The remainder are distributed among three design centers and about 30 sales, marketing, and service centers. Reflecting the company's strong emphasis on cultivating customer loyalty, about 25 high- volume semiconductor users account for most of ST's sales. ST competes against about 20 semiconductor manufacturers with broad product lines as well as hundreds of smaller rivals that serve niche markets. The company president devotes 30-35 weeks a year to visiting customers. Supplier-management program earned best in class rating in an independent evaluation of performance in 19 benchmark areas.
New products generate over one-third of annual sales.
Improvement Gets 'Top Page' Attention Everybody at ST, from top managers to manufacturing teams to customer service personnel, works from the same page - the top page. Akin to executive summaries customized to individual audiences, top pages are chief elements of ST's integrated system for deploying improvement objectives throughout the company. They achieve practical specificity at the operational level, but within the context of performance goals for the entire organization. These display vital targets and performance indicators that are established during the iterative, company-wide review of the plan. Lowest-level top pages roll up to support each successively higher level.