To efficiently address the multi-order-per-job (MOPJ) scheduling problem of a single machine with multiple preprocess constraints in wafer fabrications

including setup time

uncertain allocation of front opening unified pods(FOUPs)

machine parameter adjustment

a scheduling problem domain was described and a mathematical programming model was set up with an objective of minimizing total completion time

and several theorems were established to obtain superior feasible solutions

in addition

a hybrid invasive weed optimization algorithm combined with differential evolution and adopted a two-level encoding mechanism was developed

in which the learning mechanism was introduced to enhance the quality of the solution. Moreover

adaptive process was applied to the mutation and neighborhood search to effectively improve the algorithm convergence. Finally

simulation results verify the validness and feasibility of the proposed algorithm and show that a 10% improvement is made on the performance by the scheduling approach.