Automated planning, execution and evaluation of simulation experiments of semiconductor AMHS

Increasing variety and complexity of products in existing semiconductor factories cause an increased amount of production steps. Accordingly, this leads to a significant increase of non value added transportation processes. Therefore, transport and storage durations shall be minimized by optimal alteration of the given automated material handling system (AMHS). This can be achieved by simulation and analysis of possible AMHS alterations. However, this is a difficult task because of the system´s complexity, the large amount of data and the high effort of manually modifying and testing many different AMHS alterations. In order to assist the system experts in executing these tasks, the authors suggest a method for automatic planning, execution and comparison of simulation experiments, including the automatic alteration of the transportation system´s layout by introducing additional AMHS segments as shortcuts. The approach is feasible for existing simulation models as well as for generating simulations from the factory´s core data.