Combined scheduling algorithm for re-entrant batch-processing machines in semiconductor wafer manufacturing

In this paper, a new combined scheduling algorithm is proposed to address the problem of minimising total weighted tardiness on re-entrant batch-processing machines (RBPMs) with incompatible job families in the semiconductor wafer fabrication system (SWFS). The general combined scheduling algorithm forms batches according to parameters from the real-time scheduling simulation platform (ReS2), and then sequences batches through slack-based mixed integer linear programming model (S-MILP), which is defined as batch-oriented combined scheduling algorithm. The new combined scheduling algorithm obtains families’ parameters from ReS2 and then sequences these families through modified S-MILP, which is defined as family-oriented combined scheduling algorithm. With rolling horizon control strategy, two combined scheduling algorithms can update RBPMs scheduling continually. The experiments are implemented on ReS2 of SWFS and ILOG CPLEX, respectively. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed methods.