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:
Jan. 22, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 04, 1999
Stuart Bermon, Mt. Kisco, NY (US);
Gerald E. Feigin, Scarborough, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Amonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A computer implemented method provides accurate capacity planning for manufacturing environments comprising parallel, unrelated tools that can process the same operations at different rates and with preferences for the sequence in which those tools are selected to accommodate the workload. The method reliably determines precisely what are the gating tools among sets of parallel, unrelated tools in a complex manufacturing environment in which different tools can perform the same or similar sets of operations, generally at different rates. The primary, secondary, etc. tool groups in each cascade set are explicitly kept track of in order to enable the correct penalty function to be associated, in one implementation with the appropriate tool group, and in another implementation with the tool allocation variables. The end user may also interact with the input data through a Menu Program or through a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and modify the data for “what-if” analyses.