November 28, 2006 – A new slice ‘n’ dice of supplier survey data from VLSI Research Inc., based across many categories of equipment performance and customer support, identifies the cream of the crop among large and small semiconductor equipment suppliers.
The new list is based on the same survey information as VLSI’s “Ten Best” customer satisfaction surveys announced in June (see story from June 20), but removes much of the weighting that were applied to those rankings in an effort to maintain an equal playing field — e.g. how much marketshare did the respondents’ company represent, was a supplier getting most of its votes from single customer, etc., according to May Chang, director of VLSI’s Customer Satisfaction Report.
All 14 of these five-star companies were atop their respective categories in the June lists, with one exception — Muhlbauer GmbH, which mostly makes equipment for smart cards and intelligent labeling, but also provides some assembly and test equipment. Chang noted that Muhlbauer had received “quite a few ratings” in the June lists but didn’t qualify because it did not have enough different survey respondents. In fact, she noted that VLSI had to do some research and visit the company in Europe to determine whether the company indeed is in the semiconductor equipment supplier market.
For this new “five-star” ranking, VLSI summed up all the top scores from the previous lists for large and small suppliers (based on revenues), assigned 1-5 star ratings based on overall scores, and then looked for a clear “natural break point” in the distribution — around the 27th percentile for large suppliers, and the 13th percentile for small suppliers, according to Chang. (Some firms were just below the cutoff, such as Rikagu and Towa, and could be considered “four-and-a-half stars,” she noted.) Mercifully, VLSI did not list the companies that earned just one-star ratings.
A full list of the rankings, with further details and additional star ratings for other companies and categories, can be found at VLSI’s Web site.
Five-star ranks for customer satisfaction in 2006
Manufacturer…………………………Equipment segment
Advantest*…………………………………Test, material handling
Agilent Technologies Inc.*……………..Process diagnostics
ASML*……………………………………….Wafer fabrication
DISCO Corp.*………………………………Assembly
Hamamatsu Photonics KK………………Process diagnostics
HANMI Semiconductor*…………………Assembly
Keithley Instruments Inc.*…………….Process diagnostics
Muhlbauer GmbH…………………………Assembly
Nextest Systems Corp…………………..Test
Nissin Ion Equipment Co. Ltd………….Wafer fabrication
Orthodyne Electronics*………………….Assembly
Teradyne Inc……………………………….Test
TESEC Corp…………………………………Test, material handling
Varian Semi. Equip. Assoc.*……………Wafer fabrication
* Also received a five-star rating in 2005
Source: VLSI Research Inc.