The high volatility of customer demands and the fast change in technology have resulted in production requirements with high variety and customization. A process layout of production design is capable of offering a high degree of potential product-mix to meet the customers ’ requirements. Despite the advantages of the process layout, it is difficult to detect the problems such as smooth processes flows and associated performance in the system while a lot of flows are looping or iterating. This research proposes a decision support system to determine the vital few types of equipment by applying the design structure matrix (DSM) technology if the issues of iterating are largely involved. A industry application in semiconductor wafer fabrication illustrates that our approach is implemented to show the results, which indicate the prioritized processes/equipments based on our finding assisting mangers decision-making for resources allocation and process improvement. Significance: Our approach also benefits a start-up facilities layout planning and re-layout/reengineering in an existing system. Furthermore, the results that provide the rankings and critical equipments are supported by FAB managers in practices.

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