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Advantest Empowers Employees to "Re-engineer Your Workplace!"
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TOKYO, Japan, January 9, 2006 - Toshio Maruyama, the president and CEO of Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857, NYSE: ATE), has delivered a resolute message to the company's employees and other stakeholders that Advantest will deepen its commitment in 2007 to greater visibility and efficiency. The world's largest maker of automatic test equipment has already implemented manufacturing reforms that have further increased its competitiveness - underlined by a string of industry awards including VLSI Research's prestigious 5-Star Rating, two years in succession - and now, in step with analysts' bold predictions for sales of flash memory and DRAM in 2007, Advantest aims to raise the standard for the industry again with its new slogan: "Re-engineer Your Workplace!"
This challenge was inspired by the long-term strategy initiative of Innovation 25 announced by the cabinet of Japan's newly elected prime minister, Shinzo Abe, according to CEO Toshio Maruyama. "Mr. Abe has a vision of a beautiful country. I hope that Advantest can contribute to Japan's future through our corporate activities by keeping pace with the newly formed cabinet in crafting innovative responses to new challenges," Mr. Maruyama commented.
One of these challenges will be QCD improvement, according to Mr. Maruyama's January 4th address to employees. Quality (Q), Cost (C), and Delivery (D) have long been known as critical factors affecting the competitiveness of manufacturing firms like Advantest, and despite market shifts and the accelerated introduction of new consumer products and applications, the importance of QCD as an evaluative index is presently being widely re-acknowledged. "Our ongoing business success hinges upon continued attention to our QCD activities," Mr. Maruyama acknowledged. "Since we are a manufacturing company, our manufacturing division is leading the way, but we need a greater push in 2007 from the R&D division."
In terms of quality, Advantest has expanded its awareness of quality to the design stage, where it will introduce JIT-compliant designs to enhance productivity. Cost issues will be addressed through the introduction of a plan to reduce the costs of components and other materials, as well as through ongoing efficiency gains. Meanwhile, the company will improve its delivery profile by creating product roadmaps that help the R&D division to hit its targets, thus reducing time-to-market.
CEO Maruyama summed up his agenda: "Essentially, we aim to promote the just-in-time production system, moving from the manufacturing division to the R&D division and spreading throughout all our global organization, with a consistent focus on our core competency of manufacturing."
In 2004, Advantest launched a new corporate initiative, "Activate21." With the company now set to achieve its FY2008 objectives under the terms of the initiative, Mr. Maruyama commented, "Our 2007 slogan, 'Re-engineer Your Workplace!' aims to empower individual employees by involving them directly in our group effort to improve visibility and efficiency. Our overall corporate goals can be explicated in terms of individual tasks and objectives. I believe very firmly that encouraging individual employee strengths and aspirations is the most critical factor in achieving our ultimate strategic goals." The CEO also said, "I would like to emphasize that synergistic efforts which cut across divisions will be key to our long-term sustainability."
With a combination of visionary leadership, R&D strengths, and customer satisfaction ratings unmatched in the industry, the long-term sustainability of Advantest seems assured.
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Advantest Corporation is the world’s leading automatic test equipment supplier to the semiconductor industry, and also produces electronic and optoelectronic instruments and systems. A global company, Advantest has long offered total ATE solutions, and serves the industry in every component of semiconductor test: tester, handler, mechanical and electrical interfaces, and software. Its logic, memory, mixed-signal and RF testers and device handlers are integrated into the most advanced semiconductor production lines in the world. Founded in Tokyo in 1954, Advantest established its first subsidiary in 1982, in the USA, and now has 40 subsidiaries worldwide. Among them, Advantest America, Inc. is based in Santa Clara, CA., and Advantest (Europe) GmBH is based in Munich, Germany. More information is available at www.advantest.co.jp. |
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