KLA-Tencor Honored with Prestigious Award for Manufacturing Excellence
Tuesday September 23, 5:00 pm ET
Company Recognized by MESA for Achieving Significant ROI Improvements By Optimizing and Streamlining Its Manufacturing and Supplier Management Processes
SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- KLA-Tencor (Nasdaq: KLAC - News) today announced that it has received the prestigious Manufacturing Excellence Award from Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association International (MESA), an organization dedicated to helping manufacturing and information systems companies increase organizational productivity and improve market competitiveness. In an awards ceremony held earlier this month, MESA recognized KLA-Tencor for establishing best practices in manufacturing and supplier management through the implementation of its eQuality program. Out of more than 100 applicants, KLA-Tencor was one of only three companies to receive the award, as well as the only company in the semiconductor capital equipment arena. Other finalists included Coors Brewing Company, Kraft Foods and IBM.
MESA's Manufacturing Excellence Award Program was inaugurated this year to identify and honor manufacturers that have achieved measurable success in one of three categories: operational excellence; customer intimacy; and product leadership. Winners are selected based on their ability to document realized business value, their success in the marketplace, maturity of the solutions and broad adoption of the solutions throughout their organization.
"KLA-Tencor led this year's operational excellence category-besting a number of Fortune 500 companies based on the successful implementation of its extensive eQuality program," stated Julie Fraser, principal of market analyst and consulting firm Industry Directions Inc., as well as one of the MESA award judges. "We were extremely impressed with KLA-Tencor's ability to monitor, control and optimize process and first-time product quality, synchronize manufacturing with other business processes, and increase utilization of production assets across the organization."
According to John Moore, eQuality program manager at KLA-Tencor, "Given that our corporate charter is to help global chipmakers optimize their product quality and production processes, it's only natural that we apply these same principles within our own organization. KLA-Tencor believes in leveraging best-of-breed technologies to automate, speed and improve all corporate functions. eQuality, for example, is a corporate-wide system that tracks process and material quality throughout the life cycle of every product we manufacture. By implementing this program,
KLA-Tencor has achieved a return on investment (ROI) of more than 200 percent and improved its gross margin by more than two percent through major improvements in installation time, cycle time and overall quality.
"We're very honored to have received this award from MESA, which publicly recognizes how instrumental eQuality has been in driving major productivity gains and costs savings throughout KLA-Tencor," added Moore. "Even more important is the fact that eQuality provides added value to our customers-by ensuring faster delivery of high-quality process control systems that help our global chipmaking customers speed their time to market and profit on their next-generation semiconductor products."
KLA-Tencor's eQuality program-which leverages sophisticated software provided by Datasweep, a leading supplier of operations performance management solutions-provides an integrated framework to better manage product and process quality throughout the life of its products. eQuality tracks the flow, cycle time, test and repair of tool components, sending automated electronic requests for corrective action to suppliers when there are issues and enabling them to electronically submit action plans to resolve these issues. It also creates detailed supplier performance scorecards, tracking 63 metrics such as defect rates, on-time delivery, product performance, service and quality. The net effect is increased visibility of supplier performance, while boosting supplier accountability.
About MESA: Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association International (MESA) helps manufacturing businesses that struggle with using information systems to help meet market demands for profitability, quality products, and effective customer service. It is a not-for-profit organization that consists of members from manufacturing companies and the information system providers that serve them. MESA provides education and guidance on how the various information systems in their business can work together to solve critical business needs. To learn more about MESA, visit www.mesa.org
About KLA-Tencor: KLA-Tencor is the world leader in yield management and process control solutions for semiconductor manufacturing and related industries. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with operations around the world, KLA-Tencor ranked #6 on S&P's 2002 index of the top 500 companies in the U.S. KLA-Tencor is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol KLAC. Additional information about the company is available on the Internet at kla-tencor.com
Source: KLA-Tencor |
