Virtual inter-firm collaborative framework—An IC foundry merger/acquisition project

This study proposes a novel virtual collaborative framework to assist in analyzing and designing logistical processes for inter-firm merger/acquisitions in the IC foundry industry. To elucidate the different but correlated issues when developing the framework, enterprise ontology theory is adopted to deal with knowledge-sharing problems involving merger/acquisition partners. Additionally, several analytical methods, including collaborative production lifecycle chain diagram, process chain diagram and unified modeling language (UML), are utilized for analyzing issues at different levels to design a virtual prototype for mergers/acquisitions.