摘要
Manufacturers of thin-film transistor–liquid crystal displays (TFT–LCDs) have recently faced intense global competition and declining profits. They improve productivity and competitiveness by reducing cycle time, increasing equipment utilisation, integrating supply chain and planning facility setups. This article develops an advanced planning and scheduling (APS) system for 4.5th generation colour filter (CF) fabs via Microsoft Visual Basic for Application (VBA). The APS system considers the difference among orders and automatically assigns orders to production lines based on process characteristics while balancing equipment loading. The tabu-search (TS) and simulated annealing (SA) algorithms are applied to the APS system to optimise scheduling problems. Experimental results show that APS effectively completes the scheduling and saves approximately 75% of working time. These algorithms can also save approximately 15% of changeover waste and decrease the number of over-capacity days more effectively as compared with the original APS.