According to the Nikkei Asian Review, Japanese components makers are considering bring the manufacturing process back home as factory automation due to the COVID19 pandemic most factories shutdowns and force the enterprise to rethink the supply chain. 

Chipmaker Rohm has developed a production line that automates the labor-intensive back-end of semiconductor fabrication. The company will try out the line at a Fukuoka Prefecture factory starting this summer, with mass production plans at the end of 2021. 

“With fully or partially automated lines, operations can be profitable in Japan,” President Isao Matsumoto told Nikkei, unveiling plans to move part of the back end of production to domestic shores from places such as China and Southeast Asia later next year.

Many parts makers already have the front end of production in Japan after automation. But the back end tends to be labor-intensive and is often performed in countries with lower wages. Rohm also shuts down its factories in the Philippines and Malaysia under lockdown and aims to reduce fixed costs for overseas production. 

Source: 海外工程を国内回帰へ、ロームやJDI