A step toward capacity planning at finite capacity in semiconductor manufacturing

Production planning in the Semiconductor Industry (SI) has emerged as the most complex process due to its process complexity, technological constraints and high-mix low-volume production characteristics. In this paper, we present two different production planning approaches, developed by STMicroelectronics and G-SCOP research laboratory, to better control the production in 300mm production line at Crolles. At first, a mixed integer program (MIP) is proposed that projects the production lot trajectories (start and end dates) for the remaining subsequent steps, taking into account finite production capacities. A heuristic is then proposed to simplify the problem of finite capacity by neglecting equipment capacity. This approach results in the development of an infinite capacity WIP projection engine that complies with lots due dates and takes into account cycle time variability.