Research Initiation: Economic Determination of SpecificationLevels and Delivery Priorities for Semiconductor Products

该项目的目标是通过同时确定规格水平和交付优先级来构建和分析半导体产品的新分配机制，并从数学上表征和分析半导体产品降级、互补性和可替代性对盈利能力的影响。该模型的基本思想是，生产者提供优先级类别的“产品线”。生产者的分配规则是这样的，高优先级类提供更高规格级别的芯片，而不管生产结果如何。生产线设计和分配规则允许生产商的利润最大化问题被视为一个非线性规划公式。在根据实际生产数据估计供给量函数时，将采用最小二乘拟合、核估计法和最大惩罚似然法。对于数值利润最大化和随后的敏感性分析，将使用标准的非线性优化软件。本研究的意义在于，它同时旨在(1)建立一种从经济角度确定半导体产品最优规格水平的系统方法，(2)提高半导体生产商在按时交付芯片方面的绩效，(3)更好地理解降级、互补、以及半导体产品的可替代性相对于产品的盈利能力。

The objectives of this project are to construct and analyze a new allocation mechanism for semiconductor products by simultaneously determining specification levels and delivery priorities and to mathematically characterize and analyze the impacts on profitability of downgrading, complementarity, and substitutability of semiconductor products. The essential idea of the model is that the producer offers a "product line" of priority classes. The producer's allocation rule is such that higher priority classes are supplied with higher specification level chips regardless of production outcome. The product line design and allocation rule allows the producer's profit maximization problem to be cast as a non-linear programming formulation. In estimating supply quantity functions from actual production data, the least square fit as well as kernel estimation method and maximum penalized likelihood method will be employed. For numerical profit maximization and subsequent sensitivity analysis, a standard non-linear optimization software will be utilized. The significance of this research is that it simultaneously aims (1) to establish a systematic method to determine the optimal specification levels of semiconductor products from an economic perspective, (2) to improve the performance of semiconductor producers in on-schedule delivery of chips, (3) to better understand downgrading, complementarity, and substitutability of semiconductor products with respect to profitability of products.