Dynamic batching heuristic for simultaneous processing

This study focuses on computer integrated manufacturing as a means of supporting real-time resource allocation decisions in the semiconductor industry. Two general questions are addressed: (1) how can be global current state of the factory, which would be available in a computer integrated manufacturing system, be summarized into information for decisions? and (2) how much improvement might be expected from such a strategy? Partial answers to these questions for a particular decision, dynamic batch sizing, are provided. It is described how the myopic strategy, minimum batch size rule, performs batch process. A heuristic is proposed to handle batch processing in the look-ahead case, and the sensitivity of this heuristic to forecasting errors is tested