ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the optimization of automated factory planning—by balancing the capacities of skilled laborers and automated robots—by adopting the new idea of changeable spaces from multiple objective decision-making (MODM). It discusses some approaches from MODM and offers the concept of changeable spaces which a new perspective on continuous improvements toward an ideal/aspired level. The chapter also illustrates three approaches—conventional compromised MODM, De Novo programming, and changeable spaces—regarding the production resource optimization of a wafer manufacturer. The concept of changeable spaces was proposed based on the essential idea of De Novo programming to explore broader spaces, including objective spaces, decision spaces, technical coefficients, and budget limitations; this new concept can be adopted to redesign or redefine an optimization system. De Novo programming introduces the idea of resource exchanges by considering the unit cost of each resource, which assumes that existing constraints can be relaxed by purchasing certain limited resources from the market, within a specific budget.
