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TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

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Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#31

Post by j_walter »

heleninboodler wrote: post #26
j_walter wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the company that has overtaken the other Semiconductor giants like Intel and Samsung must be doing a poor job with their internal tools. Not every company uses Matlab or Mathworks to analyze data...they take the simple stuff that works and form it into something no frills and useful. A brand new engineer out of college may not realize it, but there are reasons why they do what they do.

> “That’s a lot of the work day. Some of the solution may be in software. Most of these meetings could be automated. The engineer who last worked with the equipment would record tool status and changes and make recommendations” to the next shift. ... since 1987. This process sounds like a liability to me. If you're having daily hours-long meetings for humans to communicate information to other humans, who then have t…

It sounds like inefficiency to those that don't understand the process. These engineers are working on equipment that costs $10M-150M each. Having a long meeting in person meeting to discuss ongoing issues is not a liability. A brand new engineer probably doesn't realize the value in having face to face communication.

Also...they didn't say it hasn't been changed since 1987, it's just the same system (like saying I have been using Windows since 1995).

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#32

Post by hbcondo714 »

Arizona employees are mainly recent graduates who have zero working experience...Most of them probably have never been to Asia

Going to Asia would be a fantastic opportunity for these employees. I hope TSMC takes some to their corporate headquarters in Taiwan.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#34

Post by j_walter »

radiator wrote: post #27
j_walter wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not their first plant in the US, and working >8 hour days is the norm for most engineers there.

Yes, I see now in your and others' comments that I had some false impressions about working conditions in american factories.

The working requirements in 24/7 manufacturing facilities is different than most 8-5 jobs. When you have $30B invested into a facility you have to maximize output and that means keeping all of the equipment up and running.

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#35

Post by heleninboodler »

lettergram wrote: post #2

So, the fab isn't opened at all -- this is speculation. Intel has many fabs, texas instruments has many fabs, etc There wont be an issue here. IMO this reads more like a hit piece or something indicating that they want to back out of the Arizona deal or get more money. It's not really clear.

I agree that it reads like a hit piece and leads the reader to believe that it's already a disaster there. Is it possible that Intel is so worried about the talent vacuum that they'd pay someone to write this kind of story?

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#37

Post by lettergram »

rjzzleep wrote: post #6

Very interesting. Yeah labour is cheap in Taiwan. Even highly qualified, specialized labour. That's why talent leaves to China, USA and Israel. But about the factory itself, American Factory was quite interesting[1]. Chinese company, but similar culture clash. It is interesting however that from what I have seen Europeans that wouldn't lift a finger on a weekend would expect Taiwanese to have results on Monday mornin…

> It is distributed by Netflix and is the first film acquired by Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground Productions

So... I'm betting there's a political angle there.

> from what I have seen Europeans that wouldn't lift a finger on a weekend would expect Taiwanese to have results on Monday morning

Many fabs and factories work around the clock or 4-3 shifts. It's less common in the white collar space, so perhaps that's culturally different. However, I've personally done those shifts before.

Americans, tend to work a lot of hours -- https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/average-working-time-by-...

I don't know the methodology, but it really depends on job and region. Even by state it'll vary by 20%

https://www.bls.gov/sae/tables/annual-average/table-3-averag...

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#38

Post by hnburnsy »

>Moving 1,000 employees from Taiwan to Arizona won’t work, she added. Fab employees must be part of the local culture. That strategy may have some shortcomings, however. Arizona employees are mainly recent graduates who have “zero working experience,”according to Gao. “Most of them probably have never been to Asia. So cross-cultural communication and collaboration is very important.”

AZ has 10 semiconductor plants in AZ across 6 different companies not including the new TSMC one. There will be plenty of employees to recruit who have experience. I am sure this was a primary reason for selecting the site in AZ.

>The biggest may be moving the entire supply chain of test-and-assembly companies and materials suppliers to the U.S., according to the principal engineer in Taiwan.

ASML, Applied Materials, LCY, Chang Chun Group, and Nova have or are building facilities in AZ. There will be plenty of suppliers and experience for TSMC to choose from.

How can the article be so poorly researched as to not mention this?

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#39

Post by kurthr »

deepnotderp wrote: post #17

None of this makes sense. 1. Long shifts are normal for fab operators in the U.S., eg Intel. 2. Certain engineers are always on call if an emergency happens, also true at Intel. 3. Samsung, not exactly the “live slow and enjoy life” type of culture as an employer operates fabs just fine in the U.S.

Agreed, and it's been that way since the 80s. The building & equipment has always cost more than staff & engineers. The "R&D Fab" is in Taiwan. These are going to be exempt employees. What's the agenda here?

Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash

#40

Post by mlindner »

deepnotderp wrote: post #17

None of this makes sense. 1. Long shifts are normal for fab operators in the U.S., eg Intel. 2. Certain engineers are always on call if an emergency happens, also true at Intel. 3. Samsung, not exactly the “live slow and enjoy life” type of culture as an employer operates fabs just fine in the U.S.

Intel has people work "more than 12-hour workdays" often?
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