Comment by skizm
Comment by skizm 2 days ago
I feel like I've read a few articles on Bloomberg and/or NYT (drawing a blank on the exact source) that a very large portion of the workforce was taken directly from Taiwan and the American workers were having a hard time adopting to the Taiwanese way of doing things (long hours, on call all the time, constantly stepping outside your predefined roll, etc.). Is this currently now, or will it in the future, affect the overall success of the factory? (It also might simply be untrue for all I know.)
Morris Chang, the founder of TSMC was reported [1] by Nikkei Asia in March 2023 as saying this about the work culture:
> "Design is the U.S.'s competitiveness. On the other hand, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea have competitiveness in manufacturing...It's also about the work culture and the people."
> The TSMC founder cited chip production equipment as an example. Because these machines are so expensive, they need to be running 24 hours a day to justify their cost. "If it breaks down at 1 in the morning, in the U.S. it will be fixed in the next morning, but in Taiwan, it will be fixed at 2 a.m."
> "If an engineer [in Taiwan] gets a call when he is asleep, he will wake up and start dressing. His wife will ask: 'What's the matter?' He would say: 'I need to go to the factory.' The wife will go back to sleep without saying another word," Chang said. "This is the work culture."
[1]: https://archive.ph/LqV4M