Automated Scheduling and Dispatching for TFT-LCD Color Filter Fabrication Plants

Abstract

Intense global competition and declining profit have caused most Thin Film Transistor - Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) manufacturers to increase their competitiveness by improving productivity and reducing cycle times. This research developed Automated Scheduling and Dispatching (ASD) system to automatically generate production schedules for multiple color filter fabrication plants in TFT-LCD industry. On the basis of backward scheduling and forward scheduling, ASD was developed to estimate future equipment loading and calculate order due dates according to capacity limits by taking into account the due date and size of orders, as well as the capacity, loading, and yield of fabrication plants. ASD system can assign orders to production lines, plan order release time, and balance equipment loading. Microsoft Visual Basic for Application (VBA) was used to develop ASD system in this research. Preliminary results in a case study demonstrated that ASD can efficiently generate scheduling results. ASD has been partially implemented in the studied color filter fabrication plants. Compared to manual operations for scheduling and dispatching, more than two-third time was saved by using ASD. Further improvement is under study and development.