ABSTRACT
Undergraduate Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan, R.O.C
robertlu@ntut.edu.tw
Green supply chain management (GSCM) has emerged as a major competitive strategy for many globalized companies to be both socially responsible and comply with GSCM policies and regulations such as Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). Semiconductor market exceeded 300 billion US dollars worldwide in 2010. However, studies on the key elements of GSCM in the semiconductor industry are scant. In an attempt to fill this gap, this study adopts the participatory design concept to design GSCM in the semiconductor industry and uses a 2-step approach to propose a hierarchy of key GSCM elements. First, the literature review in Section 1 identifies the initial hierarchy. The second step implements the concept of participatory design using focus group discussions to finalize the proposed key elements hierarchy. These discussions revealed valuable experiences from
executives and managers that actively participated in a project that successfully established a seamless SCM implementation between the world’s largest semiconductor foundry manufacturing company and the world’s largest assembly and testing company. To evaluate the relative importance of these key elements, a second session of focus group discussions was conducted to identify the 3 most important elements. The proposed hierarchy may serve as a checklist for future supply chain managers, ensuring consideration of all key elements when designing the green supply chain in the semiconductor industry. The most important 3 elements were (1) Reducing hazardous substances in the manufacturing process, (2) Design of product for energy and material conservation, and (3) Recycling system in the manufacturing process. The results of this study indicate directions for the continuous improvement and future development of GSCM in the semiconductor industry. The results of this study may serve as a foundation for academic research in fields related to GSCM.
