As the LCD fabrication factories (Fab) are highly capital-intensive and the markets are very competitive, it is an essential requirement of operational management to achieve full-capacity production while meeting customer demands on time. In a typical LCD Fab, medium-term schedules such as release plans and production plans are critical to achieve the goal of full-capacity production and on-time delivery. Presented in this paper is a framework for weekly planning system generating medium-term schedules using a finite-capacity planning method. Also this paper presents a release planning method applying capacityfiltering algorithm, especially backward capacity-filtering procedure, which is one of the finite-capacity planning methods. In addition, performance analyses using actual data of a TFT-LCD Fab show that the proposed method is superior to existing methods or commercial S/W products generating release plans.

In this paper, we propose an efficient search algorithm for finding an optimal schedule to minimize makespan, while avoiding deadlock situation in Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) with finite capacity, in which each job needs to be processed in several job stages for completion. The proposed algorithm uses a modeling and control method based on Petri-net. Especially, we improve the efficiency of the search algorithm by using a priority rule and an efficient bounding function during the search procedure. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated through a numerical experiment, showing that it holds considerable promise for providing an optimal solution efficiently comparing to past work.

In mobile device's user interface, menu organization is very important as well as menu structure because small display of mobile device. Menu items should be organized based on user knowledge structure to design user-centered interface. Traditionally, MDS (Multidimensional Scaling) have been most often used to expose users' perceived organization of menu items. But, information that MDS reveals is just relative spatial location of concepts and not relevant to concepts connection. Unlike MDS, Trajectory Mapping explicitly finds users' cognitive links between perceived concepts. This study proposes a Trajectory Mapping technique for eliciting knowledge structure, especially a set of cognitive pathways linking menu items, from end user. With twelve participants, MDS and Trajectory Mapping were conducted using cellular phone's menu items. And user knowledge structure was analyzed through Visual Concept Map that combination of results of MDS and Trajectory Mapping. After then, menu items were organized according to users' perceived organization. Empirical usability test was also conducted. The results of usability test showed that usability, in terms of task performance time, number of errors, and satisfaction, for newly organized interface was significantly improved compare to original interface. The methodology of this study is expected to be applicable to design a user-centered interface. In other words, Trajectory Mapping technique can be used as a design tool of user interface for imposing user knowledge structure on the interface.

BPM(Business Process Management) secures the agility of an enterprise through automation, integration, and optimization of business process. For the successful BPM introduction, the evaluation and selection of suitable processes for BPM are very important. But as to process evaluation and selection standards, in fact, various selection elements exist and they have to be considered. Therefore, it is very difficult to evaluate systematically and reasonably business processes for enterprises or concerned persons that plan to introduce BPM. This paper describes a Web-based business process evaluation model for BPM using BSC(Balanced Scorecard) and fuzzy AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process). A Web-based business process evaluation system was implemented based on this and it provides many useful business process evaluation results to enterprises or concerned persons that have insufficient experience and knowledge about BPM, and initially plan to implement BPMS(Business Process Management System). Thus, this paper demonstrates the applicability of fuzzy AHP concept in business process evaluation and selection for BPM, and provides a systemic guidance in the decision-making process.

This paper deals with two most important problems, from both practical and theoretical standpoints, arising when building the ships in N different docks. Such docks have become core components of modern ship construction. One problem is to minimize the number of building docks in the shipyard, while the other is to keep the usage rate of resources fed into docks as constant as possible. In this paper the combined problem is formulated as a single-integer programming model. The LP-relaxation of this model is solved by column-generation techniques. Practical applications of this formulation are also discussed.

We propose a method for selection of input-output factors in DEA. It is designed to select better combinations of input-output factors that are well suited for evaluating substantial performance of DMUs. Several selected DEA models with different input-output factors combinations are evaluated, and the relationship between the computed efficiency scores and a single performance criterion of DMUs is investigated using decision tree. Based on the results of decision tree analysis, a relatively better DEA model can be chosen, which is expected to well represent the true performance of DMUs. We illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method by applying it to the efficiency evaluation of 101 listed companies in steel and metal industry.

This paper presents a methodology of evaluating call routing rules in call centers using simulation. The proposed methodology enables the call centers to reduce trial and error costs from applying different routing rules. Additionally, a Value Based Routing (VBR) has been evaluated with the proposed methodology in terms of profit, and finally compared it with a Homogeneous Routing (HR).

This paper considers a transporter scheduling problem under dynamic block transportation environment in shipbuilding. In dynamic situations, there exist the addition, cancellation or change of block transportation requirements, sudden breakdowns and maintenance of transporters. The transportation of the blocks in the shipyard has some distinct characteristics. Some blocks are available to be picked up at a specific time during the planning horizon while some other blocks need to be delivered before a specific time. These requirements cause two penalty times: 1) delay times incurred when a block is picked up after a required start time, and 2) tardy times incurred when a block shipment is completed after the required delivery time. The blocks are located at different areas in the shipyard and transported by transporters. The objective of this paper is to propose a heuristic algorithm based on a network flow model which minimize the weighted sum of empty transporter travel times, delay times, and tardy times. Also, a rolling-horizon scheduling method is proposed for dynamic block transportation environment. The performance of the proposed heuristic algorithms are evaluated through a simulation experiment.

In this paper, we propose a dispatching algorithm for constructing a Factory Operating System (FOS) which can operate semiconductor fabrication factories more efficiently and effectively. We first define ten dispatching criteria and propose two methods to apply the defined dispatching criteria sequentially and simultaneously (i.e. fixed dispatching architecture). However the fixed type methods cannot apply the criteria adaptively by considering changes in the semiconductor fabrication factories. To overcome this type of weakness, an adaptive dispatching architecture is proposed for applying the dispatching criteria dynamically based on the factory status. The status can be determined by combining evaluation results from the following three status criteria; target movement, workload balance, and utilization rate. Results from the shop floor in past few periods showed that the proposed methodology gives a good performance with respect to the productivity, workload balance, and machine utilization. We can expect that the proposed adaptive dispatching architecture will be used as a useful tool for operating semiconductor fabrication factories more efficiently and effectively.

Nowadays, most of the major manufacturing companies prepare their manufacturing schedule using package based solutions. Even though the accuracy of the detail scheduling result is high at implementation, however, it is low during maintenance period. The main cause of low accuracy during maintenance period is due to difficulties in maintaining the accurate level of master data. In this paper, we propose to easily maintain setup time, which is one of the most important factors required in master data to achieve good scheduling result, after changing job. This paper is mainly focused on how to deduce the factors that influence the setup time in a roll-based manufacturing field with print operations. For this purpose, we employed rule based algorithm and applied for deciding setup time for the existing product items. Likewise, it can be applied to new items without any complex setup procedures, and, finally, it displays the result of the real setup-time and calculated setup-time.

During the past few years, design of experiments (DOE) has been gaining acceptance in the telecommunications research community as a mean for designing and analyzing experiments economically and efficiently. In addition, the need for introducing a systematic robust design methodology (i.e., one of the most popular DOE methodologies) to network simulations has been increasing. In this paper, we present an architecture of voice over IP (VoIP) application and the E-Model for calculating the perceived quality of service (QoS). Then, we apply the Taguchi robust design methodology to optimize the perceived QoS of VoIP application, and describe the detailed step-by-step procedures. We have used ns-2 simulator to collect experimental data in which the SN ratio, a robustness measure, is analyzed to determine an optimal design condition. The analysis shows that "initial delay time in playout buffer" is a major control factor for ensuring robust behaviors of the perceived QoS of VoIP. Finally, we verify the proposed optimal design condition using a confirmation experiment.