Abstract
This thesis addresses the challenges of improving the on-time delivery performance of a high-mix high-volume semiconductor test facility. Preliminary analysis on the current push production system shows that the poor on-time delivery performance is caused by excessive Work-In-Process (WIP) inventory build-up which has led to system congestion and long production cycle time. A pull-type hybrid-push CONWIP system is designed to address the problem. The proposed system works by keeping the high demand products within a product family under CONWIP control while allowing the rest low demand products to remain under the conventional push system. The overall material movement in the entire system is facilitated through the establishment of a WIP cap on the high demand products. The appropriate CONWIP levels for major high demand products are modelled using the Parametric Decomposition approach. The corresponding system performance in terms throughput, cycle time and actual WIP volume is computed using the analytical model. Calculation results demonstrate that significant reduction in total WIP volume and production cycle time could be expected through the implementation of the proposed CONWIP system.