We present a maintenance scheduling problem arising from semi-conductor manufacturing which is characterized by low resource contention and multiple complex objectives and preferences. Since semi-conductor manufacturing involves a very high degree of uncertainty at the level of detailed operations, such as machine availability, yield, and processing times, generating a maintenance schedule which takes into account production operations is a challenging problem. We have developed an integrated approach, with respect to production operations, which uses simulation to estimate expected levels of work in process in the fab. We present details of our solution approach which is based on goal programming, constraint programming and mixed-integer programming.
Andrew J. Davenport