The Role of Skill Upgrading in Manufacturing Performance

This section examines the industry-wide trend of upgrading the skills of production workers in the semiconductor industry. This analysis discusses the industry characteristics driving this trend, the human resource policies that support skill upgrades, and the payoffs associated with such upgrades. To provide a deeper understanding of the process of skill upgrading, two fabs from our sample are analyzed in detail. One fab is located in Japan (pseudonym Jfab) and the other fab is located in the U.S. (pseudonym USfab). As a central part of their manufacturing strategy, these fabs have emphasized the upskilling of operators particularly for equipment maintenance activities. Through human resource policies, both fabs have extended the breadth and depth of their employees\u27 skills (our definition of skill upgrading), particularly the skills of their operators and technicians. At the time of our visit, a manager at Jfab estimated that they were 95% self-sufficient in maintaining their own equipment rather than using the vendor. He explained, We don\u27t use vendor maintenance because it is very expensive and because our people are better at it than the vendors\u27 personnel. We end up teaching the employees of the vendors about their own equipment! A manager at USfab echoed these sentiments regarding vendors: Contracts are expensive and we can do better. USfab also has concentrated on upgrading the skills of its operators while it merged the operator and technician occupations into a production specialist position (a pseudonym). USfab\u27s production specialists now perform 90% of the basic preventative maintenance (e.g., daily checks, chamber cleans, PMs). For equipment maintenance tasks, these two fabs have substituted participation by line workers for engineering time. Their operators rank at the top of our fifteen fab sample in terms of their intensity of participation in equipment maintenance activities, while their equipment engineers rank in the middle. In addition to equipment maintenance, another set of activities that affects manufacturing performance focuses on process-related problems and the manufacturing precision of the equipment. These activities can be grouped under the umbrella of statistical process control (SPC), which requires personnel to compare measures of processing outcomes (e.g., the height of a layer, the accuracy of alignment, processing time, particle generation,) against detailed specifications set by the process development group. For statistical process control (SPC) duties, Jfab and USfab do not emphasize the role of their line workers. Instead, Jfab has emphasized the role of the process engineer in conducting SPC, and its process engineers rank at the top of our fifteen fab sample in terms of the intensity with which they use SPC. Process engineers at USfab fall towards the bottom of our SPC rankings, and the fab\u27s SPC capabilities are rudimentary with no automated SPC capabilities and no real time process adjustment. Engineers at USfab were plagued with fire-fighting responsibilities, since they committed approximately 80% of their time to fire-fighting. The engineers were anxious for the program of skill upgrading of operators to bear fruit so that operators could assume more trouble-shooting responsibilities. As one engineer put it, We spend all of our time [taking care of] lots that went on hold. We want to train other people to do this, so we can have time for [more training and projects]. These findings suggest that both companies rely on their line workers for equipment performance, but not for process control. Jfab relies much more heavily on its process engineers, while USfab lags behind in establishing a focus for its process control efforts. As described below, the two companies in this case study have established human resource policies consistent with deepening and broadening the skills of their manufacturing personnel in order to pursue their strategies for equipment maintenance and SPC. They have, however, experienced very different levels of success measured by our five manufacturing metrics (stepper throughput, cycle time, direct labor productivity, line yield, and defect density). Jfab scores consistently at the top of the fifteen fabs in our sample while USfab scores in the bottom half. Their divergent performance can be at least partially attributed to the different level of stability of their production environments. Jfab was operating in a relatively stable environment with few process flows and moderated process problems with an advanced SPC capability. In contrast, USfab was undergoing a reorganization of its operations, new process introductions, and adopting a new shop-floor work organization to better integrate its upskilled production specialists into problemsolving activities. We anticipate that with time, USfab will at least partially catch up to the level of manufacturing performance enjoyed by Jfab, as their aggressive skill upgrade program matures, and as they adjust to the changes to their organizational structure and manufacturing process technologies. This section concludes by considering the influences of automation and differences in employment systems on the pervasiveness of skill upgrade efforts across job categories

The Role of Interdependencies in Blockchain Adoption: The Case of Maritime Trade

Despite its many potential economic and organisational benefits, enterprise blockchain (distributed ledger) technology has still not been widely adopted. From the viewpoint of the participants, the deployment of a blockchain that links collaborating enterprises requires value creation that will exceed investment, including investment in operational and strategic change. The theory behind and practice of cross-enterprise open innovation can inform blockchain adoption. Blockchain implementation requires and creates interdependencies across collaborators, both among enterprise consortium partners and with stakeholders in the broader ecosystem. Distinguished from arm’s-length forms of collaboration, interdependencies occur when organisations intentionally collaborate to become reliant upon one another. In this paper, we develop a framework of blockchain interdependencies and explore key factors that promote or inhibit interdependence. We propose a blockchain collaboration continuum with three levels: cooperation, interdependence, and mutualism. We then explore factors that influence the level of interdependence: two types of consortium-level interdependencies – socio-technical and economic, and two types of ecosystem-level interdependencies – standards and legal/regulatory. We illustrate these interdependencies and their payoffs through the example of supply chains in maritime trade. This work can be used as a starting point for diagnosing critical factors influencing adoption and for illuminating points of leverage that may sway hesitant organisations to participate in blockchain consortia

Open Innovation and Strategy

The article discusses a process of business innovation known as open innovation and its relation to traditional business strategy. The competitive strategy developed by Michael Porter emphasized rivalry, buyer power, and barriers to entry as forces that could enhance a producer\u27s surplus. The authors discuss the impact of the Porterian value chain, the processes of production through to the consumer, on subsequent business practices. However, this theory does not account for external sources of value to a company, such as innovation communities, volunteer contributors and surrounding networks, including social networking web sites, open source software and the Wiki model of open contributions. The concept of openness requires shifting from ownership to value creation and value capture

The Evolving Role of Semiconductor Consortia in the United States and Japan

This article examines the interactions between public and private actors as cooperation in the semiconductor industry becomes increasingly international. The latest manifestations of multilateral collaboration are two consortia: I300I based in the United States and Selete based in Japan. Through an analysis of their structures and their origins, this article provides a deeper understanding of the complexities facing industry-wide consortia, the role of the government in promoting or inhibiting cooperation, and the lingering rivalries that impede truly global cooperation in a dynamic, high-technology industry

Acceleration management: the semiconductor industry confronts the 21st century

In the recent generations of semiconductor devices, the semiconductor industry has been accelerating towards the limits of the physical sciences. As a consequence, technology managers in that industry face seven major challenges, which will threaten progress: process, complexity, performance, power, density, productivity, and quality / reliability. We believe that confronting these challenges requires a new approach to technology management both within organizations and between organizations that form the backbone of the industry. We call this new approach Acceleration Management. Acceleration Management first requires that firms cultivate deep technical knowledge and inspire creative solutions to seemingly insoluble technical problems. The second stage of Acceleration Management requires the necessary expertise to be pooled, which often demands inter-organizational cooperation. This paper explores these managerial imperatives and analyzes how new semiconductor firms--particularly in China--have created niches in the value chain even during a tumultuous time in the industry\u27s history

The Dynamics of Open Strategy: From Adoption to Reversion

Innovation has become more open in recent years. Yet the decision to become more open and the challenge of sustaining that openness are not well understood. This is the concern of the “content” branch of Open Strategy, defined as the branch that addresses an organization\u27s open innovation strategy. We examine the initial motivations to adopt an open strategy, and then consider when organizations choose to maintain that open strategy or revert to a more proprietary approach. Similarly, we examine motivations to open up a previously proprietary strategy. We find that these dynamics depend on the organization\u27s desire to either foster greater growth (which favors a more open strategy) or secure greater control and profit directly from the innovation (which favors a more proprietary strategy). Crucially, these choices can shift over the life cycle of a market and are dependent on the competencies amassed by the organization. In early phases, when there are relatively few legacy customers and many new arrivals, open strategies attract customers at a faster rate. In later phases, as the market matures and new arrivals have slowed, there are few new customers to attract with an open strategy and reversion to a more proprietary strategy becomes quite attractive. This suggests that the longevity of open initiatives might be curtailed as organizations opt for value capture over cooperative value creation

Wintel and Beyond: Leadership in the Net World Order

The separate vertical product segments of the electronics industry are converging into a Net World Order of multifunctional product categories. We lay out a stylized value chain for analyzing firm performance in the various horizontal segments of the Net World Order. We measure firm performance with ROI data for the 1990s, and find that high-performing companies can emerge in any segment. We then turn our attention to the future and sketch the key elements of value creation and capture in the emerging Net World Order marketplace. Alliances and customer relationships are increasingly important, while standards ownership and vertical integration are less important than in the PC era

[[alternative]]The differences and influences of scholarly communication speed by first-citation of journal articles : a case study of IS&LS

碩士[[abstract]]本研究從期刊論文初次被引用的角度探討圖書資訊學領域期刊的學術傳播速度，並分別從初次被引用速度分布、期刊評鑑指標、初次被自我引用以及出版機制等四個面向分析。 本研究利用引用文獻分析法，並以「月」為最小分析單位，計算期刊論文自正式出版至初次被引用的時間，以及計算各期刊已被引用文章與所有文章平均初次被引用速度。本研究以JCR 之30種資訊科學與圖書館學（IS&LS）領域學術期刊為研究對象，並以Scopus 資料庫為資料蒐集來源，蒐集30種期刊2005年至2014年出版之研究論文與綜論，而初次可被引用時間設定在2005年至2015年，最後分析12,722篇研究論文以及1,069篇綜論。 研究結果顯示，13,791篇原始文獻，已被引用者為12,271篇（88.98%）文章，未被引用則有1,520篇（11.02%）文章。在初次被引用速度分布方面，以Information Systems Journal 平均初次被引用速度較快，Library and Information Science 較慢。從文章層級來看，所有文章平均初次被引用速度為16.88個月，已被引用文章平均初次被引用速度為12.96個月，其中有11,113篇（90.56%）文章初次被引用速度大於0個月，744篇（6.06%）文章等於0個月，414篇（3.37%）文章小於0個月；從出版月份來看，以11月出版之文章初次被引用速度最快。在期刊評鑑指標方面，期刊初次被引用速度與II、IF、五年IF及SJR 皆呈顯著負相關，表示期刊評鑑指標數值越大，初次被引用速度可能越快。而初次被自我引用方面，期刊初次被引用速度與期刊的初次被自我引用率呈中度負相關，即初次被期刊自我引用率越高，期刊初次被引用速度可能越快；初次被作者自我引用文章的平均初次被引用速度領先初次未被作者自我引用的文章，且達統計的顯著水準。最後出版機制方面，本研究發現OA 機制，以複合式OA 期刊初次被引用速度較快，若從文章層級分析，整體為非OA 文章初次被引用速度領先OA 文章，深入探討複合式OA 期刊，發現OA 文章的初次被引用速度較快；而提供電子預印本的期刊初次被引用速度明顯較一般出版模式的期刊快，由此可知，電子預印本機制能夠加快學術傳播速度。 根據上述研究結果提出以下建議：引用尚未正式出版文章應於參考文獻上著錄電子預印本相關標示、複合式OA 期刊鼓勵作者以OA 文章方式出版。[[abstract]]This study mainly explores scholarly communication speed of journal articles within Library and Information Science based on the first-citation, defined as the time between publication and first-citation. The study focuses on 30 scholarly journals which are indexed in the category of Information Science & Library Science (IS&LS) in the Journal Citation Report and uses citation analysis to calculate journal articles first-citation speed and journals averaged first-citation speed. 12,722 research articles and 1,069 review articles published between 2005 and 2014 were collected by Scopus, and the first citable time was set from 2005 to 2015. Results show that there are 12,271 (88.98%) articles cited and 1,520 (11.02%) articles uncited. Other detail results of this study are following: (1) For journal averaged first-citation speed, Information Systems Journal is the fastest, and Library and Information Science is the slowest. For entire articles, the average first-citation speed is about 16.88 months within; for citing articles, it is 12.96 months. The first-citation speed of articles published in November are the fastest. (2) Journals first-citation speed are negative correlated with journal indicators. That is to say, the higher the journal indicators, the faster the journal first-citation speed. (3) For the first self-citation, first-citation speed is in a moderate degree negatively correlated with percentages of the first journal self-citation. It shows that the higher percentages of the first journal self-citation, the faster the journal first-citation speed. Articles self-cited by the same author(s) in first-citation are more rapid than others without self-cited. It also observes that first author self-citation and first citation speed reach a statistically significant level. (4) In terms of publication patterns, the first-citation speed of hybrid OA journals are more rapid than the other publications. For articles, OA articles are slower than non-OA article; however, considering hybrid OA journals, OA articles are faster than non-OA articles. The in-press journals are significantly faster; it can be seen that journals with in-press pattern accelerate scholarly communication speed. There are some suggestions based on the study as follows: (1) When citing unpublished articles, authors should note “in press” or related terms in the reference. (2) The hybrid OA journal publishers should encourage authors to publish OA articles.[[tableofcontents]]第一章　緒論 1 第一節　研究背景與動機 1 第二節　研究目的與問題 4 第三節　研究範圍與限制 5 第四節　名詞解釋 7 第二章　文獻探討 9 第一節　學術傳播 9 第二節　引用文獻分析 13 第三節　期刊論文的初次被引用 18 第三章　研究設計與實施 27 第一節　研究設計 27 第二節　研究對象 31 第三節　資料來源與研究工具 33 第四節　資料處理 35 第五節　研究步驟 39 第四章　研究結果與分析 43 第一節　期刊論文初次被引用速度之分布 43 第二節　初次被引用速度與期刊評鑑指標 71 第三節　初次被引用速度與初次被自我引用 75 第四節　初次被引用速度與期刊出版機制 80 第五節　綜合討論 89 第五章　結論與建議 91 第一節　結論 91 第二節　建議 95 第三節　對未來研究建議 96 參考文獻 99 附錄一　JCR 2014年版IS&LS 期刊於2005-2014年版收錄概況 107 附錄二　各期刊出版資訊 111 附錄三　各期刊歷年文章數 114 表2-1 影響被引用次數之因素 18 表3-1 各出版時間之未被引用文章初次被引用速度 29 表3-2 歷年文章之兩年被引用區間 30 表3-3 歷年文章之五年被引用區間 30 表4-1 各期刊平均初次被引用速度 52 表4-2 各期刊同一月份初次被引用次數 59 表4-3 歷年研究論文與綜論之平均初次被引用速度 60 表4-4 期刊平均初次被引用速度與II 之相關性 72 表4-5 期刊平均初次被引用速度與IF 之相關性 73 表4-6 期刊平均初次被引用速度與五年IF 之相關性 74 表4-7 期刊平均初次被引用速度與SJR 之相關性 75 表4-8 各期刊初次被期刊自我引用率 77 表4-9初次被作者自我引用與初次被引用速度 79 表4-10 各期刊出版機制概況 81 表4-11 OA 期刊類型與期刊平均初次被引用速度 82 表4-12 OA 文章與非OA 文章之平均初次被引用速度 83 表4-13 複合式OA 期刊之OA 文章與非OA 文章初次被引用概況 87 表4-14 期刊出版模式與期刊平均初次被引用速度 88 圖3-1 研究架構 28 圖3-2 作者比對步驟 36 圖3-3 研究步驟圖 41 圖4-1 歷年文章未被引用率與平均初次被引用速度 44 圖4-2 歷年文章未被引用率趨勢 45 圖4-3 兩年引用區間之文章未被引用率及平均初次被引用速度 47 圖4-4 五年引用區間之文章未被引用率及平均初次被引用速度 48 圖4-5 文章初次被引用年份 50 圖4-6 各期刊初次被引用速度之分布 54 圖4-7 文章出版時間與初次被引用速度之分布 56 圖4-8 文章初次被引用速度分布 57 圖4-9 初次被引用速度大於0個月之分布 62 圖4-10 初次被引用速度小於0個月之分布 66 圖4-11 各年出版時間之所有文章初次被引用速度 69 圖4-12 各月份文章出版數與平均初次被引用速度 70 圖4-13 文章初次被自我引用狀態 76 圖4-14 OA 文章與非OA 文章初次被引用速度分布 85[[note]]學號: 603000141, 學年度: 10

Regaining R&D Leadership: The Role of Design Thinking and Creative Forbearance

This article examines how Siemens’s molecular imaging group incorporated design thinking principles into R&D to regain market leadership. Marked departures from its past practice included a “universe of possibilities” for lifetime customer value; multi-iteration “leapfrog concepting” ahead of prototyping; and adherence to an “innovation metric” that enabled simultaneous consideration of customer value and business cost. These elements gave rise to a dynamic capability, “creative forbearance,” which supported the innovation team’s unbridled creativity while building in patience for introducing new features to its product platform. This case illustrates how design thinking can be integrated in settings replete with technological and customer complexity