A simulated annealing algorithm for integration of shop floor control strategies in semiconductor wafer fabrication

The semiconductor manufacturing industry is one of the most important industries in Taiwan. Wafer fabrication is an essential process in semiconductor manufacturing. However, controlling the production system on the shop floor is extremely difficult owing to the complicated manufacturing process and reentrant characteristics. In this paper, the shop floor control (SFC) integration strategies (order review/release, dispatching, and rework strategies) in wafer fabrication are considered with using several performances. We reviewed the literature on SFC strategies in wafer fabrication. The proposed combination simulation and simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is presented for SFC strategies in wafer fabrication. The objective was to seek the near global optimum solution for the combination of SFC strategies for a specific performance indicator. From the results, the proposed methodology was found to perform well for combinations of SFC strategies using different performance indicators in wafer fabrication. However, no single combination of SFC strategies could satisfy all performance indicators. Hence, considering the trade-off among these production control strategies, a suitable strategy should be chosen based on the system control tactics. Considerable computational time was saved in this research.