Dow Electronic Materials Taiwan Site Honored with Manufacturing Leadership Award from Frost & Sullivan

Hsinchu, Taiwan - June 10, 2015

Dow Electronic Materials, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW), today announced that its Dow Taiwan Hsinchu site received one of four Dow Manufacturing Leadership Awards from Frost & Sullivan’s Manufacturing Leadership Council in an award ceremony in Carlsbad, CA, USA, on June 4, 2015, where Dow was also honored with Manufacturer of the Year Award. Dow’s Hsinchu site was recognized in the Operational Excellence Leadership category for setting and implementing Six Sigma and Lean strategy to realize continuous improvement towards customer service, operational excellence, and employee development, which contributes to advances for Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) technology in the semiconductor industry.

To address existing and emerging requirements of the fast-evolving semiconductor industry, Dow Electronic Materials is continuously innovating its CMP portfolio to deliver the highest performance levels for the broadest range of CMP applications at or below the 28 nm technology node. Today, Dow’s Hsinchu site manufactures and supplies polishing pads to a global customer bases, including its newest IKONIC™ Polishing Pad platform.

Since the inception of Dow’s Hsinchu site in 2007, the business has been focused on delivering on its roadmap to continuous improvement. Today, more than 90% of the site’s manufacturing engineers have received Black Belt or Green Belt Six Sigma certificates, and more than 70% of manufacturing technicians certified Green Belt or Yellow Belt. There are also site-wide technical seminars twice a year, which include projects in production, safety, quality, and waste treatment, among others.

“The award was possible because of Dow employees’ commitment - those who were involved in implementing our Six Sigma and Lean strategy and those who work hard every day to deliver product in spec and on time to customers,” said Cliff Chen, Dow’s Hsinchu Site Leader, “What we ended up with was better operational excellence and the ability to fully engage customers in the same technical language, which better supported our customers as they grow, and improved our employees’ technical skills in the process.”

Mario Stanghellini, Vice President, Dow Electronic Materials CMP Business, said, “We recognize that our customers demand excellence and this award is one more proof point that Dow has the depth and breadth of expertise and technology to support our customers’ success in the marketplace.”

Now in its eleventh year, the Frost & Sullivan Manufacturing Leadership (ML) Awards honor companies and individuals that are shaping the future of global manufacturing. Nominations are entered into 11 categories, evaluated and scored by a panel of expert judges. Ten of the ML Awards categories are for outstanding projects by a manufacturing company. One category recognizes the achievements of individual manufacturing leaders.

About Dow Electronic Materials 

Dow Electronic Materials, a global supplier of materials and technologies to the electronics industry, brings innovative leadership to the semiconductor, interconnect, finishing, photovoltaic, display, LED and optics markets. From advanced technology centers worldwide, teams of talented Dow research scientists and application experts work closely with customers, providing solutions, products and technical service necessary for next-generation electronics. These partnerships energize Dow's power to invent. Its key end-use applications include a broad range of consumer electronics from personal computers, to television monitors, smart phones and tablets and other mobile devices as well as electronic devices and systems used in a variety of industries. More information about Dow Electronic Materials can be found at http://www.dowelectronicmaterials.com. 

About Dow 

Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company is driving innovations that extract value from the intersection of chemical, physical and biological sciences to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, clean energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's integrated, market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 180 countries and in high-growth sectors such as packaging, electronics, water, coatings and agriculture. In 2014, Dow had annual sales of more than $58 billion and employed approximately 53,000 people worldwide. The Company's more than 6,000 product families are manufactured at 201 sites in 35 countries across the globe. References to "Dow" or the "Company" mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com.

For Editorial Information:

Elysia Hsieh
Dow Electronic Materials
+886-37-539158
[email protected]