# US 2025/0085698 A1 · Optimisation-based scheduling method and system for a plurality of manufacturing machines > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2025/0085698 A1 - Document ID: US20250085698A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 18/720,285 - Filed: 2022-12-09 - Published: 2025-03-13 - Earliest claimed: 2021-12-14 - Applicants: Flexciton Limited - Inventors: Dionysios XENOS; Ioannis KONSTANTELOS; Ruaridh WILLIAMSON - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20250085698A1 ## CPC - G05B 19/41865: {characterised by job scheduling, process planning, material flow} - G05B 19/41885: {characterised by modeling, simulation of the manufacturing system} - G06F 30/27: using machine learning, e.g. artificial intelligence, neural networks, support vector machines [SVM] or training a model - G05B 2219/32252: Scheduling production, machining, job shop - G05B 2219/32301: Simulate production, process stages, determine optimum scheduling rules - G05B 2219/45031: Manufacturing semiconductor wafers - G05B: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS (systems for controlling or regulating non-electric variables G05D; systems for regulating electric or magnetic variables G05F; control devices or systems insofar as characterised by mechanical features only G05G) - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract The present invention relates to the generation of scheduling data for machinery. More particularly, the present invention relates to modelling machinery capabilities and states, planned inputs, outputs and constraints in order to generate priorities for a schedule for manufacturing machinery. Aspects and/or embodiments seek to provide a method and system of generating scheduling data that can be used in complex manufacturing settings such as semiconductor wafer fabrication plants. ## Claims ### Claim at position 1 1-40. (canceled) ### Claim 41 A method of generating manufacturing scheduling data, comprising: receiving input data, the input data comprising: at least one product to be manufactured; at least one sequence of steps associated with each of the at least one product to be manufactured; and at least one constraint associated with each of the at least one sequence of steps; performing a plurality of different simulations of manufacturing the at least one product to be manufactured; wherein each of the plurality of different simulations uses different simulation parameters; and wherein each simulation determines a probability of breach of at least one of the at least one constraints; determining a manufacturing schedule of the at least one product to be manufactured using the determined probability of breach of at least one of the at least one constraints; determining a priority of each step in the at least one sequence of steps based on the determined manufacturing schedule; generating manufacturing scheduling data, wherein the manufacturing scheduling data comprises one or more of the at least one sequence of steps associated with each of the at least one product to be manufactured and the determined priorities of the one or more of the at least one sequence of steps associated with each of the at least one product to be manufactured; outputting the generated manufacturing scheduling data. ### Claim 42 (depends on 41) The method of claim 41, wherein determining a priority of each step based on the determined manufacturing schedule further comprises determining the priority of each step based on the determined probability of breach of at least one of the at least one constraints. ### Claim 43 (depends on 41) The method of claim 41, wherein the at least one product to be manufactured comprises any or any combination of: a semiconductor wafer product. ### Claim 44 (depends on 41) The method of claim 41, wherein each of the at least one sequence of steps associated with each of the at least one products to be manufactured comprises any or any combination of: steps to take in parallel; steps to take in sequence. ### Claim 45 (depends on 41) The method of claim 41, wherein the input data further comprises at least one buffer item to be released; wherein the at least one product to be manufactured requires one or more of the at least buffer items during its manufacture, optionally wherein determining a manufacturing schedule further comprises determining when to release one or more of the at least one buffer items to be released. ### Claim 46 (depends on 45) The method of claim 45, wherein determining a priority further comprises determining a priority of when to release one or more of the at least one buffer items to be released. ### Claim 47 (depends on 41) The method of claim 41, wherein the at least one constraint comprises any or any combination of: a time link constraint; a resource constraint; a product completion target associated with one or more of the at least one products to be manufactured. ### Claim 48 (depends on 41) The method of claim 41, wherein the input data further comprises a criticality value for at least one of the at least one constraints, wherein the criticality value optionally further comprises at least one priority value and/or wherein performing the plurality of simulations comprises preparing a ranking of the at least one product to be manufactured and/or each step in the at least one sequence of steps associated with each of the at least one product to be manufactured based on the one or more criticality values. ### Claim 49 (depends on 41) The method of claim 41, wherein the input data further comprises availability data of a plurality of manufacturing machines, wherein the at least one product to be manufactured is manufactured using the one or more of the manufacturing machines. ### Claim 50 (depends on 41) The method of claim 41, wherein performing the simulations comprises performing simulations of manufacturing only the at least one product to be manufactured within a predetermined time frame. ### Claim 51 (depends on 41) The method of claim 41, wherein determining the manufacturing schedule further comprises determining any or any combination of: an earliest and/or latest release time associated with one or more of the at least one product to be manufactured and/or one or more of the at least one sequence of steps associated with each of the at least one product to be manufactured. ### Claim 52 (depends on 41) The method of claim 41, wherein determining the manufacturing schedule is performed only for the at least one product to be manufactured where the determined probability of breach of at least one of the at least one constraints is below a predetermined threshold. ### Claim 53 A method of generating scheduling data for manufacturing comprising: receiving input data, the input data comprising a plurality of products to be manufactured and a plurality of tasks to be performed by each of a plurality of machines and wherein each of the plurality of tasks to be performed has a priority value associated therewith; performing one or more simulations, each simulation determines a predicted outcome of at least some of the tasks to be performed, based on the availability of the plurality of machines and any pre-determined constraints, along with a probability of breaching any constraints; determining a substantially optimal predicted outcome of the one or more simulations using pre-determined criteria; generating scheduling data comprising an ordered set of tasks per machine based on the simulation used to determine the substantially optimal predicted outcome; and instructing the plurality of machines to perform the plurality of tasks using the generated scheduling data to produce at least some of the plurality of products to be manufactured. ### Claim 54 (depends on 53) The method of claim 53 further comprising a step of pre-processing the plurality of tasks to be performed to select at least some of the plurality of tasks as a subset of tasks to be used by the one or more simulations to determine a predicted outcome of the subset of tasks to be performed. ### Claim 55 (depends on 53) The method of claim 53, wherein the input data further comprises any or any combination of: a state of the plurality of machines; an initial state of one or more resources; a state of a fabrication facility: one or more locations of any relevant products; a current task of one or more of the machines; an idle state of one or more of the machines; a maintenance state of one or more of the machines; a demand of one or more of the products; a priority of one or more products; specific due dates of one or more products. ### Claim 56 (depends on 53) The method of claim 53, wherein the priority value of each of the plurality of tasks indicates any or any combination of: an urgency value; an importance value; a relative urgency value; a relative importance value. ### Claim 57 (depends on 53) The method of claim 53, wherein performing one or more simulations comprises predicting one or more violations that would result in manufacturing defects and wherein determining the substantially optimal predicted outcome comprises substantially minimising predicted violations. ### Claim 58 (depends on 57) The method of claim 57, wherein the input data comprises a predetermining tolerance level of violations and wherein substantially minimising predicted violations comprises determining that the substantially optimal predicted outcome results in fewer violations than the predetermining tolerance level of violations. ### Claim 59 (depends on 53) The method of claim 53, further comprising a step of determining a level of robustness of the substantially optimal predicted outcome; and determining whether the level of robustness exceeds a predetermined tolerance level of robustness. ### Claim 60 A method of generating scheduling data for manufacturing comprising: receiving input data, the input data comprising a plurality of products to be manufactured and a plurality of tasks to be performed by each of a plurality of machines and wherein each of the plurality of tasks to be performed has a priority value associated therewith; using a predictive model of the plurality of machines to determine a substantially optimal order of tasks per machine, based on the availability of the plurality of machines and any pre-determined constraints, along with a probability of breaching any constraints, is output; and generating scheduling data comprising an ordered set of tasks per machine wherein scheduling data is operable to be used by the plurality of machines to manufacture at least some of the plurality of products to be manufactured.