Raising the hit rate for wafer fabrication by a simple constructive heuristic

The rate of on-time delivery, namely hit rate, is a very significant performance measurement index for semiconductor wafer fabrication. This study proposes an efficient simple constructive heuristic (SCH), called slack multiplied uncompleted ratio (SMUR), for raising the hit rate in wafer fabs. Effectiveness of the proposed SMUR heuristic is verified by conducting simulation experiments based on a well known model from the relevant literature. The results indicate that the proposed SMUR heuristic is a state-of-the-art SCH for the current problem by comparing the obtained results to the best available SCHs in the relevant literature. Since the proposed SMUR heuristic is easy to implement and decreases the computational burden, this study successfully develops a practical approach which will hopefully encourage practitioners to apply it to real world problems.