Order management for semiconductor manufacturing - a new approach realized with artificial neural networks

Turbulent markets have led to changes in the manufacturing area which paved the way for new concepts and planning approaches. The paper deals with a planning problem which is specific to the semiconductor industry. The conventional planning procedure according to which resources are planned with constant lead times for given planning periods presents a real dilemma for semiconductor manufacturer. One way out of this dilemma is the use of rough planning methods with variable lead times. This article describes such a procedure based on an interative planning concept using artificial neural networks to calculate the variable lead times.