Operational planning and control of semiconductor wafer production

Due to increased competition, semiconductor manufacturing has received considerable research attention over the last few decades. As a result, several optimisation and heuristic solution procedures are available to solve a variety of operational planning and control problems arising in semiconductor wafer manufacturing. This paper provides a glimpse into the evolution of the operational planning and control problems in semiconductor wafer production and possible approaches for their solution. It briefly introduces the current operational planning and control problems being solved and the approaches being taken to solve them (optimally or approximately). The paper concludes with some fruitful directions for future research.