Blog

• 12 suppliers were awarded 2022 Supplier Excellence awards
• Suppliers demonstrated success across three award categories: scaling, resiliency, and rapid prototype materials performance

On Thursday, October 27, Lam hosted Supplier Day in Portland, Oregon, U.S., bringing together our top supplier partners to hear from our supply chain leadership about the industry’s future and how we can grow together through continued collaboration.

Semiconductors are strategically relevant in the world today, and our suppliers have played a key role in ensuring that the semiconductor ecosystem has been able to answer the demand for chip technology.

As Lam has scaled to meet rising demand, our suppliers have grown and invested with us. To recognize their many contributions, we honored our top performing suppliers with 2022 Supplier Excellence awards in three categories: scaling, resiliency, and rapid prototype materials performance. In addition, we also recognized a supplier for excellence in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) priorities.

Read the full press release announcing our 2022 Supplier Excellence award recipients here.

The 2022 Supplier Excellence award honorees are:

Scaling Award

• AI Industries
• C.C.S. Advance Tech Co., Ltd.
• EASYS Electronics
• Ferrotec Holdings Corporation
• Texon Co. Ltd.
• VAT Group AG

Resiliency Award

• Advantech
• CryoWest, Inc.
• Cinos Co. Ltd.
• Rapid Manufacturing
• Shimadzu Industrial Equipment USA

Rapid Prototype Materials Performance Award

• Cortec Precision Manufacturing

ESG Award

• XP Power

Supplier Resiliency

For 30 years, we have maintained a close partnership with Rapid Manufacturing, a supplier specializing in electronic custom designed wire and cable harnesses, and electro-mechanical and box build assemblies for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Like many companies, when the pandemic hit, Rapid Manufacturing quickly looked to manage ongoing changes.

“Around Chinese New Year, COVID-19 began to spread across China, and unfortunately, nearly half of our employees based in the region couldn’t travel back to our factory in Shenzhen, China after spending time with their families,” said Dan Lang, CEO of Rapid Manufacturing at Supplier Day. “Eventually, when the virus spread to the U.S., we had to prove to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that we were a critical business to keep our operations running. While executing on a steep ramp, these stressors, coupled with a tight labor market and ongoing supply chain disruptions, were challenging.”

“So, how did Rapid Manufacturing deal with this challenge? It starts with a solid Business Continuity Plan (BCP), but ours only outlined predictable threats to the business – earthquakes, fires, blackouts,” said Lang. “When the pandemic hit, it introduced unpredictable threats and we went into crisis management mode, which ushered in longer hours and painful meetings, but also opportunity and growth.”

The supplier team at Rapid Manufacturing immediately adjusted to mitigate business continuity issues. They developed tools to manage the doubling of purchase orders (POs), provided alternative components to mitigate shortages and cost increases, and invested in new capacity near Lam’s manufacturing operations.

“One key factor was communication,” says Luis Espinoza, COO of Rapid Manufacturing. “We have developed an extremely wonderful relationship in the last few years with Milind Patil, managing director of Lam’s Global Supply Chain Management, and his team. Our collaboration with his team is a reason why our partnership with Lam has been successful.”

These adjustments brought excellent performance, with on-time deliveries exceeding 90% – even in a constrained environment.

“Rapid Manufacturing’s commitment to collaboration and their demonstrated resiliency during a dynamic period make them a top supplier,” says Patil. “Congratulations to Rapid Manufacturing on their Supplier Excellence award.”

Left to right: Pat Lord, EVP of Customer Support Business Group and Global Operations, Lam Research; Rami Musliu, Head GPM, VAT; Scott Olszewski, VP Lam Accounts Management, VAT; Peter Holland, VP of Supply Chain, Lam Research; Karthik Rammohan, GVP of Global Operations, Lam Research.

Scaling in Tight Constraints

“VAT Group AG is one of our top suppliers and our partnership is very critical to the both of us,” says Jayesh Patel, Lam’s strategic commodity manager of Global Supply Chain Management.

VAT is a supplier of high-performance vacuum valves and other mission-critical components for advanced R&D and manufacturing processes of semiconductors. VAT supplies Lam with hundreds of different parts.

“Even with COVID-19 disruptions and a ramp, we have been able to manage supply with VAT’s broad portfolio without causing major disruptions,” says Patel.

In 2018, Lam advised all its suppliers of an anticipated production ramp and called on its supply chain partners to invest in capacity. VAT followed Lam’s strategic direction and timely executed on a few key strategic investments.

“For the first time, we invested a huge amount of money on an innovation center in Haag, Switzerland, an R&D center that will bring our new products to life,” said Thomas Berden, COO of VAT, at Supplier Day. “We have also expanded our footprint, breaking ground on our third extension of our production facility in Malaysia. This project will more than double our production capacity of VAT’s Malaysian manufacturing operation. And finally, we have made deep investments in competencies and talent management.”

“We both have grown, and they have continued to expand along with us – quadrupling in the last ten years,” says Jayesh. “Congratulations to VAT for their Supplier Excellence award.”

“Thank you to all our suppliers for your partnership,” said Rob Rule, Lam’s managing director of Global Supply Chain Management, to our suppliers at Supplier Day. “I don’t think we can say it enough but your collaboration and efforts to help us overcome and achieve output are appreciated.”

Left to right: Peter Holland, VP of Supply Chain, Lam Research; Kristian Edlund, Regional Director, Western North America, XP Power. Photo credit: Alex Eremeyeff, SQAD weldment commodity lead, Lam Research.

Environmental Footprint

Lam made a bold goal last year to achieve net zero by 2050. And getting there requires close collaboration with our suppliers. This year, at our first Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Forum, hosted on Friday, October 28, we awarded XP Power with our ESG Award for proactively aligning with Lam on ESG priorities, nearly two years before we started engaging our supply chain ecosystem.

“98% of our emissions profile comes from scope 3 emissions, indirect emissions that occur up and down the value chain,” says Jami Haaning, Lam’s director of ESG. “We need our suppliers’ commitment to collaboration and continuous improvement as we achieve our net zero roadmap.”

Kelly Lymberopoulos works in Communications.

This article contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include any statements that are not statements of historical fact, including statements regarding market and industry expectations; customer and industry demand; our ability to successfully execute business, product and growth plans or strategies; and our net zero plans and goals. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed, including the risks and uncertainties described in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including specifically the Risk Factors described in our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.  You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.  We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.