Capacity Models for Scheduling the Virtual Enterprise

Abstract

Many papers have addressed planning methods for distributed and virtual manufacturing enterprises, however the underlying capacity models on which they are based tend to be simplistic and unrealistic, particularly when describing a complicated manufacturing site such as a semiconductor wafer fabrication facility. There are many methods of capacity modelling ranging from spreadsheet solutions to simulation. Assessing existing models on a continuum shows a gap between 'resource profiling' and 'discrete event simulation' where the requirements for wafer fabrication capacity models fall. A macro-simulation model which uses the statistical power of a queuing theory approach to improve on the current inadequate resource profile methods is briefly described.