Mitsubishi Introduces Virtual Company System
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 6/1/1998
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (Tokyo, Japan) announced its semiconductor division policy for FY98. To stabilize management, a virtual company system will be introduced, and the development stance for LSI systems will be strengthened.
The firm's IC production value for FY97 is expected to be up 6.3% from the prior year, to $3.78 billion (¥510 billion), but profits have been severely curtailed by the plunge in DRAM prices. In response, Mitsubishi is introducing virtual companies into the design, manufacturing and sales arms, applying management responsibility on the department level in an effort to reduce costs. Concretely, four fabless companies -- Memory Group, System LSI Group, Power Devices Group and Harmonic and Optical Devices Group -- will be formed, and foundry makers will consist of the Kumamoto, Saijo and Kochi plants, the Fukuoka subsidiary, and overseas downstream assembly plants. The two groups will set and contract in wafer units to keep prices down, and foundry makers will accept outside work as well. At present, only the design and manufacturing arms have initiated virtual company systems, but sales is scheduled to start at the end of June.
The FY98 IC equipment and facilities investment has been reduced by 44% from last year's figure, to $370 million (¥50 billion), primarily for Japan, such as a state-of-the-art 0.18 µm (180 nm) line for the Kumamoto Plant. Investment into 300 mm lines is expected to start in FY99 or later.
