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FabTime to Collaborate with Lehigh on Cycle Time
Management Research
Menlo Park, CA. November 13, 2001 – FabTime Inc.
today announced that it would be collaborating
with Dr. Theodore Ralphs of Lehigh University to
advance cycle time management software tools.
Specifically, FabTime will be supporting Dr.
Ralphs in his research on decomposition-based
algorithms for large-scale optimization problems.
FabTime specializes in cycle time management
software for semiconductor wafer fabrication
facilities (wafer fabs). The software pulls data
from the fab’s manufacturing execution system,
analyzes it to look for cycle time
cause-and-effect relationships, and presents the
results in real-time to fab managers and
supervisors.
“We would like to include a new generation of
algorithms that perform more in-depth analyses,
and alert fab management of potential cycle time
problems that are building within the fab,” said
Dr. Frank Chance, president of FabTime. “To
implement these algorithms we need to solve a
variant of the generalized assignment problem. And
we need to solve this problem quickly. That is
where the work of Dr. Ralphs becomes important to
us.”
“Based on my preliminary technical discussions
with FabTime,” said Dr. Ralphs, “I believe that we
may be able to exploit hidden structure within the
problem to significantly cut solution run-times.
Working with FabTime will help me to gain access
to realistic problem data, and to get my results
tested in a commercial environment.”
About FabTime Inc.
FabTime Inc. is the first company to focus solely
on the challenging problem of cycle time
management for semiconductor wafer fabrication
facilities. Unlike traditional reporting tools,
which were designed for industrial engineers and
IT specialists, FabTime’s software is designed for
hands-on use by fab managers. The company’s
website is located at
www.FabTime.com.
About Lehigh University
Professor Ralphs is an assistant professor in the
department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
at Lehigh University. Since its inception in 1926,
the ISE Department has focused on the analysis and
design of manufacturing systems and processes, and
on the efficient planning, control, and operation
of production functions. The department’s website
is located at
http://www.lehigh.edu/~inime/dept.htm.
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