Philipp Roßbach, on August 22, 2024, 08:23 AM
What’s new in SYSTEMA APS (Advanced Planning & Scheduling) v2024.3, SYSTEMA’s integrated solution for semiconductor shop floor scheduling and dispatching?
This release introduces significant enhancements, including an improved unified data model to capture the current state of production, an advanced forecast model to predict lot completion, and the highly requested lithography scheduling feature. Under the hood, our scheduler’s performance has been drastically improved, optimizing schedules up to 10 times faster than before. The integration with the list scheduler – introduced in our previous v2024.2 release now includes all features supported by the data model, such as active timers, dedications, and planned maintenance activities. We have also continued to evolve the user interface to be more intuitive and user-friendly. Finally, numerous fixes have been implemented to enhance the overall stability, performance, and usability of SYSTEMA APS.
Key updates
Improved Scheduler Configuration UI
Our UI experts have revamped the web interface to allow for a much smoother and user-friendly scheduler configuration experience. The revised UI allows the configuration of an unlimited number of scheduler instances, tracking of operational metrics, configuration of the recompute plan for each schedule, and finetuning for all optimization settings. The UI serves as a cockpit for the modern line engineer and provides seamless integration with our operator and webFFC.
Improved Display of Current Schedule
In response to extensive user feedback, we have refined the UI to display the current schedule more efficiently, with more details and display options. New coloring options for the schedule, based on attributes such as timer status, priority, and operation, have been added. Additionally, we optimized the display for schedules spanning multiple days. This enhanced schedule view is designed to support schedule analytics and complements our operator-centric APS web interface. It integrates with various KPIs to indicate and measure schedule quality and highlights technical metrics such as time-to-solution and score progression during optimization. These features allow line control engineers to easily monitor and manage schedulers within our solution.
Improved Fab Data Model
We have further refined the underlying data model of our solution, the factory state model, to capture all planning-relevant aspects of the frontend production process. The latest version of this model allows users to provide detailed data with greater ease. A multitude of additional parameters have been added to reflect equipment and material status, including timers, dedications, and tool qualification metrics.
The data model is implemented as a vendor-agnostic database schema and defines the data entry path into our APS solution. SYSTEMA supports data integration with production data sources such as MTS or MES as needed. This robust data model enables not only planning features like scheduling but also fab forecasts and various types of scenario analysis.
New: Lithography Scheduling
We are excited to introduce the most requested feature in this release: lithography support. Users can now specify reticle requirements for each stepper process step of a product route. With a sophisticated model to express dedications, we ensure compliance with engineering requirements. To support intralogistics processes, we have implemented a reticle model where reticles are organized in pods. The scheduler computes an optimal lot-to-tool assignment schedule for lithography tools and also generates schedules for the pods, supporting intralogistics and tool setup. This model can also be applied to other types of auxiliary production factors.
More Versatile Equipment Qualification Model
Tool qualification is essential for complying with engineering requirements and ensuring high product quality. In this release, we have extended our scheduling data model and algorithms to account for counter-based qualification efforts. Our improved scheduler now incorporates counter-determined qualification measures that block a tool before the next lot can be processed. This new feature complements existing functions for modeling setup times, planned maintenance, and engineering activities.
New: Built-In Fab Forecast
One of the major features of this release is the new forecast module and UI. It leverages the unified fab state model to provide highly accurate and detailed predictions of the future fab state and its progression. This includes lot-completion dates, showing whether a lot or order will be produced on time with the current planning in place. This forecast model goes beyond traditional capacity models by considering not only the current state but also planned maintenance, qualification, setup, and more. Integrated into the SYSTEMA APS UI, this feature provides a convenient interface to study, understand, and optimize fab dynamics.
Enhanced Dispatch Compliance Diagnostics
Compliance with an optimized schedule maximizes the targets set for a production process. However, operators may sometimes deviate from suggestions due to additional information not encoded in the scheduling algorithm, local requirements, recipe locks, and other factors. To address these issues, we have enhanced the reporting of dispatch compliance data. Previously, only the current compliance ratio was shown in the operator UI. In this release, we have added a detailed diagnostics view that displays tool-group-level aggregates, allowing users to quickly identify areas with low compliance. Time-series data is also provided to indicate trends and temporal effects in operator compliance.
Summary
By focusing on user experience, data quality, consistency, and predictive functions, SYSTEMA APS v2024.3 marks another milestone in enabling line control engineers to maximize frontend production. Our improved solution addresses typical challenges in frontend production, reduces latency for real-time capabilities, and ensures optimal line balancing and end-to-end predictability across all work centers, including lithography. SYSTEMA APS promotes a balanced production line with predictable outcomes, reducing variability and increasing consistency. With the updated schedule view, enhanced compliance diagnostics, and a predictive module to analyze future fab states, users have all the tools needed to govern WIP flow most efficiently.
For questions or to learn more about SYSTEMA APS, please contact us.
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