The use of bottleneck starvation avoidance with queue predictions in shop floor control

ABSTRACT

The accurate estimation of lead times and the use of factory-wide information can improve the performance of dynamic shop floor control. This paper presents a dispatching policy that is based on the concept of bottleneck starvation avoidance and relies on frequently updated queue predictions for all workstations. The queue predictions are used to dynamically estimate the lead times required for lots to reach workstations on their routes, particularly the bottleneck workstation. Object-oriented simulation experiments were run for several wafer fab configurations with results showing a consistantly good behavior of the computationally intensive control mechanism presented here.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.6 COMPUTER-AIDED ENGINEERING

      Nouns: CAPO

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING

  J. Computer Applications
  J.7 COMPUTERS IN OTHER SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Industrial control

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Performance