OT to Richard,
Nothing could be further from the truth than the conclusion implied in "I'm not saying that semiconductor equipment can't be made more reliable, and in fact strides have been made in that area, but this guy's notion that he should be able to get these improvements for free simply "does not compute".
In actual fact, it's always less expensive to do something right the first time than to do it wrong a few times before getting it right.
Further, removing a defect during product design thus preventing a problem costs 1/10th as much as fixing a problem during the manufacturing process. And correcting problems during manufacturing is 1/10th the cost of cleaning up the mess after the product has gone into production.
Quality isn't just free; providing it removes costs at every link in the chain.
While this may have been counter intuitive a decade or so ago, look around you. How many products can you buy today that are not only less expensive but also offer improved functionality and overall better quality.
In fact, what products do you still buy that aren't in that category?
Equipment manufacturers that believe that quality costs will wither and die, IMO.
MTSN is an example of a startup that is striving to establish a competitive advantage based upon superiour quality, throughput, overall performance, reliability and cost of ownership. While many companies offer the same lip service, I suspect that during this up leg, we're going to see MTSN shine. And quality will be a good part of its competitive advantage.
So yes, Mr Murphy can get better reliability for free. In fact he can get money back. And he and other fab managers will insist on nothing less.
[NOTE: By free, or getting money back, I'm referring to processing costs / wafer, not necessarily the absolute magnitude of the tool's unit cost.]
FWIW,
Ian. |
