Semiconductor Inventory Costing Recovery Authority — Advanced Foundry

The mandate

A rapid node ramp produced unstable yields, rework routes and abnormal idle capacity while standard costs continued to absorb assumptions set before qualification. Work-in-process quantities reconcile physically, but valuation by wafer stage, scrap treatment and overhead absorption no longer withstand audit reperformance. The cost-accounting head departed after a close adjustment, leaving manufacturing and reporting teams without one accountable decision maker.

The interim starts within two weeks for ten months, spanning model containment, year end, two clean closes and permanent-leader overlap. Trigger events include yield excursion, recipe or route change, capacity curtailment, qualification hold, scrap decision and subcontract transfer; each must reach costing before inventory cut-off. Six weeks are protected for handover, with no extension for the next node launch.

Exit evidence comprises an approved product-route dictionary, stage-complete equivalent-unit logic, controlled standards, separated normal and abnormal absorption, reconciled work in process, governed reserves, supported variances and three closes inside tolerance. The successor must value an unseen yield excursion and partial rework batch, explain margin consequences and clear review without access to the interim’s private analysis.

The authority may suspend unreliable cost rolls, quarantine unsupported lots from final valuation, set recovery priorities, approve delegated costing journals, assign fab-finance owners and control NT$420 million of remediation spend. The Controller retains accounting policy, materiality and statements; Operations owns production and scrap decisions; Engineering owns yield facts; auditors preserve independent judgement.

Product pricing, fab scheduling, process-engineering remedies, customer allocation and enterprise resource planning replacement are excluded. The leader may require production evidence and repair costing interfaces but cannot direct recipes or declare technical yield. No historic variance may be buried in a new standard merely to smooth gross margin or meet a forecast commitment.

Why this seat is open

The node ramp exposed a costing model calibrated for stable yield and utilisation, then the responsible leader left before remediation could be evidenced. The audit and next cost roll cannot wait for recruitment. Temporary authority must reconnect physical manufacturing events with controlled valuation and leave a successor-tested operating discipline.

What you will own

• Reconcile wafers and die across raw material, stage-complete work in process, finished goods, rework, hold and scrap states.
• Rebuild standards for route, cycle time, material, tool burden, labour, subcontract and expected-yield assumptions.
• Separate normal utilisation effects from abnormal idle capacity, excursions, qualification delays and avoidable rework.
• Govern cost rolls, frozen inputs, approvals, effective dates, variance analysis, journal posting and retrospective validation.
• Design reserves for excess, obsolescence, lower recoverability, engineering holds and customer-specific qualification risk.
• Exercise a yield collapse, route change, mixed-node lot, outsourced step and late engineering scrap determination.
• Transfer recovered costing after three controlled closes and successor completion of an unfamiliar excursion scenario.

Candidate qualifications

• Held senior semiconductor cost-accounting authority across wafer fabrication, assembly, test or comparably complex process manufacturing.
• Reconciled stage-complete work in process with yield, route, rework, scrap and equipment-capacity economics.
• Corrected standard costs, overhead absorption, abnormal capacity charges, variances and inventory reserves under audit scrutiny.
• Worked credibly with yield engineers and operations while retaining independent financial valuation and cut-off control.
• Governed costing data and system interfaces without allowing an ERP programme to defer financial-statement accuracy.
• Handed a recovered manufacturing-cost model to permanent owners through live rolls, closes and adverse-production exercises.

Non-negotiables

• Available within two weeks for full-time Hsinchu leadership and targeted travel to assembly and test locations.
• Direct wafer-fab or advanced-process inventory costing recovery is required; generic plant accounting is insufficient.
• No undisclosed relationship may involve key equipment suppliers, subcontractors, costing vendors or the external auditor.
• Will expose abnormal capacity and yield costs even where transparent treatment reduces reported gross margin.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe a yield excursion that required you to change inventory valuation rather than only explain variance.
2. 49 words maximum. How did you distinguish normal idle capacity from an abnormal period expense in a fab?
3. 49 words maximum. Which rework scenario would you use to test the permanent leader before handover?