As the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) works on expanding its manufacturing presence in Arizona, company managers are concerned about the costs of the plan and whether or not the Americans the plant will employ will work hard enough.
TSMC announced its plans to build an advanced fabrication plant in 2020, then tripled its investment to $40 billion in 2022.
Some TSMC managers have concerns about TSMC’s plans for the United States, says a report from The New York Times. Taiwanese engineers are accustomed to working long hours and on weekends. There are concerns that American workers are unlikely to want to follow a similar schedule.
Wayne Chiu, an engineer who left TSMC in 2022, said he considered joining the Arizona facility but realized he would likely have to “pick up the slack” for US workers.
“The most difficult thing about wafer manufacturing is not technology,” he said. “The most difficult thing is personnel management. Americans are the worst at this because Americans are the most difficult to manage.”
Three other TSMC employees told the publication that it was a challenge to standardize processes among US engineers, as they questioned their approaches. In Taiwan, engineers follow orders without question.
Another TSMC engineer said that when given several projects, some Americans struggled, even turning down new assignments rather than working harder or longer to finish the projects.
TSMC founder Morris Chang was quoted in October as saying that US efforts to rebuild its chip manufacturing industry were “doomed to fail”. However, in December he remarked that TSMC is “far more prepared.”
TSMC’s timeframe has the Arizona factory begin microchip production by 2024, with a second facility added to the site later.