Enterprise Risk Management

UMC fully recognizes the impact and influence of natural and man-made disasters on production and operation. Hence, the company has consistently adopted an active attitude toward preventive disaster risk management, and seeks to achieve the highest standard of semiconductor industrial safety through rigorous risk engineering controls and implementation of safety regulations and standards.

If the Taipower generators break down and the renewable energy supplies are unstable during peak consumption periods in Taiwan, it may cause power trip or voltage dip risk due to insufficient backup capacity. Consequently, UMC installed diesel oil generators and enhance UPS install percentage to enhance operational resilience in Fabs, and established safety level management mechanism of diesel oil for generators and replaced existing lead-acid UPS batteries with lithium-iron UPS batteries gradually to enhance system stability.

Taiwan suffered its worst drought in 56 years in 2021, before plum rain season in June, the water restrictions in Hsinchu and Tainan Science Park were up to 17% and 13%, respectively. In the face of climate change, a more severe water shortage conditions may occur in the future, UMC deployment actions based on different water restriction stages, including formulating various water-saving measures and production scheduling adjustments. Besides, UMC also continues to hire water trucks and increase the capacity of contracted private water sources as a contingency plan. In the future, various options such as the use of reclaimed water and recycled water will be continuously evaluated to reduce water risks. For detailed information, please refer to chapter 1-2-5 Managing climate-related Risks and Opportunities in UMC 2021 CSR report.

After the breakout of COVID-19 epidemic at the end of 2019, UMC immediately established epidemic control taskforce and announced various countermeasures and response activities according to BCM guidelines, such as split teams in blue and red, and work from home(WFH) policy. For immigrant workers, regular rapid test are performed to ensure productivity. Besides, COVID-19 rapid test kits are available for self-testing by colleagues in doubt, meanwhile, UMC proactively update its epidemic control and response action to stakeholder to relieve their concern about business continuity. UMC’s anti-epidemic policy will also rolling adjust in accordance with the global epidemic situation. For detailed information about COVID-19 counter measures, please refer to special feature “COVID-19 Prevention” in UMC 2021 CSR report.

UMC incorporated the international standards of the US Factory Mutual Insurance Company (FM), Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL), the US National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) and other international standards into its building construction, equipment, engineering controls and risk assessment, and formulated relevant company regulations for supplementary requirements. Besides, UMC is the only company in the semiconductor industry that has its own full-time fire brigade equipped with government-grade fire trucks and rescue equipment. In addition, UMC in house firefighters regularly receive professional training on fire scenes and have actual disaster relief capabilities.

UMC collaborates with internationally renowned structural consultants. At the beginning of the construction stage, earthquake-resistant requirements are integrated into the design concept of buildings, facilities, pipelines and production equipment. Furthermore, new anti-seismic techniques such as seismic isolation platforms for production equipment and Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS) are imported continuously. In addition, for those fabs built before 2000, structural technician was hired continuously for anti-seismic improvement according to regulation and earthquake experience to further ensure personnel safety and reduce the potential loss of process tools and auxiliary equipment.
~Actual Achievement~
The magnitude 6.6 Meinong earthquake that hit Taiwan on 6 February 2016 registered as a 6.0 intensity at UMC’s Fab 12A in the Tainan Science Park. The damage caused, however, was less than nearby companies, proving the effectiveness of the anti-seismic design at UMC.

The Environmental Health and Safety Standard for semiconductor manufacturing equipment (SEMI-S2), NFPA, and FM7-7 are the primary international standards adopted by UMC. When adopting the Equipment ESH Purchasing Specifications into its procurement procedures, equipment must conform to review standards before being brought into the fab and conform to inspection after installation for effective equipment safety control.

UMC implemented the [Taiwan Fabs Flood Risk Simulation project] as early as 2014. Compared with the Hsinchu fabs located in the hilly land, Tainan Fabs are in the potential flood risk area due to lower terrain. Therefore, referring to 500yrs-return period flood level to install flood gates at the specific entrances/ exist at first floor, and establish a water level warning mechanism to avoid the business interruption by the flooding of important production facilities. In addition, UMC also specified flood control standards for the newly built factory. Ultimately, the Fab12A_P5/P6 plant base reaches 2 meters higher than the perimeter road to eliminate flooding risks.