En vir o n m e n t a l R e p ort

Sales, Development and Design Staff
Share Their Views
TEL employees involved with our TPS (thermal processing system) equipment, one of TEL’s main products, met
recently to discuss how to make this equipment kinder to the environment, a goal which includes energy conservation.

More Customers Looking for
Eco-friendly Equipment
Hoshi: I believe that the biggest challenge TEL is facing
now is the environmental burden of our equipment during
operation, especially its high energy consumption. I lookforward to hearing your opinions today about how we canaddress these environmental considerations, mainly withrespect to energy savings.
Okabe: I am in charge of development of elemental technology. We are the first part of the organization for theprocess of turning a basic component into a product, so
you could say that wehave to be the first to think
about the environmental
impact. Specifically, wehave challenges like creating systems for re-using
expensive or rare gases.
Wamura: I am in chargeof design for mass production, so I mainly deal withcustomer needs like faster production schedules or costsavings. Still, I think it is important to make a real effort tocommunicate environmental concerns to the sales staff
and to the customers, and make sure they understand.
Yasuhara: I am in a project for product quality management and assurance as part of our sales activities. The
perception of quality has changed over the years; recently,getting the product to have less environmental burden has
come to be seen as one
aspect of quality. For
example, customers see
the effect of equipment on
the environment while it isoperating, and the burdenof the equipment on theenvironment after use, as
an integral part of “quality.”

16TOKYO ELECTRON Environmental and Social Report 2005

Umeki: There really is atrend to that. We haveheard a lot about this fromcustomers, that they don’t
just want functionality inthe equipment, they also
want us to reduce theirenergy consumption. They
told us that one strategy
for reducing energy usage
would be to shorten the time from wafer input to output
as much as possible. We developed equipment which did
that, and it did reduce power consumption for wafer handling. Still, a survey by one of the semiconductor producers showed that, of all the systems used by semiconductor producers, TEL’s TPS equipment had the highestpower consumption. For our products to benefit the public, I really feel we are going to have to put more effort
into reducing our equipment’s energy usage.
Wamura: That’s right. We need to increase the value ofour products by taking more consideration of environmental concerns. I think that is the responsibility for us in thedesign department.
Umeki: Also, more andmore requests from customers address not justthe equipment itself, butalso the associated facilities, material gases andwafer treatment methods.We may have a business opportunity here,with “environment” as
the keyword.

Joji Hoshi

Environment, Health & Safety CenterTokyo Electron Limited.

Yu Wamura

TPS Engineering Dept.
Tokyo Electron AT Ltd.

Masaaki Chiba

TPS Engineering Dept.
Tokyo Electron AT Ltd.

Moyuru Yasuhara

TPS Dept.
Tokyo Electron Limited

Tsuneyuki Okabe

TPS Development Dept.
Tokyo Electron AT Ltd.

Makoto Umeki

TPS Engineering Dept.
Tokyo Electron AT Ltd.

(photos at top of p. 16, from left)

Advancing Product Eco-friendlinessby Proactive Marketing
Chiba: I’m in charge of making TEL products lead-free.
We’re running a programwith the goal of removing
all the lead from our products as of 2006. The problem however is that thisraises costs, so we arereally struggling to do thisand meet our other goal,
lowering costs, at thesame time.
Yasuhara: Is it possible that you will be able to get pastthat by changing your approach? When you decrease theenergy usage of the equipment, even if the product’s
price goes up, the energy expense during operation goes
down, so it is quite possible that you have lowered theoverall costs. Eliminating lead works the same way. The
higher costs in the initial investment stage can be recovered in the long run. I feel it is the essential role of thesales force to do a good job explaining this to the customers and convince them it is worthwhile.
Wamura: In order to better differentiate ourselves fromour competitors in environmental issues, we need to be
more aggressive in trying things that other companies are
not looking at yet.

Okabe: I think, in order to do that, the company as awhole needs to put out directives or slogans for attacking
the necessary issues, like safety during development of
eco-friendly products. They should not just follow the current lines of research. They will need a specialized structure for developing such products.
Yasuhara: Up to now, we’ve always developed our products in accordance with our customers’ requests. But thatis changing. We are overhauling the way we develop ourproducts, with an emphasis on preserving the environment. I think it is completely appropriate for TEL tochange over to a kind of manufacturing that we can beproud to describe to our customers.
Hoshi: I really support the proactive style of business,
which reflects TEL’s attitude toward the environment, and I support a continuingemphasis
onenvironment-friendliness.
We are not waiting for ourcustomers to ask, we aremaking these changes on
the basis of our own ideas.
This is a good thing.
Meeting time: 1:00 – 3:30 PM, Thursday, June 30, 2005
Place: Headquarters Conference Room, Tokyo Electron Limited

In response to the exchange of opinions
This was a conversation among members involved in our TPSequipment, but as I listened to the lively discussion, I felt the members were looking more at our industry than just at our equipment.
There was some discussion of reducing environmental burden, mainly by reducing energy consumption of the equipment,and I felt that every one of the members had a direct sense of
how many human and financial resources the entire semiconductor industry is devoting to the environment. I must also note thateveryone seems to share a consciousness that the business ischanging from the old model of manufacturing according to therequests of semiconductor producers to a model whose technology is led by the equipment makers, on the basis of the knowledge and skills they have built up, and a model that is responsive
to environmental concerns.
The Development and Marketing divisions of TEL have been
cooperating closely in studies to reinforce environmental concerns at the design stage since 2004.

Masaki Kaneko

Director
Environment, Health & Safety CenterTokyo Electron Limited

TOKYO ELECTRON Environmental and Social Report 2005

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