A literature survey on the design approaches and operational issues of automated wafer-transport systems for wafer fabs

The goal of operations management is to provide design methods for production systems that are inexpensive to construct and efficient to operate. When addressing the shop design topic, facility layout and material handling system design are two important and interconnected problems. This paper focuses on these problems for the particular case of the integrated circuit (IC) semiconductor manufacturing industry. Its aim is to provide a review of important literature on various aspects of factory design, such as facility layout, automated material handling systems (AMHS) design and AMHS operational issues. Research studies are critically examined and emerging opportunities for future research are identified. This analysis has general applicability as a reference tutorial for practitioners and researchers within the operations management community.