半導體晶圓生產設備供應商的現況與策略 - 以M公司為例

Abstract

半導體產業自1948年由美國貝爾實驗室三位科學家蕭克立（W.Schokley），巴定（J.Bardeen）和布萊坦（W.H. Brattain）發明以來，即被廣泛的運用於所有的電子產品中，成為電子產業中不可或缺的一環。隨著半導體科技的快速演進，專業分工於焉形成，半導體設備製造商在1960年代後陸續成立。早期因為電子產品不斷的推陳出新，半導體的需求量大增，吸引著世界各國紛紛投入資源成立半導體製造廠，由於不斷有新的公司成立或是既有的公司興建新廠，造成機台設備常常供不應求，因此造就了半導體設備供應商幾十年的榮景。然而隨著半導體生產趨於飽和，擴建廠房的速度不若以往，加之2008年及2012年兩次的金融風暴，電子產品需求下降，半導體設備供應商位於產業鏈的最前端，正面臨著產業的巨變及景氣谷底的考驗。本研究以中型半導體設備供應商M公司為例，如何在這種外在環境下本著既有的核心技術，找出新的發展與成長策略。

The semiconductor industry began in 1948 by Bell Laboratories three scientists W.Schokley, J.Bardeen and W.H. Brattain. Since the invention it was so widely used in all electronic products that become an integral part of the electronics industry. With the rapid evolution of semiconductor technology, semiconductor professional equipment manufacturers were set up in the 1960s. The continuous innovation in electronic products led to the significant increase in demand for semiconductor. Attracting the world has set up semiconductor manufacturing fabs. Because new companies incorporated and existing company continuously built a new fab, semiconductor equipments were often in short supply. Due to the shortage, semiconductor equipment suppliers have enjoyed more than two decades of prosperouness. However, with the saturation of semiconductor production caused the slow down of fab construction and expansion. Moreover, 2008 and 2011 financial crises have led the serious decline in demand for electronic products. In the front-end of the supply chain, semiconductor equipment venders encountered the dramatic changes of the industry from global economic recession. In this study, we like to identify new competitive strategy for medium sized semiconductor equipment vender under current environment with existing core competencies. Company M was used as an example for this study.