Simulation-Based Scheduling of Parallel Wire-Bonders with Limited Clamp&Paddles

We present a scheduling procedure for the wire-bonding operation of a semiconductor assembly facility. The wire-bonding operation typically consists of a large number of unrelated parallel machines and is typically one of the bottlenecks in an assembly facility. The scheduling procedure is able to handle setup times, limited fixtures (clamp&paddles) and non-zero machine ready-times (initial work in progress). It is based on a simulator that generates a schedule and a simulated annealing approach to optimize the schedule. Some preliminary results from an implementation in a large assembly facility are given