27) People Vanished from the Factories!
The Nagaoka factory of Matsushita Electronics, where people have disappeared
from the assembly line
In the 1970s when IC production entered the mass production era, US manufacturers
moved labor-intensive assembly processes to the Asian region. On the other
hand, most Japanese manufacturers promoted full automation of assembly manufacturing
lines by introducing pattern recognition technology in the wire bonding process,
so as to improve reliability and cost reduction. In the newspaper titles such
as "People vanished from semiconductor factories!" jumped out at
readers.
At that time, I saw such a scene at Matsushita Electronics’ Nagaoka factory.
In the factory where about 100 automatic wire bonders were lined up (like
the picture above), there were only about 10 workers handling lead frame magazines,
and Vice President Kazuo Fujimoto (later to be President) who was our guide,
reminisced, " Around here , it was used to be called the IC factory Ginza
street until a while ago. " and added,
"The effect of automation is rather more about reliability than productivity.
It may be the strong point of Japanese makers," he added.
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