Semitool Celebrates ISO Certification

KALISPELL Dec. 31, 2004 Semitool received its ISO 9001:2000 Certification, recommended by the American International Registrar Corp. after an intensive eight-day audit of its quality systems found only four minor non-conformances. Montana Manufacturing Extension Center assisted the company with implementation over a two-year period with extensive training, pre-assessment, simulated audits, and helping interpret the standards to the specific Semitool operation.

"We worked very hard to build documentation that was specific and meaningful to the company and its continuous improvement efforts," said Todd Daniels, lead MMEC engineer for the project.

"Todd and Kreg [Worrest] have been awesome," Semitool Operations Manager Jim Wright said. "This has truly been ownership of the project on Todd's part from the beginning. He paid really close attention to every detail. He knows the culture and executive mentality, which means he knew what buttons to push to get people on board for ISO. The ISO project has directed us in how to do improvements that will be important to bottom line profitability. The people are excited about confirmation on what they are doing. They have a lot of pride in this company."

Technology and Equipment Manufacturer

Semitool is a worldwide leader in the design, development, manufacture, and support of high performance, single-wafer and batch wet chemical processing systems used in the manufacturing of semiconductors – electronic chips like those that have given us the cell phone, the iPod, even the monitoring of your car engine. Semitool systems are used for electroplating copper, gold, solder and other metals; surface preparation systems for cleaning, stripping and etching silicon wafers that chips are made from; and wafer transport container cleaning systems. They are complex and custom-built, requiring time for planning, R&D, production, and test. The cycle from sale to delivery can take a number of weeks, and the units cost hundreds of thousands to several million dollars.

Both a technology company and equipment manufacturer, Semitool employs about 700 people in Kalispell and Libby and has several hundred field staff involved in sales and support throughout the world.

"Our technology is doing amazing things. We understand the need to be a World Class Manufacturer to move that technology," Wright said, "because we sell our technology, in the form of a product, to wafer processing industries. With our commitment to ISO 9001:2000 certification, ongoing quality improvements will definitely improve market share and bring us business."

On Same Page

Two long-time Semitool managers who were very involved in the ISO implementation said it has helped very independent, focused groups get together, understanding each other’s needs and issues.

"Todd and Jim got us to work together cross-departmentally, which says a lot," noted Materials Manager Monte McAlmond. "Very independent people work here; we’re used to addressing challenges by going over, under, or through to get to a solution. ISO brings everything together; unifies it across departments. ISO is a means to capture change and be sure we are continuously improving. The corrective action documentation was important."

McAlmond also noted that the MMEC pre-assessment findings were valuable in getting ready for final audit. “Todd and Kreg were sounding boards; they helped us define and interpret procedures in the ISO standard to our system. We valued the expertise and experienced coaches to get us through the process.”

Kim Shiflett, Sub-assembly Production Manager, values the quality system, noting, “Especially knowing it put systems in the areas that support me. It’s a good set of checks and balances for the great things we do -- because of all that we do, we need to have checks in place.”

Semitool stock trades on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol SMTL. More information is available at the company's website, www.semitool.com.

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