A Capacity Planning Model in the TFT-LCD Production Chain

Abstract

The paper studies the capacity planning problem in the TFT-LCD production chain. Due to two significant trends, the capacity planning decision gradually becomes an important strategic issue to which TFT-LCD industry paid attention. First is the increase of product types which causes a wide range of product groups, such as mobile, monitor, notebook, TV and industrial display are produced. The second trend is the advances of new technology which cause multiple generations of technologies coexist in each manufacturing stage and production site. This paper proposes a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) to formulate the capacity planning which considers many practical characteristics and constraints in TFT-LCD production chain. A heuristic algorithm is developed to solve the MILP model.