Hackathon 2022
Developing innovative business models to transform the semiconductor industry supply chain
Background
The world is facing a chip shortage. This is a global, geostrategic challenge not only for the Semiconductor Industry, but all companies that require semiconductors for their products or their equipment which encompass a vast array of industries such as communications, defense, computation, transportation, healthcare, and energy, amongst others. The demand is expected to increase at a fast clip in coming years
- The leading semiconductor manufacturers in North America and Asia are investing heavily to expand capacity and develop next-generation technologies.
- Europe has realized its weakness and is aiming to increase its strategic autonomy with massive public funding.
- These investments also drive demand in the larger ecosystem of providers for the semiconductor industry such as equipment manufacture, design software, and business software.
- With widespread shortages in chip availability across diverse industries due to supply chain disruptions, identification of effective initiatives, processes, and tools to mitigate future supply chain disruptions and increase resilience is critical.
There is great opportunity for start-ups to join the game with multi-billion dollar investments at stake. Where could a start-up/new venture/new business model help? Some possible avenues are:
- Address market inefficiencies through a supply and demand matching on the spot market (not a new idea).
- Tap into the massive public funding to work in innovative semiconductor design. Though knowledge intensive, startups can play in the space, if they are not focused on the latest fab processes (e.g. 2-5nm), or are trying to build a fab on their own. Not all applications require the smallest structures.
- Innovative (AI based) software solutions to help manufacturers optimize their operations and increase the output of their fabs, e.g. by increasing the yield or stand-up times.
Business challenge
The Hackathon 2022 panelists and faculty posed the following questions to the student teams:
- How might you use intelligent technologies such as low-cost sensors, artificial intelligence, blockchain and/or data analytics in the supply chain to develop innovative and data driven business concepts?
- Interfacing with a network of stakeholders of the supply chain from different locations all over the world how might you facilitate new business models
for resilient and stable supply chains for chip production, trade, and/or consumption?
The students' mission was to balance the cost and profitability to develop a data driven business model to improve supply chain stability and resilience at a local or global level.