The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 09, 1999
Filed:
Jan. 27, 1997
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd., Hsin-Chu, TW;
Abstract
The invention provides an index of line balance method for maintaining optimum queued quantities of products at a manufacturing step and over an entire manufacturing line. The method begins by: first, assigning a daily standard move of product (Std Move) which should be produced in a manufacturing line. Second, the standard WIP StdWIP is calculated for each manufacturing stage i by multiplying the theoretical cycle time C/T of each stage by the daily standard move StdMove; (i.e., StdWIP=CT*StdMove). Third, the difference Di between the current WIP CWi and standard WIP StdWIP at every stage i. (Di=Cwi-Swi, ) is calculated. Fourth, the cumulative difference CDi between current WIP Cwi and standard WIP StdWIP of every stage i from stage i to stage n is calculated. ##EQU1## Fifth, the index of line balance BIi is calculated by dividing the sum of all positive CDi from stage i to stage n by the absolute value of the sum of all negative CDi from stage i to stage n. Next, the index of line balance BIi for each stage i is plotted as a line chart for each stage i. Lastly, additional production resources (e.g., tools) are allocated to the stages that have an index of line balance BIi greater than 1.2 and production resources are reduced to the stages that have an index of line balance BIi less than 0.80. The method reduces WIP, cycle time and costs by better allocating manufacturing resources.