Silicon Valley is a nickname for Bay Area cities that are home to various high-tech semiconductor companies. Kyushu, the southwestern-most of Japan’s main islands, was called Silicon Island during 1980s and 1990s because many Japanese electronics companies built their semiconductor plants on the island.
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake shook the Kumamoto Prefecture on April 14 with the highest intensity of seven, killing 11 people. Typically aftershocks follow an earthquake, and after a few rumblings, everyone thought the worst was over. They were wrong. On April 16, an even larger earthquake rumbled through, measuring at an even bigger 7.3 magnitude. Unfortunately, 37 deaths were reported along with more than a thousand injuries, and few more remain missing. Hundreds of thousands returned to damaged homes and remain homeless, and the nightmare continues – more than 850 aftershocks have been registered after the earthquake.
All modes of transportation remain closed. Railways, ballet trains, highways and air flights are canceled, and all utilities -electricity, water, and gas and telephone land lines – are unavailable. Fortunately, relief efforts arrived quickly, and over the last few days things are quickly coming back on line. More than ten thousand volunteers arrived to help with the evacuation and set up temporary shelter.
Large manufacturing companies including Sony, Panasonic, Honda and Toyota suspended operations citing damage at their plants. The supply chain disruptions could keep them idle for a up to a week. Toyota Motors was the hardest it among the large corporations. The company is experiencing a parts shortage and will suspend production on a number of its vehicle assembly lines throughout Japan. Many business analysts pointed to the Just In Time system (JIT) created by Japanese automobile companies for this shut down. The claim the JIT system is extremely efficient, but when a natural disaster strikes the system fails.
I don’t agree with the analysts' conclusions about the JIT system. Any manufacturing plant in the area was forced to suspend operations even if they did not receive direct damage from the earthquake. Damaged railways and highways remain closed more than 10 days after the earthquake, and supply chain disruptions are affecting all manufacturing.
Automobile manufacturers will probably be on line before any of the others that do not use the JIT system. They established alternative distribution sources in different locations throughout Japan having learned from other natural disasters in the past. The automobile manufacturers could open their plants in the next week to 10 days.
Dominique K. Numakura, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
DKN Research, www.dknresearchllc.com
DKN Research Newsletter #1612, April 24th, 2016 (English Edition) (Micro Electronics & Packaging)
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Headlines of the Week
1. Mitsubishi Electric developed a power module series, introducing a common package for power semiconductor devices.
2. Fujitsu Semiconductor started sample supply of the new 64 kbit FRAM, “MB85RC64T,” with the smallest energy consumption. A small size SON package is available.
3. Denso developed a reliable drone for inspection of roads and bridges. It works safely in bad weather.
4. Hitachi Metal developed a new ferrite core material “ML29D” with a smaller loss in broad range temperature for automobile applications.
5. Fukuoka Institute of Technology has developed a small-scale hydroelectric power generator utilizing fluttering of the boards in mild water stream.
6. Ajinomoto founded a research company, Ajinomoto Fine Techno USA, in the Silicon Valley for market research on electronic materials.
7. Denso will commercialize a new thin heat-flow sensor called “RAFESPA” with high sensitivity, built with the PALAP process for automobiles.
8. Sekisui Chemical will start field tests of pyroelectric power generation devices built on carbon nano tube material. The devices could be very thin and flexible.
9. Sumitomo Chemical agreed to co-develop next-generation multiple biosensor devices introducing printable electronics with English company Abingdon Health.
10. Tokyo University developed an extremely flexible thin OLED.
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