The Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry Essay

Typically today they are centres for technology, information and service based industries rather than manufacturing. London for example has the Headquarters of 118 of Europe’s top 500 and 64 of the Fortune 500, 75% of Fortune 500 companies have offices in London.

Although the Silicon Valley is not limited to the production of cell phones, many of the components of cell phones are manufactured by workers in the Silicon Valley. Several corporations that manufacture cell phones or the components of cell phones have their plants located in the Silicon Valley. Some corporations include Intel, Altera, 3com, Applied Materials, Agilent Technologies, Juniper Networks, Linear Technologies, National Semiconductors, and Xilinx (“Silicon Valley Companies”).

Industrial growth in the United States, transformed society in the US by changing the way things are manufactured. One big change was the discovery of electricity, which greatly changed the way things would be manufactured. Not only the discovery but the ability to bring it to manufactures. Thomas Edison's Electric Light Company effectively brought electricity to manifold customers. This enabled manufacturing to change tremendously and quickly (Norton, 2015.) The desire to compete also affected the way things would be manufactured. After the American Revaluation many in North America desired to compete with manufactures in England this was pursued by attempting to duplicate the process by which products were manufactured. One example of this

Routine producers such as manufacturers are the ones in the real risk of losing their jobs as a result of outsourcing since the technological advancements have put them in positions that they have to compete with millions of routine workers in other nations who are willing to work for a much lower wage than their counterparts in America. Therefore, the majority of U.S. routine jobs have moved to the emerging economies. As an example, around late 1970s the famous telecommunication company AT&T had a telephone set assembly line in Shreveport, LA. But, later they found out that routine producers in

The semiconductor industry thrives due to rapid technological advancement and innovations contributed by various countries of the world. Where European Union and United States have been leading the industry, the Asian countries are now

Advanced manufacturing in Indiana accounts for one third of the state's economy, and employs one in every five residents. Advanced manufacturing is one of Indiana's biggest and most expanding fields. Indiana’s key advanced manufacturing industries

computer hardware sector. The company has a high brand value in the market due to its cost

Q1. Based on the 2004 statement of profit and loss data (Exhibits 1 and 2), do you agree with Water’s decision to keep product 103?

Advancements in agriculture, textile, transportation and economic growth became possible only because of the Industrial Revolution. Taking place in the United States between 18th and 19th century, times went from separating the cotton from its seed to using an automated cotton gin made by an American inventor Eli Whitney. This allowed for the lower class citizens to be able to have the important goods such as medication and clothing. Before the American Industrial Revolution, people were mostly farmers and life went by slowly and tedious work was required for simple tasks. But with inventions like the cotton gin, and the assembly line, mass production evolved. The United States had one of the fastest economic growths than any other country

highly fragmented with at least 20 major manufacturers in each technology segment. Because of the

Matsushita did this by closing its fax machine factory in Germany, and closing its microwave oven subsidiary and air-compressor factory in the U.S. Matsushita also asked for more than 10,000 Japanese employees in its manufacturing sector to retire early and all of these closed businesses and cancelled job positions were moved to China. Matsushita’s establishing of the new “brain” in China, or Matsushita Electric R&D Center in Beijing, China, was the company’s second largest of 16 R&D centers around the world. Matsushita’s chairman, Yoichi Morishita said “it was too difficult to explain everything about China to Japanese designers; to really make use of China’s special competitive advantages and to really meet Chinese customers’ demands, Matsushita decided to hand over its China-related development and research issues to local researchers and engineers.” Matsushita decided to localize material supplies and use as many Chinese suppliers as possible for its operations in China because there are several material distribution and trade centers in China that provide steel, paint, hardware, etc. all functioning with a mechanism similar to that of the polystyrene distribution and trade centers. The fourth fundamental change in Matsushita’s new supply chain, Stretch the distribution link, Matsushita selected TCL, the largest TV producer in China, as its strategic partner to stretch its supply chain to Chinese rural and inland markets. With

2. ATH change their performance measure on profit to measure on produce defects, customer contact errors, and so on was to balance the expectations of different constituencies to be a successful organization..

The article Innovation: Location Matters discusses how the challenges for competiveness in advanced nations and regions has changed. It elaborates on how organizations must create and commercialize a stream of new products and processes that shift the technology frontier. Companies must be able to innovate to sustain competitive advantage by acquiring and deploying the best current technology. Location matters for innovation, and companies must broaden their approaches to the management of innovation accordingly: by developing and commercializing innovation in the most attractive location, taking active steps to access locational strengths, and proactively enhancing the environment for innovation and commercialization in locations where they operate (Porter & Stern, 2001).

This will boost the economy of Singapore as when more companies are willing to invest in Singapore, especially due to our strengths like competitive workforce and strategic location, it will result in greater influx of capital. It will also result in a creation of jobs for the people, boosting employment rate and generating revenue for both the country and the individual. Take for instance, the chip used in the latest PlayStation3 and Xbox. A French semiconductor company, Soitec, is investing $700 million to set up in Singapore its first offshore facility to make the wafer for this chip. The wafers involve alternating layers of silicon and insulator, unlike conventional wafers which use silicon throughout. Soitec is coming here because its technology has to be well-protected, and we are the only country in Asia that they trust well enough to set up their first manufacturing campus outside of France. Thus, positive development is a sure thing with globalization. Furthermore, since in the modern day context, money is a key indicator of happiness, thus, Singapore’s development can be mirrored by the happiness of the people with their monetary needs fulfilled.

Because of the extremely intricate and sophisticated nature of manufacturing semiconductors, a competitor should expect high initial capital requirements to build facilities needed for production. Cost to build a new semiconductor fab has gone up from $200 million in 1985 to $3 Billion in 2004. Incumbent companies have capabilities to design newer generations of semiconductors with greater amounts of memory and processing abilities that make older generations obsolete. Older generations tend to drop half their amount in price one year after a new model is reduced (exhibit 6). The United States