Workshops address Taiwan fire issues

02/01/1998

Workshops address Taiwan fire issues

After a number of devastating fires ripped through its local fabs, Taiwan`s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Hsinchu, along with the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association, is sponsoring workshops that advocate fire prevention and a change in deeply rooted attitudes about personal safety. Shuh Woei Yu, general director of ITRI`s Center for Industrial Safety and Health (CISH), said the goal of the first workshop, held December 4-5 at Hsinchu`s Science-based Industrial Park, was to introduce safety management practices and accident prevention technologies.

Yu said CISH has been promoting British Occupational Safety and Health Management Standards for the past two years and SEMI equipment and process standards. Nevertheless, Yu points out, Taiwan`s fab managers must first make a significant change in their attitudes toward accident prevention and safety. "It will take a lot of management commitment to get the task started," Yu said. "The causes of Taiwan`s poor record on industrial safety are both cultural and managerial. The society as a whole does not really care about personal safety. Even with 40 years of industrial development, most of the companies still treat safety as an after-thought."

Officials from SEMATECH, the Palo Alto, CA, Fire Department, TSMC, and other agencies spoke at the workshop, which included an overview of worldwide fire loss experience, general facility design practices, safe installation of process and facility support equipment, and emergency management for semiconductor facility incidents. Further workshops are planned.

In the past 13 months, three fires in facilities operated by Winbond, UMC`s United Integrated Circuit Corp. (UICC), and Advanced Microelectronic Products caused upwards of $700 million in damages and delayed production at the facilities by more than a year. - C.L., WaferNews