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Description
A good production schedule in a semiconductor back-end facility is critical for the on time delivery of customer orders. Compared to the front-end process that is dominated by re-entrant product flows, the back-end process is linear and therefore more suitable for scheduling. However, the production scheduling of the back-end process

A good production schedule in a semiconductor back-end facility is critical for the on time delivery of customer orders. Compared to the front-end process that is dominated by re-entrant product flows, the back-end process is linear and therefore more suitable for scheduling. However, the production scheduling of the back-end process is still very difficult due to the wide product mix, large number of parallel machines, product family related setups, machine-product qualification, and weekly demand consisting of thousands of lots. In this research, a novel mixed-integer-linear-programming (MILP) model is proposed for the batch production scheduling of a semiconductor back-end facility. In the MILP formulation, the manufacturing process is modeled as a flexible flow line with bottleneck stages, unrelated parallel machines, product family related sequence-independent setups, and product-machine qualification considerations. However, this MILP formulation is difficult to solve for real size problem instances. In a semiconductor back-end facility, production scheduling usually needs to be done every day while considering updated demand forecast for a medium term planning horizon. Due to the limitation on the solvable size of the MILP model, a deterministic scheduling system (DSS), consisting of an optimizer and a scheduler, is proposed to provide sub-optimal solutions in a short time for real size problem instances. The optimizer generates a tentative production plan. Then the scheduler sequences each lot on each individual machine according to the tentative production plan and scheduling rules. Customized factory rules and additional resource constraints are included in the DSS, such as preventive maintenance schedule, setup crew availability, and carrier limitations. Small problem instances are randomly generated to compare the performances of the MILP model and the deterministic scheduling system. Then experimental design is applied to understand the behavior of the DSS and identify the best configuration of the DSS under different demand scenarios. Product-machine qualification decisions have long-term and significant impact on production scheduling. A robust product-machine qualification matrix is critical for meeting demand when demand quantity or mix varies. In the second part of this research, a stochastic mixed integer programming model is proposed to balance the tradeoff between current machine qualification costs and future backorder costs with uncertain demand. The L-shaped method and acceleration techniques are proposed to solve the stochastic model. Computational results are provided to compare the performance of different solution methods.
ContributorsFu, Mengying (Author) / Askin, Ronald G. (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Muhong (Thesis advisor) / Fowler, John W (Committee member) / Pan, Rong (Committee member) / Sen, Arunabha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
Ionizing radiation used in the patient diagnosis or therapy has negative effects on the patient body in short term and long term depending on the amount of exposure. More than 700,000 examinations are everyday performed on Interventional Radiology modalities [1], however; there is no patient-centric information available to the patient

Ionizing radiation used in the patient diagnosis or therapy has negative effects on the patient body in short term and long term depending on the amount of exposure. More than 700,000 examinations are everyday performed on Interventional Radiology modalities [1], however; there is no patient-centric information available to the patient or the Quality Assurance for the amount of organ dose received. In this study, we are exploring the methodologies to systematically reduce the absorbed radiation dose in the Fluoroscopically Guided Interventional Radiology procedures. In the first part of this study, we developed a mathematical model which determines a set of geometry settings for the equipment and a level for the energy during a patient exam. The goal is to minimize the amount of absorbed dose in the critical organs while maintaining image quality required for the diagnosis. The model is a large-scale mixed integer program. We performed polyhedral analysis and derived several sets of strong inequalities to improve the computational speed and quality of the solution. Results present the amount of absorbed dose in the critical organ can be reduced up to 99% for a specific set of angles. In the second part, we apply an approximate gradient method to simultaneously optimize angle and table location while minimizing dose in the critical organs with respect to the image quality. In each iteration, we solve a sub-problem as a MIP to determine the radiation field size and corresponding X-ray tube energy. In the computational experiments, results show further reduction (up to 80%) of the absorbed dose in compare with previous method. Last, there are uncertainties in the medical procedures resulting imprecision of the absorbed dose. We propose a robust formulation to hedge from the worst case absorbed dose while ensuring feasibility. In this part, we investigate a robust approach for the organ motions within a radiology procedure. We minimize the absorbed dose for the critical organs across all input data scenarios which are corresponding to the positioning and size of the organs. The computational results indicate up to 26% increase in the absorbed dose calculated for the robust approach which ensures the feasibility across scenarios.
ContributorsKhodadadegan, Yasaman (Author) / Zhang, Muhong (Thesis advisor) / Pavlicek, William (Thesis advisor) / Fowler, John (Committee member) / Wu, Tong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
In the entire supply chain, demand planning is one of the crucial aspects of the production planning process. If the demand is not estimated accurately, then it causes revenue loss. Past research has shown forecasting can be used to help the demand planning process for production. However, accurate forecasting from

In the entire supply chain, demand planning is one of the crucial aspects of the production planning process. If the demand is not estimated accurately, then it causes revenue loss. Past research has shown forecasting can be used to help the demand planning process for production. However, accurate forecasting from historical data is difficult in today's complex volatile market. Also it is not the only factor that influences the demand planning. Factors, namely, Consumer's shifting interest and buying power also influence the future demand. Hence, this research study focuses on Just-In-Time (JIT) philosophy using a pull control strategy implemented with a Kanban control system to control the inventory flow. Two different product structures, serial product structure and assembly product structure, are considered for this research. Three different methods: the Toyota Production System model, a histogram model and a cost minimization model, have been used to find the number of kanbans that was used in a computer simulated Just-In-Time Kanban System. The simulation model was built to execute the designed scenarios for both the serial and assembly product structure. A test was performed to check the significance effects of various factors on system performance. Results of all three methods were collected and compared to indicate which method provides the most effective way to determine number of kanbans at various conditions. It was inferred that histogram model and cost minimization models are more accurate in calculating the required kanbans for various manufacturing conditions. Method-1 fails to adjust the kanbans when the backordered cost increases or when product structure changes. Among the product structures, serial product structures proved to be effective when Method-2 or Method-3 is used to calculate the kanban numbers for the system. The experimental result data also indicated that the lower container capacity collects more backorders in the system, which increases the inventory cost, than the high container capacity for both serial and assembly product structures.
ContributorsSahu, Pranati (Author) / Askin, Ronald G. (Thesis advisor) / Shunk, Dan L. (Thesis advisor) / Fowler, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
This research by studies the computational performance of four different mixed integer programming (MIP) formulations for single machine scheduling problems with varying complexity. These formulations are based on (1) start and completion time variables, (2) time index variables, (3) linear ordering variables and (4) assignment and positional date variables. The

This research by studies the computational performance of four different mixed integer programming (MIP) formulations for single machine scheduling problems with varying complexity. These formulations are based on (1) start and completion time variables, (2) time index variables, (3) linear ordering variables and (4) assignment and positional date variables. The objective functions that are studied in this paper are total weighted completion time, maximum lateness, number of tardy jobs and total weighted tardiness. Based on the computational results, discussion and recommendations are made on which MIP formulation might work best for these problems. The performances of these formulations very much depend on the objective function, number of jobs and the sum of the processing times of all the jobs. Two sets of inequalities are presented that can be used to improve the performance of the formulation with assignment and positional date variables. Further, this research is extend to single machine bicriteria scheduling problems in which jobs belong to either of two different disjoint sets, each set having its own performance measure. These problems have been referred to as interfering job sets in the scheduling literature and also been called multi-agent scheduling where each agent's objective function is to be minimized. In the first single machine interfering problem (P1), the criteria of minimizing total completion time and number of tardy jobs for the two sets of jobs is studied. A Forward SPT-EDD heuristic is presented that attempts to generate set of non-dominated solutions. The complexity of this specific problem is NP-hard. The computational efficiency of the heuristic is compared against the pseudo-polynomial algorithm proposed by Ng et al. [2006]. In the second single machine interfering job sets problem (P2), the criteria of minimizing total weighted completion time and maximum lateness is studied. This is an established NP-hard problem for which a Forward WSPT-EDD heuristic is presented that attempts to generate set of supported points and the solution quality is compared with MIP formulations. For both of these problems, all jobs are available at time zero and the jobs are not allowed to be preempted.
ContributorsKhowala, Ketan (Author) / Fowler, John (Thesis advisor) / Keha, Ahmet (Thesis advisor) / Balasubramanian, Hari J (Committee member) / Wu, Teresa (Committee member) / Zhang, Muhong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
In today's global market, companies are facing unprecedented levels of uncertainties in supply, demand and in the economic environment. A critical issue for companies to survive increasing competition is to monitor the changing business environment and manage disturbances and changes in real time. In this dissertation, an integrated framework is

In today's global market, companies are facing unprecedented levels of uncertainties in supply, demand and in the economic environment. A critical issue for companies to survive increasing competition is to monitor the changing business environment and manage disturbances and changes in real time. In this dissertation, an integrated framework is proposed using simulation and online calibration methods to enable the adaptive management of large-scale complex supply chain systems. The design, implementation and verification of the integrated approach are studied in this dissertation. The research contributions are two-fold. First, this work enriches symbiotic simulation methodology by proposing a framework of simulation and advanced data fusion methods to improve simulation accuracy. Data fusion techniques optimally calibrate the simulation state/parameters by considering errors in both the simulation models and in measurements of the real-world system. Data fusion methods - Kalman Filtering, Extended Kalman Filtering, and Ensemble Kalman Filtering - are examined and discussed under varied conditions of system chaotic levels, data quality and data availability. Second, the proposed framework is developed, validated and demonstrated in `proof-of-concept' case studies on representative supply chain problems. In the case study of a simplified supply chain system, Kalman Filtering is applied to fuse simulation data and emulation data to effectively improve the accuracy of the detection of abnormalities. In the case study of the `beer game' supply chain model, the system's chaotic level is identified as a key factor to influence simulation performance and the choice of data fusion method. Ensemble Kalman Filtering is found more robust than Extended Kalman Filtering in a highly chaotic system. With appropriate tuning, the improvement of simulation accuracy is up to 80% in a chaotic system, and 60% in a stable system. In the last study, the integrated framework is applied to adaptive inventory control of a multi-echelon supply chain with non-stationary demand. It is worth pointing out that the framework proposed in this dissertation is not only useful in supply chain management, but also suitable to model other complex dynamic systems, such as healthcare delivery systems and energy consumption networks.
ContributorsWang, Shanshan (Author) / Wu, Teresa (Thesis advisor) / Fowler, John (Thesis advisor) / Pfund, Michele (Committee member) / Li, Jing (Committee member) / Pavlicek, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
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Description
Optimization of surgical operations is a challenging managerial problem for surgical suite directors. This dissertation presents modeling and solution techniques for operating room (OR) planning and scheduling problems. First, several sequencing and patient appointment time setting heuristics are proposed for scheduling an Outpatient Procedure Center. A discrete event simulation model

Optimization of surgical operations is a challenging managerial problem for surgical suite directors. This dissertation presents modeling and solution techniques for operating room (OR) planning and scheduling problems. First, several sequencing and patient appointment time setting heuristics are proposed for scheduling an Outpatient Procedure Center. A discrete event simulation model is used to evaluate how scheduling heuristics perform with respect to the competing criteria of expected patient waiting time and expected surgical suite overtime for a single day compared to current practice. Next, a bi-criteria Genetic Algorithm is used to determine if better solutions can be obtained for this single day scheduling problem. The efficacy of the bi-criteria Genetic Algorithm, when surgeries are allowed to be moved to other days, is investigated. Numerical experiments based on real data from a large health care provider are presented. The analysis provides insight into the best scheduling heuristics, and the tradeoff between patient and health care provider based criteria. Second, a multi-stage stochastic mixed integer programming formulation for the allocation of surgeries to ORs over a finite planning horizon is studied. The demand for surgery and surgical duration are random variables. The objective is to minimize two competing criteria: expected surgery cancellations and OR overtime. A decomposition method, Progressive Hedging, is implemented to find near optimal surgery plans. Finally, properties of the model are discussed and methods are proposed to improve the performance of the algorithm based on the special structure of the model. It is found simple rules can improve schedules used in practice. Sequencing surgeries from the longest to shortest mean duration causes high expected overtime, and should be avoided, while sequencing from the shortest to longest mean duration performed quite well in our experiments. Expending greater computational effort with more sophisticated optimization methods does not lead to substantial improvements. However, controlling daily procedure mix may achieve substantial improvements in performance. A novel stochastic programming model for a dynamic surgery planning problem is proposed in the dissertation. The efficacy of the progressive hedging algorithm is investigated. It is found there is a significant correlation between the performance of the algorithm and type and number of scenario bundles in a problem instance. The computational time spent to solve scenario subproblems is among the most significant factors that impact the performance of the algorithm. The quality of the solutions can be improved by detecting and preventing cyclical behaviors.
ContributorsGul, Serhat (Author) / Fowler, John W. (Thesis advisor) / Denton, Brian T. (Thesis advisor) / Wu, Teresa (Committee member) / Zhang, Muhong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
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Description
For multiple reasons, the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables in the United States has progressively increased. This has resulted in increased domestic production and importation of these products. The associated logistics is complex due to the perishability of these products, and most current logistics systems rely on marketing and

For multiple reasons, the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables in the United States has progressively increased. This has resulted in increased domestic production and importation of these products. The associated logistics is complex due to the perishability of these products, and most current logistics systems rely on marketing and supply chains practices that result in high levels of food waste and limited offer diversity. For instance, given the lack of critical mass, small growers are conspicuously absent from mainstream distribution channels. One way to obtain these critical masses is using associative schemes such as co-ops. However, the success level of traditional associate schemes has been mixed at best. This dissertation develops decision support tools to facilitate the formation of coalitions of small growers in complementary production regions to act as a single-like supplier. Thus, this dissertation demonstrates the benefits and efficiency that could be achieved by these coalitions, presents a methodology to efficiently distribute the value of a new identified market opportunity among the growers participating in the coalition, and develops a negotiation framework between a buyer(s) and the agent representing the coalition that results in a prototype contract.There are four main areas of research contributions in this dissertation. The first is the development of optimization tools to allocate a market opportunity to potential production regions while considering consumer preferences for special denomination labels such as “local”, “organic”, etc. The second contribution is in the development of a stochastic optimization and revenue-distribution framework for the formation of coalitions of growers to maximize the captured value of a market opportunity. The framework considers the growers’ individual preferences and production characteristics (yields, resources, etc.) to develop supply contracts that entice their participation in the coalition. The third area is the development of a negotiation mechanism to design contracts between buyers and groups of growers considering the profit expectations and the variability of the future demand. The final contribution is the integration of these models and tools into a framework capable of transforming new market opportunities into implementable production plans and contractual agreement between the different supply chain participants.
ContributorsUlloa, Rodrigo (Author) / Villalobos, Jesus (Thesis advisor) / Fowler, John (Committee member) / Mac Cawley, Alejandro (Committee member) / Yan, Hao (Committee member) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
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Description
In this thesis, a single-level, multi-item capacitated lot sizing problem with setup carryover, setup splitting and backlogging is investigated. This problem is typically used in the tactical and operational planning stage, determining the optimal production quantities and sequencing for all the products in the planning horizon. Although the capacitated lot

In this thesis, a single-level, multi-item capacitated lot sizing problem with setup carryover, setup splitting and backlogging is investigated. This problem is typically used in the tactical and operational planning stage, determining the optimal production quantities and sequencing for all the products in the planning horizon. Although the capacitated lot sizing problems have been investigated with many different features from researchers, the simultaneous consideration of setup carryover and setup splitting is relatively new. This consideration is beneficial to reduce costs and produce feasible production schedule. Setup carryover allows the production setup to be continued between two adjacent periods without incurring extra setup costs and setup times. Setup splitting permits the setup to be partially finished in one period and continued in the next period, utilizing the capacity more efficiently and remove infeasibility of production schedule.

The main approaches are that first the simple plant location formulation is adopted to reformulate the original model. Furthermore, an extended formulation by redefining the idle period constraints is developed to make the formulation tighter. Then for the purpose of evaluating the solution quality from heuristic, three types of valid inequalities are added to the model. A fix-and-optimize heuristic with two-stage product decomposition and period decomposition strategies is proposed to solve the formulation. This generic heuristic solves a small portion of binary variables and all the continuous variables rapidly in each subproblem. In addition, the case with demand backlogging is also incorporated to demonstrate that making additional assumptions to the basic formulation does not require to completely altering the heuristic.

The contribution of this thesis includes several aspects: the computational results show the capability, flexibility and effectiveness of the approaches. The average optimality gap is 6% for data without backlogging and 8% for data with backlogging, respectively. In addition, when backlogging is not allowed, the performance of fix-and-optimize heuristic is stable regardless of period length. This gives advantage of using such approach to plan longer production schedule. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed solution approaches is analyzed so that later research on similar topics could compare the result with different solution strategies.
ContributorsChen, Cheng-Lung (Author) / Zhang, Muhong (Thesis advisor) / Mohan, Srimathy (Thesis advisor) / Wu, Teresa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Mobile healthy food retailers are a novel alleviation technique to address disparities in access to urban produce stores in food desert communities. Such retailers, which tend to exclusively stock produce items, have become significantly more popular in the past decade, but many are unable to achieve economic sustainability. Therefore, when

Mobile healthy food retailers are a novel alleviation technique to address disparities in access to urban produce stores in food desert communities. Such retailers, which tend to exclusively stock produce items, have become significantly more popular in the past decade, but many are unable to achieve economic sustainability. Therefore, when local and federal grants and scholarships are no longer available for a mobile food retailer, they must stop operating which poses serious health risks to consumers who rely on their services.

To address these issues, a framework was established in this dissertation to aid mobile food retailers with reaching economic sustainability by addressing two key operational decisions. The first decision was the stocked product mix of the mobile retailer. In this problem, it was assumed that mobile retailers want to balance the health, consumer cost, and retailer profitability of their product mix. The second investigated decision was the scheduling and routing plan of the mobile retailer. In this problem, it was assumed that mobile retailers operate similarly to traditional distribution vehicles with the exception that their customers are willing to travel between service locations so long as they are in close proximity.

For each of these problems, multiple formulations were developed which address many of the nuances for most existing mobile food retailers. For each problem, a combination of exact and heuristic solution procedures were developed with many utilizing software independent methodologies as it was assumed that mobile retailers would not have access to advanced computational software. Extensive computational tests were performed on these algorithm with the findings demonstrating the advantages of the developed procedures over other algorithms and commercial software.

The applicability of these techniques to mobile food retailers was demonstrated through a case study on a local Phoenix, AZ mobile retailer. Both the product mix and routing of the retailer were evaluated using the developed tools under a variety of conditions and assumptions. The results from this study clearly demonstrate that improved decision making can result in improved profits and longitudinal sustainability for the Phoenix mobile food retailer and similar entities.
ContributorsWishon, Christopher John (Author) / Villalobos, Rene (Thesis advisor) / Fowler, John (Committee member) / Mirchandani, Pitu (Committee member) / Wharton, Christopher (Christopher Mack), 1977- (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Vehicles powered by electricity and alternative-fuels are becoming a more popular form of transportation since they have less of an environmental impact than standard gasoline vehicles. Unfortunately, their success is currently inhibited by the sparseness of locations where the vehicles can refuel as well as the fact that many of

Vehicles powered by electricity and alternative-fuels are becoming a more popular form of transportation since they have less of an environmental impact than standard gasoline vehicles. Unfortunately, their success is currently inhibited by the sparseness of locations where the vehicles can refuel as well as the fact that many of the vehicles have a range that is less than those powered by gasoline. These factors together create a "range anxiety" in drivers, which causes the drivers to worry about the utility of alternative-fuel and electric vehicles and makes them less likely to purchase these vehicles. For the new vehicle technologies to thrive it is critical that range anxiety is minimized and performance is increased as much as possible through proper routing and scheduling. In the case of long distance trips taken by individual vehicles, the routes must be chosen such that the vehicles take the shortest routes while not running out of fuel on the trip. When many vehicles are to be routed during the day, if the refueling stations have limited capacity then care must be taken to avoid having too many vehicles arrive at the stations at any time. If the vehicles that will need to be routed in the future are unknown then this problem is stochastic. For fleets of vehicles serving scheduled operations, switching to alternative-fuels requires ensuring the schedules do not cause the vehicles to run out of fuel. This is especially problematic since the locations where the vehicles may refuel are limited due to the technology being new. This dissertation covers three related optimization problems: routing a single electric or alternative-fuel vehicle on a long distance trip, routing many electric vehicles in a network where the stations have limited capacity and the arrivals into the system are stochastic, and scheduling fleets of electric or alternative-fuel vehicles with limited locations to refuel. Different algorithms are proposed to solve each of the three problems, of which some are exact and some are heuristic. The algorithms are tested on both random data and data relating to the State of Arizona.
ContributorsAdler, Jonathan D (Author) / Mirchandani, Pitu B. (Thesis advisor) / Askin, Ronald (Committee member) / Gel, Esma (Committee member) / Xue, Guoliang (Committee member) / Zhang, Muhong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014