Optimal Control of a Manufacturing Process That Involves Trial Runs

We study a manufacturing process that is quite common in semiconductor wafer fabrication. In generic terms, the job to be processed consists of J units. To process the job, a “setup” is required, followed by routine processing and testing. In principle, the entirety of the job can be set up and processed in a single batch. However, the setup is prone to failure, leading to loss of units. Hence, in practice trial runs are often conducted, with each trial involving a small batch of units. Here we identify an optimal control of such processes. The policy prescribes a maximum of k* (≤J) single-unit trial runs. To establish optimality, we use the recently developed notion of stochastic convexity/concavity and related machinery.

• 저널Management Science · 39(12) · 1499–1505
• 토픽Scheduling and Optimization Algorithms · Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
• DOI10.1287/mnsc.39.12.1499
• 저자Guillermo Gallego, David D. Yao, Ilkyeong Moon