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Optimal Allocation of Product Loadings Across Multiple Facilities

Updated: 18 April 1997

Student: Stephen H. Muir
Companies: Intel
Advisor: Duane Boning
Larry Wein
Supervisor: Dave Fanger
Contact Info: (617) 577-5756
smuir@mit.edu
Organization: MIT LFM
Address: 60 Wadsworth St. Apt. 24C
Cambridge, MA 02142

Project Goals

The capital intensive semiconductor fabrication industry necessitates optimal use of existing assets for current and future process technology generations. Opportunity exists to increase wafer starts capacity without purchasing additional capital equipment by optimizing the product loadings across multiple facilities running the same process technology. Since many equipment capacities are sensitive to the product mix, a dynamic method is needed to reallocate product loadings to each facility to meet changing product demand requirements. If one or more facilities are constrained by equipment whose capacity is sensitive to the product mix, product loadings can be adjusted to increase overall wafer starts capacity.

Project Progress

The overall methodology provides significant benefits for the production planning process. For starters, the physical model is a powerful tool which rather simply solves the complex task of ensuring the product allocation process fully incorporates facility equipment capacities. However, the model itself is merely the analytical tool of the overall methodology which greatly enhances the level of communication between marketing, planning, and the facility manufacturing engineering groups. This model provides a solid data foundation that enables the manufacturing engineering groups to provide useful feedback to marketing and planning regarding the tradeoffs between products and their impact on the combined wafer starts capacity.

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