Renesas moves on from reform
1 min read
Renesas has spent the last few years reinventing itself – increasing its manufacturing efficiency and streamlining its business in order to concentrate on certain core sectors. Most notable of these efforts was the announcement this summer that it was to close its mobile comms business, RMC, by the end of the year. That deal saw Renesas' 4G wireless modem business sold to Broadcom in a deal valued at $164million.
Renesas Electronics was created in 2010 by merging the previous version of the company – Renesas Technology – with NEC Electronics.
Essentially, the move replicated sales, manufacturing and design operations, as well as product portfolios. Rationalisation was always going to be the major challenge and there has been a stream of announcements regarding divestments and job losses since day one. Head count has now dropped from around 48,000 to fewer than 33,000.
Since 2010, the company has reduced the number of fabs it operates from 30 to 16, with another handful likely to be shuttered before the rationalisation is complete.
The company is now building up its reliance on outsourcing partners, principally with TSMC. Renesas said in August 2013 that production will be maintained at its Naka, Kawashiri and Saijo fabs, but would either be scaled back or closed at other facilities.
Incoming ceo of European Operations, Gerd Look, who takes the helm at the start of October 2013, pointed out that the focus on three main sectors – automotive, industrial and networking – meant that the product portfolio which had previously been too large and diverse, had now been reduced to manageable levels. "As far as the product portfolio is concerned, we are now clean – we are done," he added. "On top of this, we want to run the factories at full speed, rather than at 40% as they were before."
