Enhancing rule-based scheduling in wafer fabrication facilities by evolutionary algorithms: Review and opportunity

Scheduling is a critical and challenging task in manufacturing systems, especially in large-scale complex systems like wafer fabrication facilities. Although evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have demonstrated many successful applications in the field of manufacturing scheduling, there are very few studies on scheduling of wafer fabs using EAs. Dispatching rules are one of the most common techniques for fab scheduling. In this paper, we present six ways of applying EAs for enhancing the rule-based scheduling system. We provide potential EA-based solutions and review relevant literature. Many of the mentioned viewpoints can serve as new research topics for both researchers in the fields of scheduling and evolutionary computation (EC). Several general EC techniques including multiobjective optimization, expensive optimization, and parallelization are also introduced and shown to be helpful to fab scheduling.

► We review the literature on rule-based scheduling in wafer fabrication.
► We point out the need of intelligent and automatic development of rule-based scheduling systems.
► We demonstrate how evolutionary algorithms (EAs) can enhance the rule-based system.
► Research opportunities for the integration of EAs and rule-based scheduling are suggested.
► We also introduce EA-related techniques for multiobjective and real-time scheduling.