The performance of the number of vehicles in a dynamic connecting transport automated material handling system (AMHS)

A new concept of the dynamic connecting transport automated material handling system (AMHS) is proposed. This paper analyses the performance of the number of vehicles in a dynamic connecting transport AMHS in a simplified 300 mm wafer fab. Discrete-event simulation models are developed in e>-M Plant™ to study the system performance. To avoid congestion or idle time in the intrabay system, the control of the upper limit or the lower limit on the number of vehicles can be the feasible solution. Thus, four strategies are identified and their performances are also investigated. In addition, several different operation environments such as the flow rate and the product-mix are used to investigate the performance of the dynamic connecting transport AMHS.