Site:

SCI Manufacturing - Singapore
3 Depot Close, Singapore 109840

Participants:

Kenneth H. F. Kwong, Marketing Manager
S. Chan, Manufacturing Operations Manager
Soh Siang Loh, M. E. Manager

Mission and Strategy

• SCI, started as an R&D company in 1961, entered commercial contract manufacturing in 1977. It is the largest contract manufacturer, with 22 facilities worldwide, which are ISO 9002 certified. It locates its facilities near its customers. Revenues have grown from $2 billion in 1994 to a projected $4 billion in 1996. SCI's objectives are to provide capability, speed/flexibility, value, and synergy to support its customers.
• Its Far East operations include Singapore, Thailand, and Penang, which operate at 150 million placements/mo.

Key Elements of Presentation

• SCI Singapore's customers include Hewlett-Packard, Seagate, Singapore Technologies, Compaq, Texas Instruments, Exabyte, NEC Semiconductors, Baxter, and Apple.
• SCI Singapore builds PC motherboards, LAN cards, printer cards, SIMMS, disk drive cards, modem cards, tape drive cards, and video tuner cards.
• The Singapore facility has 18 SMT lines using Fuji equipment with 85%-90% ICT yield and 92%-95% functional test yield. Test equipment includes Hewlett-Packard, Genrad, Zentel, and Fairchild. The company is achieving 11 inventory turns.
• SCI Singapore performs failure analysis to the component level but leverages GINTIC's local facilities for component failure analysis, obtaining local perspectives and networking among local manufacturers. SCI Singapore is not working with GINTIC on BGA qualification because BGA qualification is being done by SCI in Huntsville for the corporation.

Key Elements of Tour

• SCI is experiencing a turnover rate of 3% per month for its operators. New operators are given a 3-day basic course and must pass an examination before they begin one month of on-the-job training. SCI provides good benefits and quarterly profit sharing.
• Professional staff have lower turnover but leave for better opportunity jobs. This is especially true for engineers who have been out of college for 5 years or less.
• Approximately 82% of SCI Singapore's workforce are operators, and 30% of the operators are Malaysians who are picked up by bus on a daily basis. SCI also employs many operators from China, for whom SCI provides dormitory housing.

Key Results

SCI Singapore generated $330 million in revenues in 1995.

Conclusions

• SCI obtains advanced manufacturing process technology from Huntsville, AL, and does concurrent engineering, including PCB layout and process implementation, locally.
• SCI has global purchasing centers for selected corporate commodity management in Huntsville, Singapore, and Irvine, Scotland.