Evaluating investment-return-based design for AMHS in semiconductor manufacturing system

An effective automated material handling system (AMHS) design improves production performance. Investment return is a primary concern for high technology companies when purchasing production equipment. This study demonstrates that when profit gained from investing in non-production equipment investment can be estimated, investment return can be evaluated and used as an investment index for non-production equipment. An effective approach based on Little’s law for AMHS design is proposed. This approach quantifies system improvement resulting from a specific AMHS design. Then, an activity and theory of constraints based (ABC/TOC) costing model is used to capitalize the improvement. Finally, the investment-return time length for that specific design can be evaluated. An investor can easily decide among several designs when using the proposed approach.