Prioritizing 5S activities by Kano model with modified CS coefficient for a semiconductor wafer fabrication during ramp-up stage

Purpose – 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 μ m 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. Design/methodology/approach – 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. Findings – 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. Practical implications – A real case drawn from a 300 mm semiconductor wafer FAB in Taiwan is analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach. Originality/value – 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.