Application of a layout/material handling design method to a furnace area in a 300 mm wafer fab

For many years, material handling within the semiconductor industry has become increasingly important. With the introduction of 300 mm wafer production, ergonomics and product safety become more critical. Therefore, the manufacturers of semiconductor wafer fabs are considering the automation of intrabay material handling. In this paper, a routine and efficient design method consisting of two parallel iterative procedures is proposed to overcome the complexity and the amount of time required for material handling design. Since material handling is a nonproductive item supporting the value-adding manufacturing activities, it should be minimised. This is realised by the rearrangement of the manufacturing activities, referred to as layout design. Both the layout and material handling design methods are applied to a case study concerning the furnace area of a semiconductor wafer fab