Hitachi Continues Expansion of Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment Business With E-CS Center Building
Oct 19, 2000 15:35 PM
CARROLLTON, Texas, October 19, 2000 -- Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) today announced that construction has begun on an additional 100,000 sq. ft. Electronic Customer Support (e-CS) Center in order to provide strategic service and information to improve customer satisfaction around the globe. The e-CS center, based in Kudamatsu, Japan will include a new expanded state of the art cleanroom (27,986 sq. ft.), additional manufacturing floor-space, networked analysis equipment, and a full complement of internet capabilities such as a virtual lab, process simulations, latest customer results and remote diagnostics. The construction is expected to be complete by March 2001.
"The addition of this facility to our Semiconductor Equipment Group capabilities is in part due to the wide acceptance of our new 300mm etch systems," said Yoshinao Kawasaki, general manager of Hitachi Ltd. Semiconductor Equipment Product Division. "This new center will allows us to double the number of available 300mm etch demonstration tools, network our analysis tools for automatically generating data and reports, and increase our manufacturing capabilities by 30%."
In addition, a number of important Internet capabilities will be incorporated into the new facility allowing for better customer support worldwide, through remote monitoring and control. According to Mr. Kawasaki "This new network infrastructure will allow us to shorten the time to perform customer demonstrations, provide the latest product information to our customers quickly, and set the stage for our remote diagnostics capabilities."
"The new e-CS center, combined with Hitachi America's new Semiconductor Equipment Center, will certainly provide us with some leading edge capabilities our customers here in the US expect such as remote diagnostics." Stated Craig Kerkove general manager, Semiconductor Equipment Group, Hitachi America, Ltd. "Not only that but it certainly will result in faster response times to our customers requests"
Hitachi's etch systems are widely recognized for their low cost of ownership, extendibility and high-throughput. Hitachi has an installed base of more than 1,300 etch systems worldwide, supported by a global parts and service network. For more information on Hitachi semiconductor manufacturing equipment, service support, spare parts for etchers and gas abatement systems please visit http://www.hitachi.us/semiequipment.
Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., markets and manufactures a broad range of electronics, computer systems and products, consumer electronics and semiconductors, and provides industrial equipment and services throughout North America. For more information, visit http://www.hitachi.us/.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 1999 (ended March 31, 2000) consolidated sales of 8,001 billion yen ($75.5 billion*). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://www.hitachi.co.jp.
*At an exchange rate of 106 yen to the dollar.