November 16, 2016 (Pleasanton, CA) –During the last 25 years, WWK has served more than 3,000 clients and users on five different continents from its roots in the semiconductor industry to numerous national labs and universities, industry leaders in photovoltaics, disk drives, defense, aerospace, nanotechnology, micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), flat panel displays (FPD), solid state lighting/light emitting diodes (SSL/LED), healthcare/medical devices, telecommunications, and engineering services.
From its humble beginnings in the back of an insurance agency in Sacramento, California, to its current position as the world’s leading operational cost management and productivity improvement software and consulting services firm, WWK has survived and flourished in the highly cyclical world of high tech manufacturing to reach the rare event of a 25th anniversary.
WWK’s initial focus was semiconductor manufacturing and the supporting supply chain of equipment and material suppliers. This expertise was recognized by SEMATECH, founded as a consortium of the largest U.S. semiconductor manufacturers and the U.S. government, in awarding WWK development contracts for a process equipment specification database and cost of ownership (COO) software. This expertise was further recognized with the rare invitation as the only non-member participant to join the Competitive Analysis Group (CAG), which included senior officials from the U.S. government, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The results of this work with SEMATECH led to WWK receiving the prestigious Texas Instruments Supplier Excellence Award. With regard to the award, Rob Simpson, Director of Capital Equipment Procurement for TI Worldwide Procurement and Logistics stated, "WWK impacted our business on a fundamental level.” A further quote from a Texas Instruments Annual Report indicated, “TI has developed a management system we call the 'virtual fab.' It links our worldwide manufacturing sites into a close-knit network. Rather than operating as autonomous units, all the fabs now work together to produce the maximum output for our customers. Through common equipment and processes, cycle-time reduction, and other improvements [these applications define operational modeling], we have gained the equivalent output of two additional wafer-fab facilities over the last two years--without spending a billion dollars in new brick and mortar.”
As operational modeling was driven from the semiconductor manufacturers and into their supply base, WWK was chosen to be the “go to” company for support and training. WWK partnered with both SEMATECH and Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) to provide worldwide workshops that continued for over 20 years. The impact on the supply chain was clearly summarized by Scott Wheelock, Program Manager, Dow Corning, when he stated, “The impact of Wright Williams & Kelly on our business is easy to see. Our business has developed much further and much faster through the use of your products and services.”
As other industries have experienced the market pressures of rapid technological change and shortened product lifecycles, they have turned to the semiconductor industry to see how they have managed billion dollar investments while dealing with rapid obsolescence. Industries such as the nascent residential photovoltaic market needed to find a way to drive down costs in the hopes of competing with grid-based power. WWK has supported their efforts since the 1990’s. As stated by David Hogg, Managing Director, Pacific Solar Pty Ltd, “Your products have been the cornerstone of our business planning and financial studies ever since [1998]. We have been able to present our business effectively, which has helped attract high quality investors and allowed us [to] progress towards our vision.”
Another industry in continuous transition is thin film record head/magnetic media. New products are being developed at an accelerating rate and the typical manufacturing cycle times have often prevented them from meeting their clients’ requirements. Once again, WWK was there to provide complete modeling and analytics solutions. To quote Tim Wulf, Wafer Systems Manager, Seagate, “We ask our suppliers to help us answer important questions. Some of your competitors offered to only sell us software, not answers. You were the first company in this area that provided us the answers we needed to our critical operating questions. Thank you for your support, we look forward to continuing this very productive relationship.”
WWK’s client base is not limited to traditional electronics markets. When the U.S. military was looking to meet the cost tracking requirements of the Government Accountability Office, they turned to WWK. Or when the U.S. military needed a vision system company to rapidly increase capacity, they brought in WWK to help ramp up their factory quickly and efficiently. And when an aerospace company had a multi-hundreds of millions of dollars backlog they couldn’t address, WWK provided them an approach that added over $200M to their revenue in the subsequent year.
Of course, WWK would not have survived without the continued support of our clients who have shown unprecedented loyalty and without whom we would not have be able to stay on the path of continuous improvement. Our products and services are light years ahead of where they were 25 years ago as a result of the constant drive of our clients. To our clients and friends, we thank you for the last 25 years and look forward to continuing to support your success well into the future.
Call today for more information from Wright Williams & Kelly, Inc. Providing software solutions for productivity measurement and enhancement since 1991.