Start from 1980

Chapter 882 Change Partner
Although Herman didn't want to admit it, he had to admit it.

The entire Zeiss, from the top management to the employees, is extremely confident in their products. The lenses shipped from Oberkoshin have not been fully inspected, because they think that the quality inspection before leaving the factory is a waste of time.

Due to the heavy delivery pressure of the lithography machine, GCA naturally did not have so much time to check the quality of the hundreds of lenses delivered by Zeiss one by one.

This creates a ridiculous vicious circle. If GCA does not check the quality of the lens, it will not find the problematic lens, and there will be no return of the lens.

However, Zeiss was more determined to believe that the quality of its own lenses was fine because it had no lenses and was returned, and insisted not to do factory inspections.

From management to ordinary employees, no one is willing to be exposed to new ideas and accept new challenges.

"Mr. Herman, can we visit your workshop first?" Su Chen asked.

Mr. Herman nodded hastily: "Of course, Mr. Su, and ladies and gentlemen, please follow me."

"Mr. Herman, can I take pictures of your factory?" Xue Fang said next to her, "I am a reporter from a Chinese magazine, and I want to record pictures of this century-old enterprise, but I don't take pictures of your core technology. .”

Herman thought for a while, "Beautiful lady, yes, but we are not allowed to enter certain places, after all, it is related to our production secrets."

"Of course, I only take pictures where you allow." Xue Fang said.

Walking into this long-established company, there will be a feeling of being in another world. This company exudes a strong traditional atmosphere from head to toe.

Their colleagues like to call each other by their full titles and surnames. It is hard to see a trace of modernity in the work rhythm, which is quite leisurely in the Middle Ages.

What is more traditional is that Zeiss has always insisted on craftsmen polishing the lens by hand. This group of people is the famous "Gold Finger".

This group of cheating cheaters are the people who have the right to speak in the Zeiss production workshop, and they are the real protagonists.

Although Su Chen found that the workshop was full of semi-automatic machines and instruments, and there were standard equipment for grinding and sawing, the "Gold Fingers" were still accustomed to using manual tools and special instruments to complete a lot of work.

"Mr. Herman, I don't think the human eye can compare with a high-precision instrument, and no matter how skilled a craftsman is, it cannot be guaranteed to be as stable as a machine."

Su Chen glanced at the Goldfingers who were busy in the workshop, and said, "Your traditional classic gameplay dominated by "Goldfingers" is equivalent to putting shackles on yourself."

"Why do you say that?" Xue Fang asked curiously.

Su Chen said: "Because when polishing the lens, once a small mistake is made, it will cause serious consequences.

For example, if you over polish or throw it in the wrong place, causing a microscopic depression in the surface, you must continue to reduce a thin layer on the entire lens surface.

In doing so, their workers are also caught in an endless loop of additional remedial work. "

Because it was in front of Herman, these words were communicated in English.

Herman said: "Mr. Su, I have to say that your vision is indeed very accurate, and you can see the existence of this problem at a glance. As you said, the lithography machine has been further developed, which has led to a substantial increase in the production threshold.

We rely on "gold fingers" to polish the lens, and it is true that we can no longer adapt to the changes of the times. Just this year, our six "gold fingers" put in a lot of hard work and delivered ten lenses. "

"So if you don't change the mode of manually polishing the lens, Zeiss will be eliminated." Su Chen said, "Although you are stubborn, you don't reject new technologies, do you?"

Herman smiled: "We don't want to be eliminated by the times, we can only follow the times. In fact, we are already developing the next generation of lens technology. I will introduce you to a great guy later."

"Then let's go to your office. I hope to meet this outstanding young man." Su Chen also smiled slightly.

Several people went to Herman's office, and after a while, a young man came.

"Mr. Su, let me introduce you. This is Mr. Klaus Lichtenberg, who is in charge of the prototype and tools department. He is a very young and outstanding gentleman."

Herman introduced, "He is now developing the next-generation lens production technology, and I believe he will achieve good results soon. Mr. Claus, this is ASML's boss, Mr. Su."

"Hello, Mr. Su." Klaus came forward to shake Su Chen's hand.

Su Chen greeted him with a smile: "Mr. Claus, I heard that you are a young and experienced automation process design expert. Do you think the method of using digital design and metrology data to polish surfaces by robots is valuable?"

"This..." Klaus was silent for a while, although he thought it was valuable, and after repeated experiments, he found that the combination of a polishing robot and an interferometer could achieve nanometer-level polishing precision.

But at this time, Zeiss' poor financial situation has made it difficult to support his ideas.

Moreover, his automated robot polishing solution has been quarreled within Zeiss for many years and has been implemented. Now his idea is still in the laboratory.

After tens of seconds of silence, he said, "It is indeed valuable, but we lack funds to invest in research."

"I am here this time, in addition to asking you to improve the production process, I also bring news that we are going to open a wafer factory in mainland China."

Su Chen said seriously, "This means that we need to produce more lithography machines and need more advanced lenses, and TSMC is also cooperating with us.

If you continue to use the 'golden finger' production process, then we will lose the chance of cooperation.

After all, Japan is very close to Taiwan and mainland China. According to common sense, there is no need for us to travel to Europe to cooperate with Zeiss.

It is only because I am a pure nationalist and I don't like Japan very much, so I will continue to cooperate with you. "

Herman was taken aback: "Asmail is going to develop in mainland China?"

"Yes, we not only want to do business in Europe, but also in Asia. Naturally, we want to develop in mainland China."

Su Chen said, "In fact, everyone knows that Nikon is better at making lenses than Zeiss, with a complete system and strict discipline, and a more advanced lens production process.

Many chip manufacturers have discovered that as long as they use Japanese-made lithography machines represented by Nikon, they can manufacture better chips and save a lot of money.

So, between Nikon and Zeiss, I think, as long as you are not a fool, you should know how to choose. "

Herman was a little desperate for a moment: "No, Mr. Su, didn't we start cooperating early on? You can't just choose Nikon as a partner. You are competitors, and Nikon can't provide you with lenses."

"However, the United States' "Semiconductor Agreement" sanctioned Japanese companies, and Nikon already needs a partner now, not to mention that your lenses are indeed not as good as Nikon."

Su Chen spread his hands, "And you stick to the rules and don't try new technologies. If this is the case, then we can only change the partner."

"Mr. Su, it's not that we are not trying new technologies, it's because we are now experiencing financial difficulties."

Herman was flustered. Zeiss had already lost most of the market. If he lost ASML as a customer, he would probably have to lay off employees.

Then slowly wait to close down.

Su Chen laughed and said: "So I said that if you insist on using 'Golden Finger', you will put shackles on yourself, because Zeiss has seriously affected our development progress, and we have to make a decision to re-select partners.

I don't need to slow down our development because of your stubbornness. Besides, we have received a large order of 200 sets of lithography machines from China. Mr. Herman, do you know how many lenses this requires? "

(End of this chapter)