A simulation study of dispatching rules and rework strategies in semiconductor manufacturing

Two major operational components of semiconductor fabs that effect fab productivity are dispatching rules and rework strategies. Although prior research has been conducted independently on these two issues, the hypothesis here is that the interrelationship between the dispatching rules and rework strategies has a significant effect on the productivity of the fab. Moreover, the goal is to determine which combination of widely-used dispatching rules and new and existing rework strategies results in the highest level of fab productivity. To test this hypothesis, a four-factor experiment is conducted to determine the effect of dispatching rules, rework strategies, fab types, and rework levels on key fab performance measures. Five dispatching rules are combined with three previously studied rework strategies and the first bottleneck strategy which is developed in this study. The treatment combinations are compared based on fab performance measures.