Article ID: | iaor2001603 |
Country: | United States |
Volume: | 47 |
Issue: | 3 |
Start Page Number: | 410 |
End Page Number: | 421 |
Publication Date: | May 1999 |
Journal: | Operations Research |
Authors: | Yao David D., Zheng Shaohui |
Keywords: | programming: linear, probability, programming: dynamic |
We study the inspection process in the context of multistage batch manufacturing, focusing on interstage coordination under capacity limits. The problem is formulated as a constrained Markov decision program. We establish the optimality of a sequential policy that is characterized by a sequence of thresholds, with certain randomization at the thresholds. We further show that such an optimal policy can be completely derived through solving a linear program, and that randomization is needed at no more than two threshold values. We discuss an application in semiconductor wafer fabrication, which motivates our study.