專家系統在晶圓代工產業的發展關鍵要素–從台積電組織層級觀點探討

Abstract

目前全球晶圓代工若依市場佔有率分析，台積電、聯電分居前二名，2002年IBM介入晶圓代工業務且和第三大代工廠Chartered聯盟；另外中芯國際於2002年開始進入晶圓代工市場，因擁有中國大陸政府支持、低廉的人力成本及充分的內需市場，成為台積電、聯電的最大威脅。IDM大廠原本是專業晶圓代工業認為的最大潛在客戶，但目前市場並非如此，由於興建新晶圓廠資本投資門檻愈來愈高，反而是IDM公司紛紛跨足晶圓代工領域瓜分代工市場。而未來潛在的進入者還有DRAM大廠如NEC、Hynix、Toshiba等。所以，雖然台灣晶圓代工廠目前已是晶圓代工市場世界的主流，在面對現在需求增加但供給也競爭激烈的環境下，晶圓代工廠所面臨的挑戰，除了著重在滿足不同客戶的需求外，如何將製造技術知識有效管理及運用以提高核心優勢亦是一重要課題。而台積電身為晶圓代工產業的最大公司，其在知識管理及專家系統發展運用策略上，如何提高其競爭優勢以維持龍頭地位，更是一個值得探討的題目。 所以本研究是研究專業晶圓代工產業的最大公司--台積電如何由製程技術、客戶服務策略的需求來發展專家系統，建立差異化來維持核心競爭優勢，取得較低的生產成本及較高的利潤。本研究藉由設計AHP問卷，分發給在台積電不同層級的人員作答，希望透過內部員工角度來分析台積電發展專家系統的關鍵要素，並試圖針對不同類型的要素相對權重作分析，能提供給晶圓代工廠或半導體製造公司在發展專家系統的參考。

Based on the respective market shares, TSMC and UMC rank as the top two companies in the foundry business of the semiconductor industry. IBM entered into the business in 2002 and collaborated with Chartered, the third ranked player. SMIC has came into existence since 2002 and evolved into the major competitor of TSMC and UMC, largely because of government supports, lower labor costs and huge internal demands of China. Logically, IDMs were potentially targeted as the largest customers of pure foundries. To offset some of the increasing investment risks in building new fabs, IDMs instead have started their foundry own services as well in recent years. Such IDMs from doing DRAM business are potential competitors including NEC, Hynix and Toshiba. Although the Taiwanese foundries remain the main stream in the industry, they need to face more challenges than ever before. Apart from satisfying customer requirements, another important problem is how to effectively manage manufacturing and engineering knowledge to enhance the core competence. Being the largest foundry in the business, it is interesting to study how TSMC maintains the competitive advantages through the development of knowledge management and expert system. Therefore, this study explores how TSMC develops the expert system. Based on the requirement of manufacture technology and customer services, TSMC is aiming to build the core competences via differentiations in order to achieve lower costs and higher benefits. Via questionnairesdesigned with the AHP methodology, the study surveys TSMC employees for weighting factors in the development of expert systems. According to the statistical results of the AHP analysis, the study provides foundries or companies in the semiconductor industry practical guideliness in the development of expert systems.