So, they spoke with one anonymous staff member, and then sourced, wait for it... Glassdoor. I'm not saying these claims are untrue or that they even seem untrue, but it's still squeezing an article out of... not a whole lot. Glassdoor doesn't have a reputation (in my circles) for "balanced opinions".
TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
41–50 of 303 posts
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not open, but many of the new engineers are currently training in Taiwan. The engineer in question is simply seeing what his TSMC counterparts are doing. The Taiwanese culture is very hard working and that is why TSMC is ahead of Intel and Samsung now. You are correct though, there won't be an issue because this hard work atmosphere will weed out the weak and breed the strong.
This seems like total nonsense. Korea's work culture is not exactly Scandinavia and even the US is tough by the standards of other high-income countries. Plus, like, how did Dutch ASML get ahead, did they get some sort of special dispensation?
They cornered the market...they literally have a monopoly and it's impossible to compete against at this point. AMAT is also impossible to compete against despite how shitty they are because they just buy competitors and make them shitty to.
If you have seen how TSMC works on the inside you would understand the culture and the drive to succeed. They don't care about political correctness, they could care less about having a diversity program...they want the best person for the job. They hired a former Intel HR director for the AZ plant and the first thing he asked was about their diversity program...after multiple issues with him he is no longer at TSMC AZ.
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#43Very 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…
I don't see any contradictions. There are day jobs, and there are 24/7 jobs. Someone working 9 to 5, 5 days a week isn't supposed to answer the phone after the work hours, that constitutes employer abuse. If the employer want to have someone always available, then they should hire people for 24/7 and pay accordingly.
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#4412 hour days. Sounds pretty dystopian. Guess there's a reason Taiwan has the lowest birthrate in the world. Working themselves into oblivion.
Nor even terribly unusual--even in US manufacturing. Longer than 8 hour shifts is simply a matter of scheduling--you then wind up doing things like 4 days on/3 days off.
However, when you pass 40 hours, you owe people overtime in the US. I imagine that TSMC isn't particular stringent about documenting that in Taiwan.
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
This seems like total nonsense. Korea's work culture is not exactly Scandinavia and even the US is tough by the standards of other high-income countries. Plus, like, how did Dutch ASML get ahead, did they get some sort of special dispensation?
They cornered the market...they literally have a monopoly and it's impossible to compete against at this point. AMAT is also impossible to compete against despite how shitty they are because they just buy competitors and make them shitty to. If you have seen how TSMC works on the inside you would understand the culture and the drive to succeed. They don't care about political correctness, they could care less about h…
I doubt Samsung has much of a diversity operation in Korea either. I am rather incredulous that those positions (which, frankly, do not actually have that much influence on the running of the business day-to-day) make that much of a difference to the success of one company or another.
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#46Arizona 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.
They already are - looks like a super cool opportunity, too, 12-18 months in Taiwan!
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#47>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…
They don't want experienced people from other fabs. That's the whole point...forming a former Intel engineer to the TSMC way is extremely difficult and the success rate is extremely low. A recent grad is malleable and they don't have preconceptions about how they did things at the last place they worked (that fell behind in the technology race).
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#48So, 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.
It's not open, but many of the new engineers are currently training in Taiwan. The engineer in question is simply seeing what his TSMC counterparts are doing. The Taiwanese culture is very hard working and that is why TSMC is ahead of Intel and Samsung now. You are correct though, there won't be an issue because this hard work atmosphere will weed out the weak and breed the strong.
What? No. The reason they got ahead was because their business model got them volume production on a scale that let them tweak and improve their process faster and more efficiently compared to the competition. And Intel shooting themselves in the foot and skipping EUV for their last few nodes was a big factor too.
Also, suggesting people are “weak” or “strong” based on the number of hours they’re willing/able to work is… problematic at best.
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#49“Our analysis software has been passed down since the establishment of the company [in 1987]. There may have been some slight improvements in the software along the way, but the interface remains almost the same. This seems shockingly outdated. They should hire an UX Expert and rewrite the whole thing with React
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.
This is really a weak argument. Just because they're successful doesn't mean everything they do is brilliant. It could easily be that they could be even more successful if they made changes. If that were not the case, we'd quickly run into contradictions where two companies did totally opposite things yet were both successful, and be unable to explain them with our framework.
Re: TSMC’s Arizona Culture Clash
#50>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…
Hell, the semiconductor industry is what brought my family out to Arizona in 1993. My dad was transferred as a packaging engineer for Olin Chemical when they opened their high purity doping chemicals plant in Mesa, Arizona. At the time, I believe they were supplying to Motorola which eventually became On Semiconductor and Freescale/NXP. Oh, and Intel has had a fab in Chandler since 1980, and the massive Fab 12 site since 1996. And they're building two new fabs for $20B.
If there's literally anywhere in the US equipped for the semiconductor supply chain... it's here in Arizona.