BUILDING ON THE PAST, READY FOR THE FUTURE: - MEMC

From chunk and granular polysilicon comes finished solar cells.
industries, where advances originate. If the people of
MEMC are proud of the job they do (and they are), it is also
true that they are proud of their peers and proud to be part
of MEMC’s very diverse workforce. When interviewed,
both John Kauffmann and Dr. Graham Fisher identified
the diversity of MEMC’s workforce as one of its most
important assets. John described his experience in Japan
as an introduction “with another whole level of quality”
and in Taiwan, “a whole new level of productivity,”
describing the people of Taiwan as very innovative and
hard-working people: “Our strength vs. our competition
comes out of that diversity. We have experts essentially in
every area of silicon that can speak and communicate in
the mother tongue of whatever country we’re in and that’s
not the case with our competition.”
Dr. Graham Fisher observes on a regular basis how this
diversity impacts MEMC’s technological growth: “This
company has people from all over the world, bringing
with them their varied educational backgrounds,
different approaches to problem solving, different ways
of looking at the market. The result is a synergy of ideas
and knowledge that replaces the narrow assumptions
that can occur in a more homogenous workforce.”
MerAno, iTAly
while visiting the Merano plant in 2000,
Jerry Canfield, who was a St. Peters
employee at the time, reported that the
major difference between St. Peters and
the Merano plant was the food. Meals
were served in a cafeteria and included
pasta, salad or meat, and vegetables—“no
burgers and fries here,” he reported. He
also noted that instead of the omnipresent
American cup of coffee sipped leisurely
throughout the day, folks at Merano got
their shot of espresso, “slammed it right
there in front of the vending machine,”
and went right back to work.
Wafer final cleaning at Utsunomiya, Japan.
Equations for Success 75