Patent Application
20050256597
The present invention relates to production management and particularly to a method for transferring production lots for experiment that rapidly transfers production lots presently processed on a production line to experiment lots, and automatically holds experiment lots at specific user-determined stages.
Prior to mass production of a product design, clients take orders to do engineering experiments for the product design. Clients further continue performing experiments for the product design after it has been produced on a production line to improve production yield and reducing related costs.
In conventional production systems, the experiment orders are handled as new production, that is, supply chain management including capacity allocation and the like must be performed for the experiment orders. The entire experiment cycle time is long. Since there may be an overload capacity, the experiment orders must compete with other orders to gain required capacity, thereby further lengthening the experiment cycle time.
Additionally, the experiment lots are held and experimented on according to client directions. The delivery issue is relatively unimportant for the experiment lot. The delivery issue is, however, important for normal production lots, and is handled by following the MPS (Manufacturing Planning Schedule) determined by a planning engine. The experiment and production lots are easily mixed and confused in production systems, and may result in an incorrect delivery dispatch. Additionally, since production control personnel and experiment engineers of the client are often distinct entities, it is necessary to provide the production control personnel with the experiment information, and delivery management should be further enhanced for the experiment lots.
The present disclosure addresses the aforementioned issues. It is noted that the present invention is applicable to any factory, service supplier and product.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for transferring production lots for experiment that rapidly transfers production lots presently processed on a production line to experiment lots, and automatically holds experiment lots at specific user-determined stages.
The present disclosure provides a method for transferring production lots for experiment, in which an experiment request for a product is first received via a web interface. A plurality of production lots corresponding to the product is then displayed on the web interface. The production lots presently being processed on a production line comprise a sequence of stages. At least one of the stages and at least one of the production lots that have not been processed at the stage are selected. Thereafter, a hold flag is set at that stage, such that the selected production lot is held for an experiment.
An experiment condition is further received via the web interface, and the experiment is performed on the selected production lot accordingly.
An original order corresponding to the selected production lot is further split to generate an experiment order comprising the selected production lot, the selected production lot is pegged to the experiment order, and a committed date is determined for the experiment order.
The above-mentioned method may take the form of program code embodied in a tangible media. When the program code is loaded into and executed by a machine, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention.
The aforementioned objects, features and advantages will become apparent by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The system 700 includes a web interface 710, a database 720, a calculation unit 730, a planning engine 740 and a production line 750. The web interface 710 receives information or requests from clients, and display related results thereon. It is understood that the present invention can be integrated with a web-based platform, which provides online service to clients. The database 720 stores related manufacturing information, such as WIP (Work In Process) status, lot distribution, and others. It is understood that the present invention may couple to related systems, such as a planning system and a manufacturing execution system to collect the manufacturing information. The calculation unit 730 performs the method for transferring production lots for experiment, and its operation is discussed below. The planning engine 740 performs related supply chain management. The production line 750 includes a plurality of stages performing respective process to products/wafers.
First, in step S201, it is determined whether an experiment request for a specific product has been received from a client. The experiment request can be received via the web interface 710. The procedure remains at step S201 until an experiment request has been received. Upon receiving an experiment request a plurality of production lots corresponding to the product is then displayed, in step S202, on the web interface 300, as shown in
Thereafter, in steps S203 and S204, at least one of the stages and at least one of the production lots that have not been processed at the stage are selected via the web interface 300. In the example of
The selected stage ES and production lots SPL are marked for experiment. Thus, pending other conditions described below, when those selected production lots SPL reach the selected stage ES (which is stage S6 in
Continuing with the description of
Then, in step S206, it is determined whether the committed date has been accepted by the client. If the committed date is not accepted by the client, then the procedure returns to step S203. Otherwise, in step S207, a hold flag is set at the selected stage, such that the selected production lot is held for an experiment upon arrival at the selected stage. Thereafter, in step S208, an original order corresponding to the selected production lot is split to generate an experiment order including the selected production lot, and in step S209, the selected production lot is hard pegged to the experiment order, such that the selected production lot cannot be confused with normal production lots during delivery. It is understood that “Hard Peg” is an instruction in planning engines, and it can link specific lots to a specific order, thereby avoiding mistakes in delivery. It is also understood that the committed date for the experiment order can be set into the planning engine 740, and the planning engine 740 may perform related supply chain management accordingly. Thereafter, in step S210, the experiment information is informed and provided to the client, and the production control personnel.
As shown in the example of
The interface of
Thus, in the example of
It should be appreciated that the experiment conditions, for some embodiments, can be defined by a client and received over the web interface.
Since the production line proceeds sequentially from S1 through S10, it should be appreciated that, if stage S6 is selected as the experiment stage ES, then, in some embodiments, those production lots that are currently at stages S7, S8, S9, or S10 cannot be selected for experiment.
First, in step S401, it is determined whether an experiment condition has been received from the client. Similarly, the experiment condition can be received via the web interface. If no experimental condition has been received, then, in step S402, it is determined whether the original order is complete. If the original order is complete, then, in step S403, the experiment is closed. It is understood that the selected production lot may be released at the selected stage, and performed using an original recipe for the product if the original order is complete. If the original order is not complete, then, in step S404, a notification message is transmitted to inform the client to perform the experiment, and the procedure returns to step S401.
If an experiment condition is received from the client, then, in step S405, it is determined whether the selected production lot is at the selected stage. If the selected production lot is not at the selected stage, then the procedure remains in step S405. Once the selected production lot reaches the selected stage, in step S406, the experiment is performed on the selected production lot according to the received experiment condition. Thereafter, in step S407, a result of the experiment is displayed on the web interface. It is understood that the result may also be transmitted to the client via email.
The method and system of the present invention, or certain aspects or portions thereof, may take the form of program code (i.e., executable instructions) embodied in tangible media, such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMS, hard drives, or any other machine-readable storage medium, wherein, when the program code is loaded into and executed by a machine, such as a computer, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. The method and systems of the present invention may also be embodied in the form of program code transmitted over transmission media, such as electrical wiring or cabling, through fiber optics, or via any form of transmission, wherein, when the program code is received and loaded into and executed by a machine, such as a computer, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. When implemented on a general-purpose processor, the program code combines with the processor to provide a unique apparatus that operates analogously to application specific logic circuits.
Although the present invention has been described in its preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the invention to the precise embodiments disclosed herein. Those skilled in this technology can still make various alterations and modifications without departing from the scope and spirit of this invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention shall be defined and protected by the following claims and their equivalents.
