1. Treating Dispatch as "Form Filling" Separates Work Orders from SOPs
Suppose a hypothetical electronics factory producing power devices. A planner selects an order in the system, generates a work order, and fills in details for the production line, process step, and equipment station before issuing it to the workshop. The problem lies in the disconnect between the work order and the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) documents. They operate independently. Operators at the station receive the work order but must turn around to consult paper-based work instructions or visit another computer to check process files. In semiconductor manufacturing, this "two-skin" scenario is the greatest fear: if the work order does not carry the SOP, dispatching is merely assigning a quantity without defining the method. During product changeovers, the situation becomes chaotic; verifying whether the work instruction version corresponding to the new work order is correct or the latest version relies entirely on the team leader's memory. Essentially, this is not dispatching; it is dispatching a hidden risk.
The correct approach is to link the SOP directly to the work order. Dispatching and guidance should be a single action, not two separate ones. This ensures operators do not need to search for files repeatedly and prevents version mismatches.
2. Production Scheduling Based Solely on Daily Plans Lacks Sufficient Granularity
Many factories utilize a dispatch Kanban showing only a daily plan: how many units to produce on which line and for which model today. However, the rhythm of semiconductor work order dispatch does not follow a daily cycle. Multiple batches may be switched within a single shift, while equipment status, personnel attendance, and IPQC inspections are constantly changing. A daily plan with coarse granularity turns dispatch into a "dispatch once in the morning, shout all day long" scenario.
Consider this hypothetical scenario: An SMT line has a daily plan for three models, with Model A scheduled for the morning and Models B and C for the afternoon. If the equipment stops for half an hour during the Model A batch, and the Model B work order has not yet been dispatched by the afternoon due to incomplete materials, the planner may not realize the schedule lag until 2 PM, making it too late to notify stations for temporary adjustments. The root cause of this dispatch failure is not execution but the inadequate breakdown of scheduling time slots.
A time-slot based dispatch Kanban should be broken down into six specific time slots. Each slot should display the product type, target output, actual output, defect count, and defect rate. It should also show planned versus actual attendance numbers, along with information for line leaders and IPQC. Following this granularity for semiconductor work order dispatch allows one to immediately identify which work order should be dispatched per slot and whether the station cycle time can keep up. Drilling down to the station-level Kanban, cycle time bar charts, cycle time fluctuation curves, equipment OEE downtime ratios, and capacity achievement rates serve as the basis for dispatch decisions rather than mere decoration.
3. Neglecting Progress Tracking and Quality Traceability After Dispatch
Another common error occurs when work orders are dispatched but progress tracking only monitors "start" and "complete" statuses. What happens in between, or which specific stage produced defects, is often not considered during the dispatch phase. If semiconductor work order dispatch involves sending out orders without subsequent management, any resulting issues become a confusing mess.
Suppose a hypothetical electronics factory discovers a sudden increase in defects such as damaged clips or crushed heads on a certain day. While checking by date, production line, equipment, product, and serial number can yield statistical classifications of defect items, tracing these back requires manual record review if the work order was not clearly bound to process progress and equipment stations during dispatch. The 17 fields available in production progress detail queries—including production line, workshop, equipment, plan number, production order number, station, start date, product model and specifications, order quantity, completed quantity, idle count, good quantity, and defective quantity—will result in missing data if these fields are not fully populated during dispatch.
Ensuring that dimensions such as station, equipment, and plan number are included during dispatch binds progress tracking and quality traceability together effectively.
In summary, problems with semiconductor work order dispatch usually stem not from system failures but from incorrect dispatch granularity and lack of linkage. Three major pitfalls exist: work orders lacking SOPs, scheduling failing to break down time slots, and neglecting to review progress after dispatch. Encountering even one of these issues is sufficient to cause significant disruption in the workshop.