Using Auxiliary Capacity Planning Strategy Genetic Algorithm for TFT-LCD photolithography Scheduling to empower Industry 3.5

The productivity of bottle neck influences the gross yield of manufacturing system significantly. Since the bottle neck in TFT-LCD array process is photolithography stage, it becomes vital to solve the photo WIP scheduling problem. Nevertheless, it turns out being much more complex than the usual parallel machine scheduling problem while considering production constraints of photo WIP scheduling problem. Besides dispatching orders to proper machines, auxiliary resource dispatching issues such as mask allocation problem should also be concerned. To empower Industry 3.5 Manufacturing Intelligence for better decision making, the study proposed a modified genetic algorithm encoded with auxiliary capacity planning strategy. Distinguished from other evolutionary algorithm(EA), the proposed Auxiliary Capacity Strategy Genetic Algorithm (ACPS-GA) allows decision makers to resolve photo WIP scheduling problem featuring higher utilization and fast response to the manufacturing system.