目前多單元與多加工區製造系統的設施佈置是設施規劃的兩個重要研究課題。單元製造系統是一項的極具創新製造策略，結合零工式生產(job shop)的彈性與流線式生產(flow shop)的效率優點。本文首先研究在多單元的製造系統環境的輸入點、輸出點的位置與每個單元內部機器的軌道佈置問題。儘管兩者之間有相互影響，但過去的研究經常將上述的兩個問題視為獨立研究的問題，往往分析所得到的結果可能與原先預期的有落差。作者為了改善上述的缺點，提出一種新的佈置方法，針對這兩個問題同步求解，目標是將單元外部(inter-cell)與單元內部(intra-cell)的總流量距離最小化。本研究的設施環境係假設每個單元是沿著直線式軌道的上下列佈置，而單元內部的機器排列是如蛇狀結構(serpentine)的佈置，根據物料在單元外部與單元內部的搬運方式，分成五種流量距離類別，分別提出數學規劃模式計算流量距離，並以案例說明本研究所提出研究方法的績效。本文的另一研究主題，是將晶圓廠內設施規劃中常見的脊椎式(spine)和外圍式(perimeter)的inter-bay軌道混合進行有系統的規劃與佈置，目前較先進的晶圓廠採用混合式的設施佈置以提升物料搬運效率，廠內的所有的加工區以兩種形式的inter-bay軌道迴圈連接起來，內軌道迴圈是脊椎式佈置，外軌道迴圈是外圍式佈置。為了確保所有的加工區能夠有正確的佈置安排，並與內外軌道迴圈連接，因此所提出的設計方法不僅要考慮到加工區的佈置，同時也考量軌道迴圈的佈置。所提出的研究方法是結合啟發式演算法與數學規劃模式的同步解法，主要的求解目標是使晶圓經由inter-bay軌道搬運的總流量距離最小，以獲得加工區佈置的可行性與求解品質。另外晶圓廠為了改善物料搬運效率，往往在脊椎式軌道迴圈設計跨越點，讓兩個跨越點之間形成捷徑(shortcut)軌道，以增加搬運途程的選擇，作者也提出選擇最佳捷徑佈置的啟發解法，希望在考慮求解時間及解答品質下，得到一個最佳的佈置方案。 Multi-cell (Cellular) manufacturing system (CMS) and multi-bay manufacturing system have become very important research topics in the facility layout problems. CMS is an innovative manufacturing strategy that combines the advantages of a job shop’s flexibility and a flow shop’s efficiency. In the first part of this paper, we study the Input/Output point location problem and the intra-cell flow path layout problem of cells in a cellular manufacturing system. Traditional approaches have often solved these two problems as separate problems, despite they are mutually affected. As a result, the results obtained by traditional approaches may not be as desirable as expected. In this study, we propose a layout procedure that can solve these two problems concurrently, so that the sum of the inter-cell flow distance and the intra-cell flow distance can be minimized. We assume cells have been arranged along a straight-line inter-cell flow path, and the configuration of intra-cell flow paths is serpentine. The proposed layout procedure classifies the flow distance incurred by inter-cell flow into five types and minimizes them with different solution procedures containing various linear programming models. We use an example to illustrate the proposed layout procedure. The results of the example show that the proposed layout procedure can effectively find each cell’s I/O point locations and intra-cell flow path layout by considering both intra-cell and inter-cell flow distance at the same time. In this paper, we also study the multi-bay layout problem in a semiconductor fab. One unique characteristic of this bay layout problem is that bays are connected by two inter-bay guide path loops – a spine guide-path loop and a perimeter guide-path loop. To ensure bays can be correctly arranged on the floor and connected by both guide path loops, this dual-loop guide path configuration must be considered throughout the entire layout design procedure. To achieve this goal, we propose a layout design method that considers not only the layout of bays, but also the layout of guide path loops. Furthermore, to ensure the feasibility and quality of the layout results, the proposed layout method solves these two layout problems simultaneously. Since semiconductor fabs often have shortcuts set up on their spine guide path loops, the problem of setting up shortcuts is also studied here. The objective of the proposed layout method is to minimize the total inter-bay flow distance of wafer cassettes. Heuristic methods and mathematical programming models are developed to assist us in achieving this objective. We solve an example problem to illustrate the proposed layout method. The example problem also demonstrates the capability of the proposed layout method in producing feasible and good-quality bay layouts with both spine and perimeter guide path loops.
