Abstract
Abstract The process of semiconductor manufacturing is complex. There are hundreds of operation steps to complete a product and there involve various materials and machine groups during the process. The complexity of manufacturing process and manufacturing resources make the cost estimation difficult. This research presents a manufacturing cost estimation model which uses two-stage allocation structure and considers the preferential sequence for cost assignment to establish 3 levels of activities including machine center activity, production/engineering activity, and supporting activity. The manufacturing resources can be properly allocated to operation steps through the activities. This research uses process time as the main allocation factor to simplify the calculation. The cost estimation result from proposed model has the conclusions (1) the cost estimation can reflect the process complexity of products (2) the resources consumes by products varies, there may have significant estimation bias based on a simplied estimation such as per layer cost or per move cost basis (3) the cost estimation model may be modified for generating standard cost (4) some materials can be easily traced the operation usage cost without too much effort and those resources used by a sigle machine group are good for cost monitor and control (5) cost behavior analysis shows that the materials and parts are two major cost groups with variable cost nature and they are important areas for cost improvement.Keywords: Wafer Cost, Cost Estimation, Activity-Based Costing