A core strength of our country lies in the invention and manufacturing of technology… it is a true treasure of our nation. It’s fuelled efficiencies and advances in every sector of the economy and society. One of the leaders of high technology, Craig Barrett of Intel, has announced his retirement. Note the emphasis on manfucturing in his leadership….
From Silicon Valley Watcher… ~~~~” Craig Barrett said he would retire as Intel chairman in May. It’s a major loss for Intel because Mr Barrett was a key figure in helping Intel continue its dominance of the microprocessor markets and hold its position as the world’s largest chipmaker.
He did that by focusing on chip manufacture. And that’s the real secret of Intel’s success– not design but manufacture. Intel can build and ramp up a chip fab (one of the most complex industrial factories of our time) in record time, and do it again, and again, and again. There are hundreds of different processes involved in making chips, and hundreds of complex and very sensitive machines — it’s not an easy task to get the calibration done right. If you mess up in one process you lose the entire batch of chips and you quickly start to lose huge amounts of money.
Mr Barrett developed a process of copying exactly a fab in a new fab, and rapidly distributing process gains to its other fabs. This meant Intel could quickly build very complex fabs, and importantly, achieve very high manufacturing yields (something which rival Advanced Micro Devices always struggled with). Mr Barrett leaves Intel in a very strong position.” ~~~~
Maybe Mr. Barrett can create a manufacturing leadership institute… good luck!
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