Samsung (Sec)

SLIM: Short Cycle Time and Low Inventory in Manufacturing at Samsung Electronics

Robert C. Leachman • Jeenyoung Kang • Vincent Lin

Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720–1777 IBM Korea, Inc., MMAA Building, Dogok-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea 467–12 Leachman and Associates LLC, 5870 Carmel Way, Union City, California 94587 leachman@ieor.berkeley.edu • kangjy@kr.ibm.com • vincent@leachmanandassociates.com

SLIM is a set of methodologies and scheduling applications for managing cycle time in semiconductor manufacturing. SLIM includes methodology for calculating target cycle times and target WIP levels for individual manufacturing steps, heuristic algorithms for factory floor scheduling, and optimization-based capacity analysis. Between 1996 and 1999, Samsung Electronics Corp., Ltd., implemented SLIM in all its semiconductor manufacturing facilities. It reduced manufacturing cycle times to fabricate dynamic random access memory devices from more than 80 days to less than 30. Considering the decline of selling prices for dynamic random access memory devices, SLIM enabled Samsung to capture an additional $1 billion in sales revenue compared to the revenue it would have realized had cycle times not been reduced. (Manufacturing: performance, productivity. Industries: computer, electronics.)

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amsung Electronics Corp., Ltd. (SEC) is a leading merchant of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices, static random access memory (SRAM) devices, and other advanced digital integrated circuits. SEC has sustained about a 20 percent market share of the vast DRAM market every year since 1995. In terms of unit volume, SEC is the largest manufacturer of digital integrated circuits in the world. SEC’s advanced memory-chip products require more than 400 fabrication steps performed in multibillion-dollar factories that include several hundred processing machines of various types. At the...