MODELING LOT ROUTING SOFTWARE THROUGH DISCRETE - EVENT SIMULATION Chad

Intel has recently developed lot routing tools that can theoretically minimize local and overall lot movement. These developments were required to maximize the flexibility of existing AMHS and minimize the time needed to retrieve lots for processing. In order to gain insight of how these lot routing rules impact manufacturing, and how they should be configured, Intel uses two different analysis tools. A static spreadsheet model was used to determine the impact of the new lot routing rules in terms of AMHS lot movement volume. The second level of analysis was to use dynamic discreteevent simulation to determine the impact to AMHS and equipment utilization. Both methods were used to determine how tool policy rules should be set for each operation in the process flow, and minimize impact to AMHS and enhance performance, while meeting manufacturing requirements. The static model analysis showed that ideal use of the lot routing algorithm had a very significant impact on AMHS transport requirements. The dynamic discreteevent modeling showed that the lot routing policies can be modified to enhance system performance. These modifications resulted in key learnings about configuring the lot routing software.