Improved customer satisfaction with a hybrid dispatching rule in semiconductor back-end factories

Abstract

On-time delivery is a vital factor for customer satisfaction in the competitive semiconductor manufacturing industry, and to optimize on-time delivery manufacturers must continuously improve their management of work-in-progress (WIP). However, in undertaking to optimize WIP, managers are also concerned with short cycle times, high throughput, and high utilization. In an attempt to find the most satisfactory solution to these potentially conflicting requirements with regard to WIP, the present study employs fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to determine an appropriate set of acceptable WIP deviation levels (AWDLs). These AWDLs are then used in a proposed hybrid dispatching rule to determine the operational priorities of jobs. A simulation model using real-world data is then constructed to examine the proposed mechanism for improving customer satisfaction. The findings of the study confirm that the proposed mechanism is capable of simultaneous consideration of various goals and the achievement of enhanced performances with respect to due-date delivery from semiconductor back-end processes.

Improving performance of dispatch rules for daily scheduling of assembly and test operations

“…For scheduling semiconductor back-end operations, Chiang, Guo, and Pai (2008) introduced a fuzzy analytical hierarchy process to identify acceptable WIP deviation levels, which were then used to determine job priorities. The approach was shown to balance on-time delivery goals and WIP targets with the help of a simulation model that was calibrated with real data.…”

The Design of Outsourcing Planning for Semiconductor Backend Turnkey Service

“…Furthermore, Guo et al [4] considered a multi-objectives exception management model for turkey service with considerations of hot lots and normal lots for semiconductor back-end environment. They improves the dispatching rule provided by Chiang et al [3]. Guo et al [4] demonstrated their model can help the WIP management and can enhance the performance of order fulfillment for the supply chain of semiconductor manufacturing.…”

“…They also provided a heuristic algorithm which modified the generalized saving algorithm proposed by Christofides et al [2] so that the proposed algorithm can solve large-scale problems efficiently. Chiang et al [3] adjusts the level of work in process (WIP) to enhance the performance of order fulfillment for the entire back-end semiconductor manufacturing. The model of WIP management provided by Chiang et al includes three main sections: (1) using the method of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to determine the weights of the following performance indices: average on-time delivery percentage, cycle time, throughput rate, and bottleneck utilization; (2) using the simulation approach and the experimental design to develop the model of acceptable WIP deviation level (AWDL) which sets upper acceptable WIP deviation level (UAWDL) and lower acceptable WIP deviation level (LAWDL); (3) providing a dispatch rule to ensure the achievement of AWDL.…”

Off-line learning based adaptive dispatching rule for semiconductor wafer fabrication facility

“…Eivazy and Rabbani [2] present an efficient dispatching method to prioritize the make-to-stock (MTS) and make-to-order (MTO) products in the queue of a workstation whenever a machine in this workstation becomes idle within a hybrid MTS/MTO production environment. Chiang et al [3] an analytic hierarchy to determine an appropriate set of acceptable WIP deviation levels and the operational job priorities. Li et al [4] propose a dispatching rule to improve the on-time delivery performance for a fab, considering the dispatching of bottleneck machines, non-bottleneck machines, batching machines, and hot jobs.…”