Patent ID: 8206197

Claim:
A polishing apparatus comprising: a loading section for placing therein a cassette in which a plurality of polishing objects are housed; a first polishing line and a second polishing line for polishing a polishing object; a cleaning line having a cleaning machine for cleaning the polishing object after polishing and a transport unit for transporting the polishing object; a transport mechanism for transporting the polishing object between the loading section, the polishing lines and the cleaning line; and a control section for controlling the polishing lines, the cleaning line and the transport mechanism, wherein the control section determines a polishing start time in each of the first and second polishing lines based on a predicted polishing time in each of the first and second polishing lines, a predicted transport time in the transport mechanism, a predicted cleaning time in the cleaning line and a predicted cleaning start time to start cleaning by driving the transport unit of the cleaning line.