Texas Instruments Corporation

Paul J Kline

Cynthia C Martin

Michael A Kilgore

A method and apparatus selects a period of time for evaluating process resources and lots to be processed by the process resources. Selected lots and selected process resource are chosen that are available to be processed by the process resource and that are available to process the selected lots respectively. For each of the combination of selected process and selected lots a tool score and a lot score is determine and combined in order to select a winning score. The factory is controlled through the process resource in accordance with the winning score.

Apparatus and method for controlling and scheduling processing machines

A method of scheduling jobs to be performed by a multi-task workstation in a manufacturing facility, where the multi-task workstation delivers its output to more than one downstream workstation. A scheduler for the multitask workstation categorizes that workstation's job queue according to the type of job and its destination workstation. The scheduler also determines a priority factor for each category, based on the percent of jobs represented by that category, the flow position of jobs in that category, and feedback from that category's downstream workstation. The feedback factor is provided by a work monitor at each downstream workstation that captures data reflecting the current workload, maintains this data to calculate workload averages, and uses the average to compare current workload to workload histories.

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Paul J Kline