We would like to use the start of the New Year to shortly reflect on the changes in the semiconductor industry and the future ahead. Thus, we have decided to do a Q&A with our CEO, Dieter Rathei.
Briefly reflecting on the past year, how was 2020 for DR YIELD?
2020 was a transformative year. We had to adopt to a new way of working, a new way of engaging with our customers and a new way of reaching out to evolving markets.
Aside from the personal inconvenience of being confined mostly to home office work, the year was astonishingly successful for our company. After a brief shock at the beginning of the pandemic in March – when several expected orders were postponed due to the uncertainty, we expanded our business with several new customers in the US, Europe and Asia in the following months.
What are the most important changes that happened in the industry?
The semiconductor industry as a whole made it quite comfortably through the crisis. Chip makers with significant exposure to the automotive market felt some pressure, but this was more than offset by gains in the accelerating 5G and office equipment market. The need for better connections and devices in the home offices has contributed to growth here. And we see this trend reflected by the orders from our customers.
In the market for yield software solutions, we saw some high-profile takeovers: After two of our competitors were absorbed by larger organizations, I believe we are now the biggest company that focuses exclusively on yield software.
What actions did DR YIELD take to respond to the crisis?
We found out early that working remotely from home offices is completely doable for us, although not even half as much fun as working together in our downtown office building.
And being unable to travel meant we had to learn to rely solely on web meetings for customer support, too. And all the installations we have done since March were rolled-out entirely remotely, too.
The same applied to our sales and marketing activities, which went completely online, including the introduction of our new YieldWatchDogXI platform at the virtual SEMICON West show.
What’s the outlook for 2021?
I’m operating under the assumption that we’ll see a successful containment of the pandemic in the first half of the year. That doesn’t mean that the post-Covid-19 world will be the same as we knew it before. Some things will stay, like some people preferring to work from home, or more meetings being held online. But frankly, I miss the personal contact with our customers and business partners and I will try to arrange in-person meetings as early as possible.
And in terms of our product development in 2021, we are planning exciting new features, which we will announce soon.
About DR YIELD software & solutions GmbH
DR YIELD provides the leading-edge advanced analytics software YieldWatchDog for analysis and control of semiconductor manufacturing and test data. This enables semiconductor manufacturers as well as Fabless companies to improve important manufacturing dimensions such as equipment availability, throughput, operating costs and yield. Once installed YieldWatchDog allows you to get actionable insights into your data. For detailed information click here
