can provide guidance to the fabricator regarding strategies for aggregate planning so as to improve manufacturing efficiency.