| Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
|---|
| 700101000 | Priority ordering | 45 |
| 20080201003 | Method and system for reticle scheduling - Methods and systems for reticle scheduling in semiconductor manufacturing providing a trade-off between complying with level priority and maximizing scanner utilization for critical scanners as a whole is disclosed. The extent of trade-off is specified by user, depending on scanner excess capacity. The method invented comprises, first, the steps of an initialization block performing splitting planning horizon into time buckets, initialization of system variables, and reading data on work-in-process, scanner/reticle status and reticle locations. The following block determines which buckets to run optimization for. The next method block is building a network for optimization based on inputs from inline real-time dispatching (RTD) followed by running optimization of the network. The last method block updates WIP and reticle information based on optimization results and feeds the results into a wafer lot assignment system. | 08-21-2008 |
| 20080275584 | Production management method and production management system - A production management system has processing devices A, B, C, D, E, and P. A kind of product α is processed in the order of the processing devices A, P, B, P, and C, and a kind of product β is processed in the order of the processing devices D, P, E, and P. To determine whether the processing device P is to be used to produce the product α or the product β, an input ratio of each kind of product is multiplied by the number of times of passing the processing device P for each kind of product, thereby calculating a core of each kind of product. Based on the calculated score, whether the processing device P is to be used to produce the product α or the product β is determined. Accordingly, the work-in-process balance of key processes between different kinds of products can be equalized. | 11-06-2008 |
| 20080281453 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS TO IDENTIFY CAM PHASER HARDWARE DEGRADATION - A cam phaser diagnostic system is provided. The system includes: a first sample variance module that computes a first variance based on a desired cam phaser position. A second sample variance module computes a second variance based on a measured cam phaser position. An evaluation module diagnoses faulty cam phaser operation based on the first variance and the second variance. | 11-13-2008 |
| 20080281454 | Scheduling System and Method - A method and apparatus for scheduling in a wafer fab. The method comprising means for weighting inventories according to at least one of logpoints or reticle, and photolithography units, means for scheduling one of said inventories on one of said photolightography units, wherein said one of said inventories has a maximal weighting and means for eliminating any of said inventories not scheduled according to constraints. | 11-13-2008 |
| 20080300707 | System and method for on-line planning utilizing multiple planning queues - Features described herein relate to concurrently processing multiple batches of job requests for one or more machines and/or components thereof, using a plurality of job planning queues. Each batch of job requests is allocated to a planning queue, and each planning queue comprises an unplanned subqueue that stores unplanned jobs, an unsent subqueue that stores planned jobs waiting to be executed, and a sent subqueue that stores planned jobs that have been output to the machine(s) for execution. A job planner and related components determine which unsent subqueue has the fewest planned jobs at a given point in time, and selects an unplanned job from the unplanned subqueue in the same planning queue as the identified unsent subqueue. The planner then generates a plan for the selected job and inserts the planned job into the unsent subqueue for eventual output to the machine(s) for execution. In this manner, the unsent subqueues for each planning queue are maintained with substantially equal numbers of planned jobs ready for execution, which improves throughput by ensuring that all machines and/or associated components are kept busy. | 12-04-2008 |
| 20090005895 | Method to imporove the performance of a distrubuted scheduler - To improve the performance of a distributed scheduler for a manufacturing process comprising activities including a production resource management, a production definition management, and a detailed production scheduling, a method provides a decision and prediction function over the activities which carries out an analysis of a variability of the manufacturing process. Further, the method takes results of the analysis into account while making an actual detailed schedule in the production scheduling. | 01-01-2009 |
| 20090018686 | SCHEDULING METHOD AND PROGRAM FOR A SUBSTRATE TREATING APPARATUS - A scheduling method for a substrate treating apparatus having a plurality of treating units for treating substrates, wherein, based on a procedure including a plurality of treating steps, a controller determines an order of treating a plurality of lots successively in the treating units. The method includes a step of preparing a plurality of schedules through execution of a basic allocating method, based on a systematic chart representing combinations of the treating steps for the respective lots, for allocating a first treating step of one of the lots, and thereafter, while following the systematic chart from the treating step, for searching and allocating as a next treating step a treating step selected from among succeeding treating steps in the lots, whose preceding treating step has an earliest expected completion time of all preceding treating steps; and a first allocating method for allocating treating steps based on the basic allocating method, and when a waiting time occurring with one of the treating steps exceeds an allowed time for enabling a standby at one of the treating units, for avoiding allocation of the one of the treating steps and restarting a search at one branching point before a branching point upstream of the one of said treating steps. The method further includes a step of selecting one schedule having been completed within a specified time, from the plurality of schedules prepared. | 01-15-2009 |
| 20090037012 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SCHEDULING A STREAM OF PRODUCTS IN A MANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENT BY USING PROCESS-SPECIFIC WIP LIMITS - By defining a section-related WIP limit or a throughput-related WIP limit, an efficient “look ahead” characteristic may be established to efficiently control the WIP in a complex manufacturing environment, such as a semiconductor facility. The respective critical WIP values may enable efficient reduction of priority of products moving towards an increased WIP queue, thereby reducing or substantially avoiding the release of products that are expected to run into the WIP queue. In this way, the efficiency of shared tools may be increased, since process capacity no longer required for the processing products running into WIP queues may be allocated for other operations. | 02-05-2009 |
| 20090043414 | METHOD FOR DETERMINING ARRANGEMENT OF PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT - In a method for determining arrangement of production equipment that can determine component arrangement positions in a component mounting apparatus so as to reduce as much as possible the workload of an operator that exchanges components and the like, the number of pickup nozzles of a line gang pickup head provided in each of two sub-equipment is checked (S | 02-12-2009 |
| 20090088882 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RANDOMIZING DISPATCH ORDER FOR SINGLE WAFER PROCESSING - A method for dispatching wafers for processing in a tool includes identifying a queue of wafers available to be processed in the tool. One of the wafers is randomly selected based at least in part on a length of time each wafer has been in the queue. The selected wafer is dispatched for processing in the tool. | 04-02-2009 |
| 20090112343 | FRAMEWORK FOR AUTOMATIC GENERATION OF SEQUENCE OF OPERATIONS - A method for generation of a sequence of operations for a manufacturing process including modeling the manufacturing process through a finite state machine to create a sequence of operations generator operative to generate a list of sequences of operations for the manufacturing process and utilizing the sequence of operations generator to input process information and automatically generate a list of sequences of operations. | 04-30-2009 |
| 20090138114 | METHOD OF RELEASE AND PRODUCT FLOW MANAGEMENT FOR A MANUFACTURING FACILITY - A method and computer program product for scheduling product lots through operations of a manufacturing line. The method including: selecting a set of sequential operations required to manufacture the lots; partitioning the product lots into designated lots and non-designated lots; and generating a release schedule for each of the non-designated lots into one or more operations of the set of sequential operations; generating a release schedule for each of the designated lots into each operation of set of sequential operations such that for each designated lot a total amount of time measured from completion of a first operation of the set of sequential operations through start of a last operation of the set of sequential operations does not exceed a target amount of time for the designated lots. | 05-28-2009 |
| 20090149979 | RUN-TIME DISPATCH SYSTEM FOR ENHANCED PRODUCT CHARACTERIZATION CAPABILITY - Disclosed herein are embodiments of an automated manufacturing system that is used to process multiple jobs in a product fabrication environment, where such processing comprises performing the same multiple consecutive process steps for each job and where each process step can be accomplished using one or more different available processing tools. The manufacturing system incorporates a unique run-time dispatch system. This dispatch system schedules the order in which jobs will be processed and further randomly assigns a particular combination of process steps and tools to each job in such a way that the processing tools are evenly distributed across the jobs. Ensuring even distribution of processing tools allows a statistical process control system to not only detect, for a given process step, product variability outside desired specifications, but also to efficiently de-convolve such product variability. | 06-11-2009 |
| 20090171492 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REDUCING SETUPS DURING TEST, MARK AND PACK OPERATIONS - A method includes determining production targets for devices of different types in a production line. A queue level of devices of a first type that have completed performance of a first operation configured in accordance with a first setup state in the production line and await performance of a second operation in the production line is determined. Based on the determined queue level, a second type of device is selected for subsequent processing in the first operation based on the production targets and a setup time associated with configuring the first operation from the first setup state to a second setup state associated with the second type of device. The first operation is configured in accordance with the second setup state for processing devices of the second type. | 07-02-2009 |
| 20090292381 | PRODUCTION PLANNING METHOD AND PRODUCTION PLANNING SYSTEM FOR MIXED FLOWS OF PRODUCTION BY ORDER AND FORECASTING - In the production process where an ordered article and a forecast production article are mixed, parameters for defining production priority of each article are preset while assuming a case where the demand exceeds the available production capability, and priority is given to an article which must be produced first within the range of available production capability according to the marginal stock rate of each article. The marginal stock rate is determined by (effective stock amount/necessary stock amount) for a forecast production article. As for the ordered production article, a stock sufficient for delivery is required at the time of shipment. Accordingly, stock of that quantity (demand take-in amount) can be regarded as the necessary amount of stock while the currently completed products can be regarded as the effective stock amount. Thus, the marginal stock rate (effective stock amount/demand take-in amount) can be indexed. | 11-26-2009 |
| 20090299510 | METHOD FOR MINIMIZING PRODUCTIVITY LOSS WHILE USING A MANUFACTURING SCHEDULER - Tools and/or resources which newly become available to a re-entrant flow manufacturing line, data processing pipeline or the like are allocated in substantially real time to processing operations independent of and consistent with a scheduling segment previously generated by dispatching items such as workpieces or data to tools and/or resources of a manufacturing line until the newly available tool or resource can be conveniently included in a subsequently generated schedule segment in order to avoid productivity loss due to schedule latency. Items can be dispatched in a priority order to accelerate completion of processing. A schedule segment including the newly available tool or resource can be facilitated by merging allocations of a real time dispatch list with allocations of a dispatch list corresponding to a previously generated schedule segment. | 12-03-2009 |
| 20100087941 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING PROCESS JOBS IN A SEMICONDUCTOR FABRICATION FACILITY - A method and system for managing process jobs in a semiconductor fabrication facility is described. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving a plurality of process jobs associated with one or more priorities. The method further includes executing the plurality of process jobs in an order reflecting the priorities. The order is modifiable in real time upon receiving a new process job with a priority higher than the priorities of the plurality of process jobs. | 04-08-2010 |
| 20100152874 | CONTROL DEVICE FOR INTEGRATED MASTERING SYSTEM - A method for controlling handling of a plurality of substrates to be processed in an integrated mastering system and an integrated mastering system for performing the method of the invention is provided. The system comprises various treating stations to be passed through by the substrates in a predetermined order, a buffer for temporarily storing the substrates and a handler for moving the substrates between the buffer and the treating stations. According to the method each one of the plurality of substrates is moved to the buffer upon completion of processing in each one of said treating stations. | 06-17-2010 |
| 20100161098 | Method and Apparatus for Scheduling Work Orders in a Manufacturing Process - A computerized system is provided for scheduling a plurality of work orders in a manufacturing process. Each work order to be scheduled specifies a set of operations to be performed using a plurality of resources and materials. Data including resource availability information for each resource used in the manufacturing process, material availability information for each material used in the manufacturing process, and work order information is received and stored in a computer. The work order information includes a release date for the work order, a want date for the work order, operations information, and material requirements information. The operations information includes the identity and sequence of operations to be performed for the work order, the identity of the resources needed to perform each operation, a minimum resource capacity needed to perform each operation, and the time needed to perform the operation. The materials information includes the identity of the materials needed to perform each operation and the quantity of each material needed for the operation. Resource capacity and a start date/time and a finish date/time are assigned to each operation based upon the resource availability information, the material availability information, and the work order information. The assigned resource capacity, the assigned start date/time, and the assigned finish date/time for each operation are displayed on a computer screen in a graphical format. | 06-24-2010 |
| 20100217419 | METHOD FOR SCHEDULING A PRODUCTION PROCESS BY SUPPORTING THE VISUALIZATION OF MATERIAL SHORTAGES - A method for scheduling a production process is disclosed, wherein a production order requiring components is placed on a production schedule, the availabilities of the components, which are required for the production order, are detected by a computing unit, production orders requesting one or more of the components are classified depending on the availabilities of the corresponding components, and the production order is displayed with a first optically observable marker if the order requests a missing component and/or produces a missing component. | 08-26-2010 |
| 20100217420 | METHOD OF GENERATING RECIPE FOR PROCESS - A method of generating a general recipe for an industrial process that is not site or resource specific to from a master recipe that is site and resource specific, comprises:
| 08-26-2010 |
| 20100222910 | System and Method for the Production of Goods or Products - A computer-based system and method for production planning are described that relies on developing factory shop floor modeling. This modeling includes simulating the factory shop floor to create a Virtual Factory. This Virtual Factory provides the ability to assess any possible production sequence for determining an optimal of production sequence according to the criteria defined the user. | 09-02-2010 |
| 20100268365 | METHOD FOR MANAGING PRODUCT SEGMENTS OF PRODUCT PRODUCTION RULES - An effective method for managing product segments of product production rules within a manufacturing execution system adapted for providing a final product includes the following steps: a) each one of a plurality of sets of product segments are associated within one of a set of product production rules which are stored in a database under a reference standard product production rule (like a simple “manufacture of a car”); b) a command (e.g. from an operator) is inputted to the database for performing one of following selectable operations: i) add a new product segment; ii) remove one of previous product segment; iii) replace a previous product segment by a new one; c) a further set of new product production rules comprising previous product segments and a further product segment (related to the selectable operation and automatically detected in each product production rule) are introduced in the database; d) an indicator related to the selected operation (i, ii, iii) is inserted in said new product production rule. Finally, e) an algebraic operation is performed on all product segments of both the reference standard product production rule and the new product production rules (for example it performs an addition of the product segments), so that the algebraic operation delivers a final standard product production rule resulting from one of the selected operations of adding i), removing ii), replacing iii). | 10-21-2010 |
| 20100312371 | DYNAMIC MAINTENANCE PLANNING APPARATUS - A dynamic maintenance planning apparatus including a maintenance planning device and a priority calculating device is provided. The maintenance planning device determines a maintenance date and time on and at which the throughput of a manufacturing system is maximum from among possible maintenance dates and times based on a simulation result in which a specific manufacturing apparatus on a manufacturing system is stopped at a specified maintenance date and time, and, for the maintenance at the determined maintenance date and time, specifies a lot whose completion is predicted to be delayed. The priority calculating device calculates a priority of the lot whose completion is predicted to be delayed so as to prevent waiting time of the lot during the maintenance. | 12-09-2010 |
| 20110035039 | LEVER POSITION SENSOR - A lever position sensor assembly ( | 02-10-2011 |
| 20110054657 | DICING METHOD - According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a dicing apparatus in which: in a case where a control device detects, during an image pickup of a workpiece set onto a second worktable by a first image pickup device and a second image pickup device, that an image of a workpiece set onto a first worktable also needs to be picked up by the first image pickup device and the second image pickup device, the control device determines a priority between an operation performed on the first worktable and an operation performed on the second worktable; and when it is determined that the operation performed on the first worktable has a higher priority, the image pickup of the workpiece set onto the second worktable is interrupted, and the first image pickup device and the second image pickup device are moved to perform an image pickup of the workpiece on the first worktable. | 03-03-2011 |
| 20110060441 | Clustering for Prediction Models in Process Control and for Optimal Dispatching - A first embodiment is a method for semiconductor process control comprising clustering processing tools of a processing stage into a tool cluster based on processing data and forming a prediction model for processing a semiconductor wafer based on the tool cluster. A second embodiment is a method for semiconductor process control comprising providing cluster routes between first stage tool clusters and second stage tool clusters, assigning a comparative optimization ranking to each cluster route, and scheduling processing of wafers. The comparative optimization ranking identifies comparatively which cluster routes provide for high wafer processing uniformity. Further, wafers that require high wafer processing uniformity are scheduled to be processed along one cluster route that has a high comparative optimization ranking that identifies the one cluster route to have a highest wafer processing uniformity, and wafers that do not require high wafer processing uniformity are scheduled to be processed along another cluster route. | 03-10-2011 |
| 20110066269 | SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR DYNAMIC SCHEDULING IN CELLULAR MANUFACTURING WITH BATCH-SPLITTING - The present application a new and improved system and method of enhanced Lean Document Production (LDP), which applies cellular manufacturing to document printing operations. The LDP process incorporates process friendly cells and, a push model to order to improve efficiency, reduce work in progress and smooth out the “frictions” in production environments. The current application presents an earliest-completion-time strategy for assigning jobs to cells and a dynamic-priority-based-batch-scheduling algorithm. | 03-17-2011 |
| 20110077762 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REDUCING TOOL CHANGE OPERATIONS - A method and system are provided which reorders a sequence of operations of a part program to reduce the number of tool changes during execution of the program. The reordered sequence maintains a sequence of at least a first portion of the operations. | 03-31-2011 |
| 20110082579 | SUBSTRATE PROCESSING APPARATUS, SUBSTRATE PROCESSING METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - Disclosed are a substrate processing apparatus, a substrate processing method, and a storage medium, which can process a normal substrate according to a normal schedule in parallel with a substrate to be processed in preference to other substrates. Processing block performs the same types of processes for substrates, carried therein from FOUP placing unit, by using process arms. When a priority substrate having a priority over other substrates are carried, control unit carries and processes the priority substrate in priority processing unit that can receive a next substrate among priority processing units to which a plurality of processing units are partially or wholly assigned, in preference to other substrates. | 04-07-2011 |
| 20110112675 | PRODUCT RELEASE CONTROL INTO TIME-SENSITIVE PROCESSING ENVIRONMENTS - A method identifies time sensitive processing sequences within a production environment using a computerized device. The processing sequences perform operations utilizing one or more tools. The method also identifies non-committed work in process items that are grouped in non-committed lots for release into one or more of the time sensitive processing sequences, and identifies committed work in process items that are being processed in committed lots within the time sensitive processing sequences, using the computerized device. The method sorts the non-committed lots by a predetermined priority, again using the computerized device. Starting with the highest priority non-committed lot (and continuing with others of the non-committed lots in priority order) the method determines whether there is available tool capacity to process a non-committed lot through each corresponding time sensitive processing sequence using the computerized device. If the tool capacity is available for the non-committed lot, the method releases the non-committed lot to begin the corresponding time sensitive processing sequences, using the computerized device. | 05-12-2011 |
| 20110112676 | WORK PROCESS CONTROL DEVICE, WORK PROCESS CONTROL METHOD, AND PROGRAM - An apparatus for controlling work process includes a lot allocation unit that gives a highest priority for lot-allocation to a device available for process. The device, which is given the highest priority, has at least one of a minimum number of lots-in-process and a maximum number of unworkable processes among devices available for process. | 05-12-2011 |
| 20110172801 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING MANUFACTURING THROUGHPUT TARGET - A first linear combination of a local moving aggregated quantity derived from a WIP distribution and a global aggregated quantity derived from the WIP distribution is calculated for each range for a given product type in a manufacturing line. The first linear combination serves as a first throughput target for the range and product. A second linear combination of a standard deviation of the non-zero portion of the WIP distribution and the global aggregated quantity is calculated for the product type in the manufacturing line. The coefficients of this second linear combination are predetermined. This second linear combination serves as a second throughput target. A throughput target for each range is determined by determining the minimum of the first throughput target, which can be different for each range, and the second throughput target, which is common across all ranges. | 07-14-2011 |
| 20110218660 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATED FAB CONTROL - A method, apparatus, and a system for prioritizing processing of a workpiece is provided. At least one workpiece is processed. A tag associated with the workpiece is provided. The tag includes process priority data for determining an order relating to processing the workpiece. | 09-08-2011 |
| 20110307087 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF RESCHEDULING MANUFACTURING RELEASES - Techniques are presented for rescheduling manufacturing releases. A plurality of release information elements are identified based on a first run of a first advanced planning system. The release information elements comprise dates of planned manufacturing release and quantity. The plurality of release information elements are sorted based on associated demand-likelihood factors and a plurality of sorting criteria. Swapping candidates are selected and swaps are performed based on the demand-likelihood factors and at least one swapping constraint. The plurality of release information elements are then fixed and output as results. A second run of an advanced planning system is optionally performed before output and may include stability features. | 12-15-2011 |
| 20120109351 | LOT PROCESS ORDER MODIFICATION TO IMPROVE DETECTION OF MANUFACTURING EFFECTS - A system for lot based, multi-step wafer manufacturing processes is provided and includes a transfer apparatus, disposed among tools for performing respective process steps on each wafer of each lot of wafers transferred thereto, the transfer apparatus being configured to transfer each lot from a current tool to a next tool in accordance with a process step sequence, a dispatcher operably coupled to the transfer apparatus to modify the lot order in response to a modification condition detection, a measurement unit configured to receive each wafer of each fully processed lot and to collect measurements therefrom and a processor disposed in signal communication with the dispatcher and the measurement unit to analyze the measurements relative to the lot order for evidence that a process step of a corresponding tool is responsible for performance effects. | 05-03-2012 |
| 20120158167 | PRIORITY CALCULATION DEVICE, PROGRAM, PRIORITY CALCULATION SYSTEM, AND PRIORITY CALCULATION METHOD - Priority can be calculated for works-in-process which are not in demand. A priority calculation device ( | 06-21-2012 |
| 20120165968 | METHOD AND SOFTWARE FOR CONTROLLING JUST IN TIME ITEM PRODUCTION VIA KANBAN CARDS - A method and a system control just in time item production via kanban cards. The items are transformed according to a flow shop containing a raw material buffer followed by a sequence of production pairs containing one workstation and an assigned buffer. A local buffer threshold parameter is provided and denotes the desired safety stock of the items of the specific type in the buffer. A global demand threshold parameter is provided and denotes the quantity of items of the specific item type required along the downstream process to satisfy the estimated demand. Whenever a kanban card is associated to an item of a specific type switches status, it is assigned one of four priority levels indicating the priority level of the production request. At each production pair, an item is produced of a type whose priority level is the highest according to a given priority model. | 06-28-2012 |
| 20120203367 | METHOD FOR MINIMIZING PRODUCTIVITY LOSS WHILE USING A MANUFACTURING SCHEDULER - Tools and/or resources which newly become available to a re-entrant flow manufacturing line, data processing pipeline or the like are allocated in substantially real time to processing operations independent of and consistent with a scheduling segment previously generated by dispatching items such as workpieces or data to tools and/or resources of a manufacturing line until the newly available tool or resource can be conveniently included in a subsequently generated schedule segment in order to avoid productivity loss due to schedule latency. Items can be dispatched in a priority order to accelerate completion of processing. A schedule segment including the newly available tool or resource can be facilitated by merging allocations of a real time dispatch list with allocations of a dispatch list corresponding to a previously generated schedule segment. | 08-09-2012 |
| 20120283863 | RESOURCE SCHEDULING AND ADAPTIVE CONTROL SOFTWARE FOR CUTTING ROOM OPERATIONS - A method and an apparatus are provided for the use of resource scheduling and adaptive control software to optimize the operations of a manufacturing floor environment, particularly the operations of fabric cutting operations. | 11-08-2012 |
| 20140277668 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR FABRICATING INTEGRATED CIRCUITS UTILIZING UNIVERSAL AND LOCAL PROCESSING MANAGEMENT - Disclosed herein are methods and systems for semiconductor fabrication. In one embodiment, a method of semiconductor fabrication includes performing a process on substrates with an equipment unit to form processed substrates, communicating processing data from the equipment unit to a local scheduler and a universal scheduler, determining a priority of the processed substrates, and scheduling removal of processed substrates from the equipment unit and delivery of unprocessed substrates to the equipment unit by the local scheduler based on the processing data and the priority of the processed substrates. | 09-18-2014 |
| 20140316548 | SIBLING LOT PROCESSING - A supply chain management system for controlling component processes includes a computer device that is adapted to: detect a plurality of component processes; create a relative value of each one of the plurality of component processes; prioritize each one of the plurality of component processes according to sibling relationships; and control a flow of the plurality of component processes in a manufacturing line based on the prioritizing. | 10-23-2014 |
| 20140343711 | DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR ORDER PRIORITIZATION - A method for order prioritization includes calculating a cycle time for a product order of a plurality of product orders using an artificial neural network, determining a first order priority of the product order based on a priority index using an analytic hierarchy process, determining a second order priority of the product order based on event based simulation model, and determining a shipping date for the product order based on the second order priority. The artificial neural network calculates the cycle time based upon product order type and a plurality of component counts. The analytic hierarchy process determines a first order priority based upon a plurality of product order attributes. The simulation model determines a second order priority and completion time based upon the first order priority, product model, product type, a plurality of component counts, manufacturing capacity and inventory data, and production time data for historical product orders. | 11-20-2014 |
| 20160147219 | METHOD AND PRIORITY SYSTEM FOR INVENTORY MANAGEMENT IN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING - An inventory tracking system and method for use in semiconductor manufacturing provide for generating a priority score that determines the order in which lots of substrates should be run. The priority score is generated using an algorithm that takes into account external lot priority considerations, inventory factors in the manufacturing facility, and processing tool capability factors. The processing tool capability factors include factors related to tool status and tool restrictions and the inventory factors include factors related to line balance, WIP (work-in-progress) forecasts and various downstream considerations. The priority score is generated dynamically and displayed at each processing operation for each lot that is queued for processing at the indicated operation. Various algorithms are used and different weights are assigned to many factors in calculating numerical values for several factors that combine to produce the priority score. The generated priority score can be tool-specific or module-specific. | 05-26-2016 |
| 20190146463 | TREE SEARCH-BASED SCHEDULING METHOD AND ELECTRONIC APPARATUS USING THE SAME | 05-16-2019 |
