Issue



10 Best Japanese equipment suppliers


02/01/1997







10 Best Japanese equipment suppliers

Lisa Steele, VLSI Research, San Jose, California

For many years, Japanese semiconductor equipment suppliers have been known for their high level of quality. This year, Japanese manufacturers continue this tradition by scoring highly in worldwide customer satisfaction ratings.

Assembly equipment companies have the highest rankings of all market segments of the Japanese equipment industry. Disco Corp. is the leader in customer satisfaction with the number one position. Disco is followed by fellow assembly equipment makers Kaijo and Shinkawa in the second and third positions, respectively (see below). Test and material handling equipment suppliers, Tokyo Seimitsu and Advantest, hold positions four and five.

Wafer process equipment companies make up the majority of the remainder of the list, led by wafer stepper giant, Nikon. In seventh, with customer responses for wafer process and test and material handling equipment, is Tokyo Electron. Dainippon Screen`s wet wafer and resist processing equipment has earned position eight. Hitachi`s wafer process and process diagnostic equipment holds ninth place. Customers have ranked the stepper maker, Canon, in tenth place.

Many of the 10 Best Japanese equipment suppliers are the proud recipients of various other special awards. Disco Corp., Tokyo Seimitsu, and Nikon Corp. have attained ISO 9001 certification. Disco Corp. has been honored with the Japan Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Good Design Product Award for its wafer saws, cleaning stations, and surface grinders. Disco Corp. has also received Motorola`s Supplier Award for outstanding performance in quality. Nikon Corp. has won the Service Supplier of the Year award from LSI Logic. Tokyo Electron Limited has received several awards: Texas Instruments` Supplier Excellence Award; Outstanding Achievement Award from Motorola; Excellent Achievement Award from Toshiba; and Outstanding Contribution Award from Mitsubishi. Highlights of the 10 Best Japanese semiconductor equipment suppliers and commentary from the survey are listed below.

Disco Corp. This new entrant to the 10 Best list supplies dicing and grinding equipment to the semiconductor industry. The company`s top performance is in quality-of-results and product performance. Disco has improved customer satisfaction this year by electronically linking eight locations in Japan with 16 international service centers in 12 countries. Customers can now access information instantly and Disco can gain further information about customers` changing needs. Customer comments in the survey focus on consistent quality and the availability of local field support. Examples include: "Quality of results is consistently high." "Excellent yields." "Talented field service support." "Good service. Have initiative to provide technical information."

Disco Corp.`s model 841 fully automatic wafer grinder.

Kaijo Corp. This marks Kaijo`s second consecutive appearance in the 10 Best. Its highest ratings are in uptime and quality-of-results. The most improvement has been achieved in overall commitment, which has increased by 0.8 points. Kaijo has opened new sales and service centers in Taiwan and Korea to keep up with its expanding exports. Comments from customers include: "Very stable and reliable." "Extremely fast." "Good loop control."

Shinkawa Ltd. Shinkawa also appears in the 10 Best this year for the second time. Its main products are wire bonders, in addition to other bonding and marking equipment. Customers rate Shinkawa strongest in uptime and product performance. It has received a notable increase in the satisfaction of software support, which jumped by 0.7 points. Customer comments include: "Fast bonding speed." "Can handle fine pitch." "Small footprint and height." "Excellent response time."

Tokyo Seimitsu Co. Ltd. Tokyo Seimitsu is another newcomer to the 10 Best this year. It makes wafer probers and discrete test systems, in addition to some nontest and material handling equipment, including dicing saws, wire saws, ingot slicers, and edge grinders. The company`s ratings show particular strength in uptime and quality-of-results. In the past year, the company has implemented a worldwide user support program and a program for development of next-generation machines. Positive comments about Tokyo Seimitsu include: "Stable and reliable." "Few breakdowns." "Easy to operate." "Quick response to technical problems." "Respond immediately."

Advantest`s T6671 125/200 MHz VLSI tester.

Advantest. This marks Advantest`s eighth consecutive year in the 10 Best. Advantest is a market leader in automatic test equipment, handlers, and diagnostic systems. It has received its highest ratings in product performance, uptime, and quality-of-results. Advantest shows the most improvement in process support, which has increased by a factor of 0.7 points. The company has bolstered its front-line engineering capabilities to provide extended custom engineering services. Advantest`s expanded technical support is backed up by its recently expanded R&D facility in Santa Clara, CA, and its growing Custom Design Engineering Group. Customer commentary includes: "Very reliable. High uptime." "Excellent repeatability and correlation between systems." "Timely and professional." "Good support system."

Nikon Corp. Nikon is a four-time returnee to the 10 Best. It is a supplier of lithography, dry processing, and process diagnostic equipment. Its highest rating is in quality-of-results. Nikon has developed a new CD-ROM-based reference manual, Rapid Reference, that provides customers with tools necessary to increase productivity. Also, the company has established a local subsidiary in Taiwan for improved stepper service and maintenance. Customers highlight the capabilities of the equipment and the responsiveness of Nikon: "High resolution." "Good automatic alignment and overlay accuracy." "Will always respond to problems."

Tokyo Electron Ltd. Tokyo Electron has performed very well for its third appearance in the 10 Best, placing in the test, material handling, and large suppliers of wafer processing equipment segments of the survey. This multidisciplined company supplies several types of machines. TEL has received its highest ratings in uptime and quality-of-results. The company is dedicated to its globalization and localization plan, which results in the ability to provide the same high-quality products and services available in Japan to each overseas market. Customers spoke highly about the reliability and support of TEL`s equipment: "99%+ uptime - most reliable equipment we have." "Best in class - support of equipment."

Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd. Dainippon Screen is another diverse equipment supplier. This is its second appearance in the 10 Best. The company`s highest rating is in uptime, with product performance and quality-of-results following closely. The better to serve its customers, Dainippon has established a technical service location in Taiwan. This is the company`s third overseas service location, following the US and Korea. Positive comments from customers include: "Equipment performance has been excellent." "Excellent field service, application, and sales support."

Hitachi Ltd. Hitachi supplies a wide range of equipment to the semiconductor industry. The company returns to the 10 Best for the third time. Hitachi has achieved its highest rating in quality-of-results. It is doubly honored as it appears in two 10 Best segments this year: large suppliers of wafer processing equipment and suppliers of process diagnostic equipment. Many customers mention Hitachi`s quick response to service issues. Other comments include: "Excellent tool performance and reliability." "High resolution." "Service very good overall."

Canon. This supplier of lithography and alignment equipment returns to the 10 Best for the fifth year in a row. Canon`s highest mark is also in quality-of-results. In pursuit of localized customer support, Canon has expanded its support organization from three to six operating regions. It used teams of factory experts to facilitate rapid installation and training. The company has also expanded its regional parts order desk operations to provide the shortest possible turnaround time. Customer commentary includes: "Very good imaging capabilities." "Excellent response to needs." "Service engineers support the customers fully."

About the survey

The VLSI Research Inc. Customer Satisfaction Survey is the only industry-wide survey covering semiconductor capital equipment that is performed by an independent third party. In compiling data for the survey, more than 54,000 questionnaires in six languages (English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, German, and French) were sent to semiconductor companies in all areas of the world. Users of semiconductor capital equipment were asked to rate their suppliers in eight categories that exemplify a supplier`s relationship with its customers. Product performance, uptime, and quality of results were the equipment performance measures. Customer service measures were process support, software support, technical leadership, service after sales, and the vendor`s overall commitment to supporting its customers` needs.

VLSI Research conducts these surveys across 50 major equipment market segments and compiles competitive positioning reports for each segment. These 50 categories are subdivided into the five major categories of process equipment (small and large companies), test and material handling equipment, diagnostic equipment, and assembly and specialty equipment.

More than 6000 evaluations of each of these categories, accruing to a grand total in excess of 49,000 individual ratings of companies, were returned and used in compiling these results. Demographic distribution of the returns was 50.9% from North America, 14.8% from Japan, 12.8% from Europe, 11.7% from Korea, 9.2% from elsewhere in Asia, and 0.6% from other areas of the world.