An evolutionary simulation–optimization approach in solving parallel-machine scheduling problems – A case study

Parallel-machine scheduling research is one of the active fields in the past decade due to its increasing application. Due to the problem complexity, it is a general practice to find an appropriate heuristic rather than an optimal solution for the parallel-machine scheduling problem. The wirebonding workstation is the bottleneck in integrated-circuit packaging manufacturing. Effective scheduling is one of the key factors towards improving the efficiency of the wirebonding operations. The wirebonding scheduling problem is an equal (or identical) parallel-machine scheduling problem. The research solved the wirebonding scheduling problem by using an evolutionary simulation–optimization approach. Empirical results, benchmarked against lower bound solutions, showed the quality solutions of less than 2% deviation for a wide range of production scenarios. However, if the problem size were to increase, the proposed methodology might become computationally prohibitive, and this might well require further development if used to solve the identified problem in such circumstances.