A two-tier hierarchical scheduler for the micro-electronic industry

This paper describes a scheduling methodology operating on a two-tier hierarchical scheduling level-the tactical, or master production level, and the operational level. The master production plan is solved through linear programming, with load departments to meet the forecast and capacity constraints, while the operational plan uses the binary generation method for solving the multi-resource allocation problem. Initial field runs have reduced product lead times by about a third, while overtime is maintained at lower levels than used previously.