THE DESIGN OF RAPID PRODUCTION PLANNING MECHANISM FOR THE PRODUCT MIX CHANGING IN A WAFER FABRICATION

Abstract

ABSTRACT Due to supply over demand, the wafer fabrication industry in Taiwan became dramatically competitive. Providing more service or flexibility for customers is very important for manufacturers. Among them, flexibility in order changeover for customers is one of key issues. This paper develops a rapid production planning mechanism, containing three modules, for reacting product mix changing problems. When product mix change is requested, the target planning module updates the performance targets (product cycle time, throughput, order due date) with an analytical method. Then, capacity demand evaluation module monitors the loading of bottleneck and capacity-constrainted resources (CCRs) by order-oriented scheduling method so as to prevent bottleneck from shifting. Finally, integrated performance evaluation module evaluates the difference in the profit making and in system slackness that induced from the changing of product mix. The case study showed that the rapid production planning mechanism not only achieved the system targets, but also set an achievable due date for these changed orders. It also decreased the impact from changing product mix, since the loading of bottleneck and CCR machine were controlled in the capacity demand evaluation module. The rapid production planning mechanism proposed hence is effective and efficient for wafer fabrication.