A model for master planning in semiconductor manufacturing

Abstract

We present a model for making master planning decisions in semiconductor manufacturing. The problem consists in determining appropriate wafer quantities for certain products, facilities (locations), and periods of time. Different demand types, i.e., confirmed orders or forecasts are considered. The reentrant flow in semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities is taken into account for capacity modeling. We use a combined objective function that considers production costs for in-house locations, sub-contracting costs, inventory costs, and costs for unmet demand. Demand fulfillments and capacity constraints are used. We suggest a mixed integer programming (MIP) formulation for the master planning problem. The results of some computational experiments with a commercial MIP solver are presented.