Abstract: A pick-up operation is improved by finding a next non-faulty chip during pick-up of a non-faulty chip. Chips are disposed in alignment with X and Y directions as divided from a wafer, and the field of view of a camera which views the chips is established to provide the image data for the chips. A first non-faulty chip is selected, located at the center of the field of view of the camera, and picked up. During the pick-up of the first non-faulty chip, a chip group comprising a given number of chips is subjected to a preceding recognition which determines a next non-faulty chip to be selected on the basis of the image data. The next non-faulty chip is then positioned at the center of the field of view of the camera for a pick-up operation, thereby saving time period for pick-up operation.