System and method for determining an optimized schedule of a production line

• Main Authors: Wu, Naiqi, Yang, Fajun, Qiao, Yan, Zhou, Mengchu
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 16.10.2018
• Subjects: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; CONTROLLING; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS ORELEMENTS; PHYSICS; REGULATING

A method determines an optimized production schedule of a production line including a hybrid multi-cluster tool formed by a plurality of single-arm tools and dual-arm tools interconnected with each other. The method includes determining time for individual operations of a robotic arm and a processing module in the plurality of single-arm tools and dual-arm tools; determining robot waiting time of the single-arm tools and dual-arm tools based on the time for individual operations and different connection relationships of the plurality of single-arm tools and dual-arm tools; determining whether the optimized production schedule exists using the determined waiting time, wherein the optimized production schedule only exists if the hybrid multi-cluster tool is process-dominant where the robot activity time of the plurality of single-arm tools and dual-arm tools is substantially shorter than processing time at the processing module; and determining the optimized production schedule if the optimized production schedule exists.