Interface device maker Symbios Logic Inc has taken the decision to shut one of its fabrication plants because it is apparently no longer cost effective. The board of directors at the Fort Collins, Colorado storage management and peripheral connection company approved the proposal put forward by the company’s management to close the company’s six-inch silicon wafer operation, but has said its facility in Colorado Springs will continue with its eight-inch fabrication. The Colorado Springs plant was completed in the first quarter of January 1996, and Lea Schwartz, the company’s business communications manager said that the amount of products left in the six-inch plant, can continue to be produced at the new plant. Schwartz believes the closure of similar fabrication plants will be a continuing trend and reckons there are currently some 14 facilities up for sale around the US. Schwartz commented: We had had the site up for sale for some time and we have had no takers. It’s not viable to keep to open because we don’t have the products. By 1998 it will no longer be cost effective. Symbois Logic says it is closing the plant as newer process technologies are demanded by customers across the world, and it believes the six-inch wafers are outdated. The changes will be implemented by the end of the year, but the company has assured staff that its current probe, test, and packaging operations at the plant will not be affected, nor will operations that deal with tools, libraries and product design. The company employs 2,300 people and has said that around 240 employees will be affected by the plant’s closure, but has said it hopes to find jobs within the company for around 100 of these people. Gene Patterson, the company’s president and chief operating officer said: This has been a very difficult decision to make as it will impact departments supporting manufacturing.
