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Semiconductor wafer fabrication (FAB) is recognized as one of the most complex manufacturing systems. A newly built FAB has to pass various audits from its customer before the customer's wafers are initially produced. 5S audit is among one of them. When building a state-of-the-art 300 mm/130 μm FAB, it is common to find hundreds of action items to complete in order to comply with the customer's (auditor) expectations toward 5S practice. The purpose of this paper is to assist wafer fabrication managers in allocating the limited resources on 5S practice to the places that are valued most by their customer.

This study proposes an application of the Kano model with a modified customer satisfaction coefficient (CS coefficient) to effectively prioritize thousands of action items for a wafer fabrication.

Some new discoveries associated with shop floor management that may be neglected by academicians and practitioners are presented here. Surprisingly, greatly substantial non-linear contributions of attractive to-scene management are revealed with little efforts on the 5S practice. These attributes prove to be impressive to customers and typical instructions beneficial to future 5S practice are embraced as well.

A real case drawn from a 300 mm semiconductor wafer FAB in Taiwan is analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach.

From the adoption of this proposed methodology, an influential set of specific required checkpoints for 5S practice is transformed from subjective, conceptual and linguistic practice to be identified, quantified and prioritized for semiconductor wafer fabrication under resources constraints to cater the customer's 5S expectations and to generate more attentions in building-up a much more robust scene management.

Semiconductor wafer fabrication (FAB) is recognized as one of the most complex manufacturing systems. A newly built FAB has to pass various audits from its customer before the customer's wafers are initially produced. 5S audit is one of them. In order to comply with customer (auditor) expectations toward 5S practice, this paper assists wafer fabrication managers in allocating the limited resources to places that are valued most by their customer. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper applied Yang's refined Kano model to Ho's 5S checklist to prioritise these checkpoints for a FAB. An empirical study based on Ho's 5S checklist from experienced internal auditors (respondents) to prioritise 5S activities was explored to justify its feasibility for a FAB and importance-satisfaction for customer.

An empirical study in a case FAB demonstrated how the refined model prioritised 5S activities based on Ho's 5S checklist. The result of this study further showed that quality attributes possess different identities, which could offer management more framable scopes to implement 5S practice and sustain 5S scene management.

Since this empirical study was focused on a 300-mm wafer fabrication company, the results and findings may not generally explain other wafer-size fabrications.

This study was applied to a real-world case of a newly built 300-mm semiconductor fabrication in Taiwan. It is a straightforward bridge to link a methodology in a practical manner to disseminate information to both researchers and practitioners.

From the adoption of the refined Kano model, specific required check points for 5S practice are transformed from subjective, conceptual and linguistic practice to be identified, quantified and prioritised for semiconductor wafer fabrication under resources constraints to cater customer's 5S expectations and to generate more attention in building-up a much more robust scene management. This paper provided a systemic way to prioritise 5S activities for a semiconductor wafer fabrication.