National have been in Greenock for 35 years now and there has been a great deal of additional investment over that time, somewhere in the region of $250m. I have been in charge for almost 13 years now and in that time the investment has been in the order of $150m.

The conversion of our 150mm production line to 200mm starts in June. This will further improve our productivity and cost structure. It will also extend our technical capabilities.
We are fortunate however in being an analog company. Our technologies are not tied so tightly to Moore’s Law. So we do not need the huge capital investments needed by the digital guys to remain competitive. We rely more on the creativity and innovation of our engineers and employees. We aim to provide analog intensive solutions for our customers but not by just simple technology scaling alone.
We’re always looking for new ways to bring value to our customers by exploring technologies that complement our analog design and manufacturing expertise. We think we can do that. With exciting areas to investigate such as MEMS, carbon nano-tubes, backside wafer processing etc. there’s a lot of scope for development and differentiation without following Moore’s Law.

Two things:

1. First and foremost we must be efficient and cost competitive on a world scale. Ongoing investment is vital and to secure that means we need to demonstrate continual improvement in our performance and world class manufacturing cost. This results in a lot of change for the organization both in what we make and how we go about doing it. I’ve worked for several semiconductor companies in the UK, Europe and the USA and I can say that the employees in Greenock are the best I have had the privilege to work with in the way they embrace and adapt to change.

2. Secondly we must be relevant to the Corporate Strategy; closely coupled to whatever the Corporation wants to do. Engagement with Corporate HQ and direct linkage to product roadmaps is absolutely critical. A key leadership role on the site is to maintain this relevance; looking at the market trends, strategic thinking and selling the plant capabilities to the HQ business groups. It is essential to take control of your own destiny.

National Semiconductor’s corporate strategy is focused on high value analog products. Analog capability is the real jewel in the crown of NSUK. This has been built up built-up over the last 35 years. So the Greenock site expertise is synergistic with corporate priorities. In the analog world, mastery of the design and process technology is critical and our skills and experience here in Greenock fit perfectly with corporate priorities.

I applaud the UK Government & Regional Development Agencies as being increasingly supportive of R&D. Greenock has benefitted greatly from R&D Plus in Scotland. Anything more the Government can do to increase R&D funding and also to ease the administration that goes along with obtaining grants it would be greatly appreciated. Regional Selective Assistance grants aimed at creating 100’s of jobs are becoming less relevant. Manufacturing these days is more about product choices, sustaining investment, sponsoring innovation and improving productivity.

In some ways it seems strange to have a co-located design and manufacturing site without working on common products; would you see any advantage in proximity or is this largely irrelevant?

Anybody can buy anybody; M&A happens all the time. As a Plant or Business Unit Manager you cannot really afford the time to worry about this; it’s outside of your control. You can only concentrate on being efficient, be good at what you do and react quickly to change. If you are clear that you’re adding value to a business then that’s the best you can do. It is up to others to see that value. Nobody, private equity or other is going to ignore value.

As I touched on before, a key priority is to continually invest in our people and our plants – we need to have world-class skills and equipment to compete.
I would also add that we need positive attitude. A lot of people say manufacturing is declining. I prefer to say it is changing, adapting, and facing the realities of the world. Don’t write the whole industry off. There is still a significant analog-mixed signal capability in the UK. There are good businesses in the UK manufacturing analog-mixed signal. We are good at it. Keep pushing that; it’s what we do differently.
Also look at the new technology opportunities and how we can turn our capability towards manufacturing differentiated novel products. There’s a whole part of our world-wide industry that’s currently on a route of what has been called “profitless prosperity”; great revenue streams but no margin – no differentiation. We have to ensure we’re not chasing that type of business when manufacturing in the UK.