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TSMC Arizona struggles to overcome vast differences between Taiwanese and US work culture

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), one of the world’s largest advanced computer chip manufacturers, continues finding its efforts to get its Arizona facility up and running to be more difficult than it anticipated. The chip maker’s 5nm wafer fab was supposed to go online in 2024 but has faced numerous setbacks and now isn’t expected to begin production until 2025. The trouble the semiconductor has been facing boils down to a key difference between Taiwan and the U.S.: workplace culture. A New York Times report highlights the continuing struggle.

One big problem is that TSMC has been trying to do things the Taiwanese way, even in the U.S. In Taiwan, TSMC is known for extremely rigorous working conditions, including 12-hour work days that extend into the weekends and calling employees into work in the middle of the night for emergencies. TSMC managers in Taiwan are also known to use harsh treatment and threaten workers with being fired for relatively minor failures.

TSMC quickly learned that such practices won’t work in the U.S. Recent reports indicated that the company’s labor force in Arizona is leaving the new plant over these perceived abuses, and TSMC is struggling to fill those vacancies. TSMC is already heavily dependent on employees brought over from Taiwan, with almost half of its current 2,200 employees in Phoenix coming over as Taiwanese transplants.

aaaaace ,

3 new chip fabs open recently around phx, which is in low-altitude desert, has had water supply issues for so long there’s a canal running from the Colo river through it all the way to Tucson.

Which is fed by a reservoir so low they find old mobster kills in barrels and might have to stop making power.

Why so stupid and short-sighted?

Ah, “faith-based”.

And a Republican governor made the deals. Who also allowed water to be used to grow alfalfa that’s sent to Saudi to feed their horses.

$$$ + no sense

RizzRustbolt ,

largest microchip manufacturer on the planet

front entrance looks like an abandoned 80s era mall

AgentGrimstone ,

I remember watching a documentary a few years ago where this exact situation happened. Chinese company buys American company, tries to establish their work culture and it just doesn’t work.

sunbeam60 ,

It’s the same the world over. I’ve worked for years for a western company which has got a large part of their business in Asia and China.

You try taking our “western ways” of leadership to China and see how well it fares; what I would consider “leaving space for a leader to operate and feel accountable” is seen as “my leader has no fucking clue what he is doing; he never tells me what he wants me to do”.

Culture eats everything for breakfast. As a western leader in China you have to act like a controlling maniac (in my cultural frame) to be seen as an effective leader in China.

And it goes both ways. My brother reports to a Chinese manager transplanted to the west and she “desperately wants to micromanage everything” according to the western team.

We are all trying our best.

veeesix ,
@veeesix@lemmy.ca avatar

Probably American Factory from 2019. Definitely a recommended watch for anyone unfamiliar with the topic.

jumjummy ,

Yep that’s probably the one. Super depressing, especially all the anti-union tactics.

AgentGrimstone ,

Went back to see the trailer and yeah, that’s the one.

Treczoks ,

Just imagine what they would face in Europe, where workers even have rights!

SlopppyEngineer ,

Teaching the Asian colleagues the fine art of blocking factories and burning tires.

blindbunny ,

Idk I seen the South Korean picket lines, that looks like solidarity to me.

sunzu ,

Korean worker finally got beat down enough to fight back?

bjoern_tantau ,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

I’m reminded of the time Walmart tried to enter Germany with their work culture. But in their case it wasn’t just that the Germans didn’t like it. It was illegal. And the German customers were weirded out by Walmart employees smiling and being so cheerful all the time.

rottingleaf ,

But in their case it wasn’t just that the Germans didn’t like it. It was illegal.

I want to learn more?..

bjoern_tantau ,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

youtu.be/59AMOwlf6XQ

Don’t know if it’s in the video, but as far as I remember it was about how working hours were calculated and about worker surveillance. And Walmart trying to control worker’s private lifes by forbidding sexual relationships between workers.

rottingleaf ,

And Walmart trying to control worker’s private lifes by forbidding sexual relationships between workers.

Just why would they do that? And were that their concern, wouldn’t such people work better, not worse?

bjoern_tantau ,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

I guess the rational is that a breakup would lead to worse job performance.

rottingleaf ,

Well, that’s quite strange math, the amount of breakups between Walmart employees is expected to be less that the amount of relationships. Facts from the former are mostly a subset of facts from the latter actually.

Unless we consider the possibility that couples come to work at Walmart and break up there, but couples rarely form while already there.

Fred ,

Justification I’ve heard is that if one part of the couple is managing the other, or is promoted after the relationship started, then:

  • there is a power imbalance in the couple, possibly one is coercing the other (« I can’t leave him/her, they’ll make my worklife hell / get me fired »);
  • there is a risk the manager will promote their partner even if their job performance doesn’t warrant it

Companies will want to both avoid this sort of things, and avoid being seen to enable this sort of things. They might want to move one of the parties to a different department so that the higher up one doesn’t make promotion decisions for the other.

I’ve once worked at a company that wanted to know about relationships between their employees and suppliers/customers’ employees, again because that might enable situations where a supplier / customer is treater favourably because of personal relationships

barsoap ,

Also things like selling their loss leaders below purchase price. The kicker is that they still lost the price war they started even though the German discounters kept things legal.

Then there was something about not wanting to publish their balance sheets as they’re required to, shutting out the works council from stuff that the works council has a right to be involved in, the list is endless. Not only did they not have a German CEO to manage all that stuff they apparently didn’t even have German lawyers.

NeoNachtwaechter ,

By law: 8 hours as the rule, never more than 10 hours for exceptions.

By contract, they can go a little above the 8 hours.

If they go above the 10, it can cost the company a lot even for a single case.

rottingleaf ,

So they didn’t plan even for such simple things. Wow.

echodot ,

Apple still tries to have the cherry up-beat customer services department in the UK and it doesn’t work. It’s a Saturday, no one wants to be doing this call, don’t pretend otherwise it’s weird.

blindbunny ,

Welcome to Costco, I love you

WanderingVentra , (edited )

I thought bringing Taiwanese working conditions to the US would help.

(I can’t find the full clip so you’ll have to click right on the arrow a couple times.)

wolfylow ,

Reminds me of the Netflix show “American Factory” about a Chinese factory opening in the US.

Quite a fascinating clash of cultures.

collapse_already ,

Which reminded me of an 80s movie called Gung Ho about a Japanese company that bought an American automobile manufacturer and the ensuing culture clash.

WanderingVentra ,

All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.

blindbunny ,

Sounds like they need a union

Kushan ,
@Kushan@lemmy.world avatar

This makes me laugh because I work for a UK company that was bought out by an American company, who’s trying to treat the UK staff how they would treat US staff - and it’s not going well.

Our American colleagues cannot fathom how much time we take off for holidays, especially around Christmas. They also got a shock when doing some recent “restructuring” they couldn’t just fire a bunch of UK folks.

teft ,
@teft@lemmy.world avatar

Our American colleagues cannot fathom how much time we take off for holidays

So many days if it’s like colombia. They have 37 holidays off each year. It’s great but im constantly forgetting which days are festivals so i always end up walking to the store and then returning home dejected because i couldn’t buy my cheese.

caboose2006 ,

In china I had a UK roommate. He was on the phone with his mom mid week when she should have been at work. I asked if she was sick and he was like “No. She took some vacation days to tidy the house.” My jaw hit the floor. My vacation days in the US were so precious and so few that I’d never fathom using any to do chores. Unreal that you can have so much vacation you’d elect to spend it doing chores.

Gormadt ,
@Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Happy workers are hard workers, treat them like shit and they’ll walk right out the door.

BigTrout75 ,

Correct! Well unless, they’re starving and need to feed their families.

Damage ,

Aren’t the machines TSMC uses made in the Netherlands? They’re the only ones who can get down to that size, and they do it working 36 hours a week…

admin ,
@admin@lemmy.my-box.dev avatar

My brother worked for such a Dutch company (ASM) and often got sent overseas to supervise the setting up of the production lines with these machines.

He mentioned when he’d get sent to Asia, the workers would make sure to get it done over a weekend, while implementing the same setup would take 2 to 3 weeks in the US. In part that was due to the working conditions mentioned, but also simple lack of planning in case of the latter (things would grind down to a haalt because certain changes would need to be made, and the person responsible for the decision wouldn’t respond for hours or days, etc).

Side note: while 36 hour work weeks are common in the Netherlands, 40 hours is still the norm in my experience.

BeatTakeshi ,
@BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world avatar

It can’t be just that. The cultural difference is real in the sense that there is in Asia in general more obedience or reverence or discipline or selflessness or whatever you call it, that you simply don’t find at scale in western civilisations. Whether it’s good or bad I don’t judge

Llewellyn , (edited )

Well, it’s bad from a western POV.

cyd ,

Funny thing is, TSMC in Taiwan is considered a premium employer. It offers much better pay and parks than other companies.

Llewellyn ,

Parks?

BeatTakeshi ,
@BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world avatar

Perks

Speculater ,
@Speculater@lemmy.world avatar

Now we don’t know they don’t have kick-ass parks.

Passerby6497 ,

You can’t say that, having a park at work is a hell of a perk.

darklamer ,
@darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Science park expansion ratified: www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/…/2003811196

Varyk , (edited )

Important to note that this is Taiwanese culture, not Chinese; Taiwan is much more exacting in the finished product and generally much more attentive to human rights in terms of work culture, so it is not a direct correlation to what happened in the American Factory doc.

Which brings us to what I believe is the more salient point:

TSMC is very Christian and at least their top management likens their research, discoveries and manufacturing progress to faith-based divine revelation.

The symptoms of worker’s rights abuse may not be simple disregard for labor rights so much as continued religious fervor.

wired.com/…/i-saw-the-face-of-god-in-a-tsmc-facto…

Their R&D is scientific, but their motivation, timelines and sheer effort is strongly faith-based, in the mindset that God has allowed them to get this far and will allow them to continue to progress no matter what technological hurdles appear.

Either way, labor rights have to be respected, but I wanted to point out that Taiwan and China are entirely separate countries with different work cultures and there’s another pretty important reason why outside workers might be put off by the zealotry with which tsmc focuses on developing cutting edge chip manufacturing.

TheGrandNagus , (edited )

Taiwan is less than 4% Christian. I doubt workers in TSMC are significantly different.

E: 3.9%. source

Varyk , (edited )

TSMC specifically hires and promotes devout Christians for leadership positions and they say for all positions that Christian belief is important.

It’s in the attached article.

TSMC chairman Mark Liu says that “Every scientist must beleieve in God” and about TSMC’s work, “God means nature. We are describing the face of nature at TSMC”.

TheGrandNagus , (edited )

3.9%

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Taiwan

Buddhism is at 35.1%, Taoism at 33%, and atheism at 18.7%.

Needless to say, Christianity is not “Taiwanese culture”. They’re about as Christian as Germany is Islamic (3.7%).

This article says nothing other than that a few people in high up positions at TSMC are Christian. It doesn’t say anything about pushing Christianity onto workers.

And yeah of course Christians say Christianity is important and that they see god in nature. They’re Christians.

Varyk , (edited )

If you’re going to blindly insist on baseless believies instead of the direct available testimony of the literal TSMC chairpeople, employees and bosses there, that’s your issue.

enjoy your dreams.

TheGrandNagus , (edited )

The direct testimony of a couple of TSMC chairpeople is “I’m a Christian and I believe in God. I see God in nature, yes.”

Pretty much all Christians see god in nature. They’re Christians.

Zero evidence that they specifically hire Christians. Zero evidence that they push religion onto people.

You’re the one extrapolating that all of TSMC must be fervently Christian (not backed up by the article!), and that Taiwan in general is Christian in culture (definitely not in the article!)

I also highly doubt that the culture issue here is that Taiwan (3.9% Christian) is too culturally Christian for the US (67% Christian).

One of us is dreaming, but it’s not me.

Varyk , (edited )

You’re misquoting the article and wildly misinterpreting my comments so that you have a straw man to throw a tantrum about.

Your make-believe is showing

TheGrandNagus ,

You’re the one playing make-believe mate.

A Christian says they see god in nature and you jump to the conclusion that TSMC is effectively a faith organisation and that there’s a Christian conspiracy to push religion on workers. That TSMC is too Christian for the US of all places.

The cultural issue at play here is not Christianity lmao.

extremely rigorous working conditions, including 12-hour work days that extend into the weekends

In recent interviews, 12 TSMC employees, including executives, said culture clashes between Taiwanese managers and American workers had led to frustration on both sides. TSMC is known for its rigorous working conditions. It’s not uncommon for people to be called into work for emergencies in the middle of the night. In Phoenix, some American employees quit after disagreements over expectations boiled over, according to the employees, some of whom asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Employees were expected to pitch in with work outside their job descriptions because construction of the facility was behind schedule.

This approach did not sit well with everyone. Workers were required to do whatever was needed to finish the most pressing job, he said. Some of the American workers also found it difficult to spend a long stretch of time in Taiwan.

Yeah mate. Taiwanese culture, as well as TSMC’s, being too Christian is definitely the issue here! /sarcasm

Varyk ,

Keep making straw man arguments materially irrelevant to my comments and the testimony of tsmc themselves.

It’s easier to make your argument if you just make up your own story, isn’t it?

without all those pesky contextual facts and quotes getting in the way.

TheGrandNagus ,

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F5tkb1p3sp3531.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=7ef7b32cf626c0c385214ffdbf6177fb33f0c45fa0619ff9c56430f7d971c90a&ipo=images

Varyk ,

isn’t it?

ABCDE ,

u wot

Varyk ,

I don’t understand the question

ABCDE ,

I don’t understand anything you wrote.

Varyk ,

that must be difficult

TheGrandNagus ,

It’s not really true.

It stems from a couple of their chairmen being Christian and saying “I see god in nature” (something that I imagine all Christians do).

The above user then extrapolated that Taiwan is Christian (they’re actually 3.9% Christian lol), that TSMC hires people based on religion, and that the reason TSMC is struggling with their US plant is because Taiwan is too Christian in culture for a 67% Christian country, as opposed to, oh I dunno, the discrepancy in working conditions between the US and Taiwan.

432 ,

So what happens to Taiwanese manufacturing when their population collapses due to a super low birthrate. They right behind South Korea in lowest TFR.

TheGrandNagus ,

It’s happening all over the place. They’re either going to have to lean heavily into automation (where possible), and/or accept mass immigration from parts of the world that continue to have a high birth rate – although as we’re seeing in a lot of places, that can be a tough sell politically.

wizardbeard ,

accept mass immigration from parts of the world that continue to have a high birth rate

Would that not likely result in similar, but different, friction between cultural expectations about working conditions etc?

To my thinking you’d still have the problem TMSC is having right now, just more widespread as they have to adapt to whatever the culture being imported everywhere to shore up worker counts is everywhere it is happening.

b3an ,
@b3an@lemmy.world avatar

It doesn’t mean that the US factory is any less capable. What needs reworking is meeting the expectation and planning for contingencies. There should be ongoing shifts, specialized teams, rotation, mitigation, etc. I think our output is comparable but it’s done more safely and sustainable over a longer time VS grinding workers to dust and replacing them.

leisesprecher ,

It’s not about capabilities, it’s about cost.

If you can exploit your workers, pay shit wages for long hours, you’ll get a cheaper product. You can get the same output by applying higher standards, but that would mean hiring more people.

Bakkoda ,

The more time i spend in manufacturing environments ( I spend all my time there) the less i see actual product being the finished good. Business are setting themselves up for this autopilot pipe dream of “AI gonna fix everything” marketing/engineering utopia and in reality all it’s doing is dividing your operations crew and management. They are neglecting equipment, default mode of compliance is non compliance because of awful processes and quality cutbacks (staffing staffing staffing) and at the end you get a product that’s probably not gmp but who cares it’s shipping.

leisesprecher ,

That’s the nature of capitalism.

Look at healthcare, software, construction. Unless there’s a very clear incentive to produce high quality (laws or enforceable contracts) things will go lower and lower in quality.

And unfortunately, a lot of consumers don’t care all that much about quality. They want crap that looks fancy.

roguetrick ,

It’s the nature of both market economies and planned economies. Strong unions are needed in both.

Bakkoda ,

This last job (I’m a contract employee) will be my last in MFG. I was hired long term (2 years) to get a gsk/haleon site to add almost 40% more deliverables. 280 million units a year to 400 million. Reduce waste by 25%, CoA/CoE turn around down to 2 weeks from 6.

The labs, which operate almost entirely as a community (eg no real rigid structure, lots of senior empires) killed it. 7 day turn around which honestly now my mind. Packaging was a struggle once i pointed out that OEE can be improved by scheduling downtime rather than just oopsing it (strictly beancounter bullshit).

Manufacturing… Took my ideas, literally threw them in the trash in front of me and said they have experts from multiple countries, they don’t need my help. Cool, i still get paid so whatever. You wanna see the biggest dumpster fire ever… Laid off about 40% of the mfg work force, rolled out some bullshit trainings about operators and maintenance working to bring equipment “back to new” whatever the duck that means (means maintenance budget is gone) all while investing 0 dollars into repair and maintenance. Gear boxes leaking oil into overflowing catch cans for months. Vacuum traps actually pulling ingredients out of the batches, building more systems upon systems that they can’t validate. Cleans that won’t pass swabs, cleans that aren’t validated, processes that rely 100% on operators to transcribe SCADA data into an electronic batch record system.

Never seen anything like it but i know when a horse is dead and this one was dead before i got there.

leisesprecher ,

As a software engineer, this is exactly how software works.

Everything is just a huge mess bolted and duct taped together, sometimes over decades. And it’s all way too complex to understand and crap like crowdstrike happens.

You can’t rely on anything anymore and I’m pretty sure, our highly interdependent world will come very close to collapse if anything major happens. Covid was a warning shot, but nobody heard it.

NeoNachtwaechter ,

extremely rigorous working conditions, including 12-hour work days that extend into the weekends and calling employees into work in the middle of the night for emergencies. TSMC managers in Taiwan are also known to use harsh treatment and threaten workers with being fired for relatively minor failures.

Funny. The same issues that Tesla is experiencing in Germany.

Badeendje ,
@Badeendje@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah… I personally was surprised there are developed nations with a more toxic corpo culture than the US. But apparently the Asian powerhouses are all built on corporate servitude.

pastermil ,

You’d be surprised to hear about Japanese & Korean work culture.

Badeendje ,
@Badeendje@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah… korea, Japan, Taiwan, China

leisesprecher ,

For a lot of Asian countries the “asian dream” is still somewhat realistic.

Just look at China or Korea. Many of the older folks there grew up in abject poverty, but the countries managed to develop themselves through hard labor into modern, wealthy nations. The promise of “my kids will have it better” was actually true for them. And that promise still drives a lot of the work culture. In China the first cracks already appear, since for the first time in 50 years or so, the current youth has no way up anymore.

daddy32 ,

Same thing happened when Kia entered Europe. Unusually low pay combined with mandatory morning employee marching and exercising in the factory, combined with threats of physical punishment for “under performing” workers.

NeoNachtwaechter ,

threats of physical punishment

This can bring people to jail in Germany.

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