Abstract
Although efforts to improve the productivity of semiconductor fabs have mostly focused on processing machine scheduling, recent productivity drops due to insufficient automated material handling system (AMHS) resources have made the efficient control of AMHS a major issue in improving overall productivity. This study introduces a storage prioritization procedure (SPP) for the effective allocation of work-in-process (WIP) to storage devices is applied to a real-world 300 mm fab. The proposed SPP utilizes a minimum-cost flow-based model to generate priority lists of storage devices for wafer lot transfers after determining the push or pull strategy for each machine group. Experimental studies are conducted according to four simulation scenarios that demonstrate the superior performance of the SPP. The field application results verify the SPP performance in the real-world fab. The productivity improvement due to the SPP is estimated to be tens of million dollars during the two months of the study period.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of data and material
Not applicable.
Code Availability
Not applicable.
References
Bartlett K, Lee J, Ahmed S et al (2014) Congestion-aware dynamic routing in automated material handling systems. Comput Ind Eng 70:176–182
Bazzazi M, Safaei N, Javadian N (2009) A genetic algorithm to solve the storage space allocation problem in a container terminal. Comput Ind Eng 56:44–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2008.03.012
Bozer YA, Yen CK (1996) Intelligent dispatching rules for trip-based material handling systems. J Manuf Syst 15:226–239
Egbelu PJ (1987) Pull versus push strategy for automated guided vehicle load movement in a batch manufacturing system. J Manuf Syst 6:209–221
Egbelu PJ, Tanchoco JMA (1984) Characterization of automatic guided vehicle dispatching rules. Int J Prod Res 22:359–374
Frazzon EM, Albrecht A, Pires M et al (2018) Hybrid approach for the integrated scheduling of production and transport processes along supply chains. Int J Prod Res 56:2019–2035. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2017.1355118
Hu H, Chen X, Wang T, Zhang Y (2019) A three-stage decomposition method for the joint vehicle dispatching and storage allocation problem in automated container terminals. Comput Ind Eng 129:90–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2019.01.023
Im K, Kim K, Park T, Lee S (2009) Effective vehicle dispatching method minimising the blocking and delivery times in automatic material handling systems of 300 mm semiconductor fabrication. Int J Prod Res 47:3997–4011. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207540801914934
Yang J-W, Cheng H-C, Chiang T-C (2008) Li-Chen Fu Multiobjective lot scheduling and dynamic OHT routing in a 300-mm wafer fab. In: 2008 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics. IEEE, pp 1608–1613
Kim B-I, Oh S, Shin J et al (2007) Effectiveness of vehicle reassignment in a large-scale overhead hoist transport system. Int J Prod Res 45:789–802. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207540600675819
Kim CW, Tanchoco JMA (1991) Conflict-free shortest-time bidirectional AGV routeing. Int J Prod Res 29:2377–2391
Kim CW, Tanchoco JMA, Koo PH (1999) AGV dispatching based on workload balancing. Int J Prod Res 37:4053–4066
Kim H, Lim DE, Lee S (2020) Deep Learning-Based Dynamic Scheduling for Semiconductor Manufacturing with High Uncertainty of Automated Material Handling System Capability. IEEE Trans Semicond Manuf 33:13–22. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2020.2965293
Kim J, Yu G, Jang YJ (2016) Semiconductor FAB layout design analysis with 300-mm FAB data: “Is minimum distance-based layout design best for semiconductor FAB design?”. Comput Ind Eng 99:330–346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2016.02.012
Kim W-S, Lim D-E (2019) On an automated material handling system design problem in cellular manufacturing systems. Eur J Ind Eng 13:400–419
Lau HYK, Woo SO (2008) An agent-based dynamic routing strategy for automated material handling systems. Int J Comput Integr Manuf 21:269–288
Le-Anh T, De Koster MBM (2005) On-line dispatching rules for vehicle-based internal transport systems. Int J Prod Res 43:1711–1728
Lee S, Kim HJ, Kim SB (2020) Dynamic dispatching system using a deep denoising autoencoder for semiconductor manufacturing. Appl Soft Comput J 86:105904. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2019.105904
Lin JT, Wu CH, Huang CW (2013) Dynamic vehicle allocation control for automated material handling system in semiconductor manufacturing. Comput Oper Res 40:2329–2339
Marandi F, Fatemi Ghomi SMT (2019) Integrated multi-factory production and distribution scheduling applying vehicle routing approach. Int J Prod Res 57:722–748. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2018.1481301
Maxwell WL, Muckstadt JA (1982) Design of Automatic Guided Vehicle Systems. A I I E Trans 14:114–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/05695558208975046
Min H-S, Yih Y (2003) Selection of dispatching rules on multiple dispatching decision points in real-time scheduling of a semiconductor wafer fabrication system. Int J Prod Res 41:3921–3941. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020754031000118099
Rahman HF, Nielsen I (2019) Scheduling automated transport vehicles for material distribution systems. Appl Soft Comput 82:105552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2019.105552
Roser C, Masaru N, Minoru T (2002) Productivity improvement: shifting bottleneck detection. In: the 34th conference of Winter Simulation: exploring new frontiers. pp 1079–1086
Siebert M, Bartlett K, Kim H et al (2018) Lot targeting and lot dispatching decision policies for semiconductor manufacturing: optimisation under uncertainty with simulation validation. Int J Prod Res 56:629–641
Smolic-Rocak N, Bogdan S, Kovacic Z, Petrovic T (2010) Time windows based dynamic routing in multi-AGV systems. IEEE Trans Autom Sci Eng 7:151–155
Taghaboni-Dutta F, Tanchoco JMA (1995) Comparison of dynamic routeing techniques for automated guided vehicle system. Int J Prod Res 33:2653–2669
Wang FK, Lin JT (2004) Performance evaluation of an automated material handling system for a wafer fab. Robot Comput Integr Manuf 20:91–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcim.2003.08.002
Wang FK, Lin JT (2004) Performance evaluation of an automated material handling system for a wafer fab. Robot Comput Integr Manuf 20:91–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcim.2003.08.002
Funding
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korea government (No.2019R1G1A1011098).
Conflicts of interest/Competing interestsWe have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kim, H., Park, J. & Lee, J. Storage prioritization by redistributing wafer lot transfers to enhance real-world fab throughput. Flex Serv Manuf J 35, 599–625 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10696-022-09449-8
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10696-022-09449-8