Optimizing the energy efficiency of chiller systems in the semiconductor industry through big data analytics and an empirical study

Big data analytics is playing a more and more prominent role in the manufacturing industry as corporations attempt to utilize vast amounts of data to optimize the operation of plants and factories to gain a competitive advantage. Since the advent of Industry 4.0, also known as smart manufacturing, big data analytics, combined with expert domain knowledge, is facilitating ever-greater levels of speed and automaticity in manufacturing processes. The semiconductor industry is a fundamental driver of this transformation; moreover, due to the highly complex and energy-consuming nature of the semiconductor manufacturing process, semiconductor fabrication facilities (fabs) can also benefit greatly from incorporating big data analytics to improve production and energy efficiency. This paper developed a big data analytics framework, along with an empirical study conducted in collaboration with a semiconductor manufacturer in Taiwan, to optimize the energy efficiency of chiller systems in semiconductor fabs. Chiller systems are one of the most energy-consuming systems within a typical modern fab. The developed big data analytics framework allows production managers to ensure that chiller systems operate at an optimized level of energy efficiency under dynamically changing conditions, while fulfilling the chilling demands. Compared to the commonly-used heuristics previously employed at the fab to tune chiller system parameters, by the utilization of big data analytics, it is shown that fabs can achieve substantial energy savings, greater than 12%. The developed framework and the lessons learned from the empirical study are not only generalizable but also useful for practitioners who are interested in applying big data analytics to optimize the performance of other equipment systems in fabs.