What amazing is it went from that in the 1960s to fully shot by machine in the 1980s.
Pick 'n place board stuffers.
I think the semiconductor industry has been one of the most highly managed industries in the world. It was a fun ride for me. I still feel incredibly lucky to have found and held onto a front row seat (with white knuckles). In my 25 years in the industry I saw 31 layoffs at our facility but I was never laid off.
The only large place I worked, everyone was laid off.
I saw whole departments disappear, never the whole site. I was on pins and needles many, many times. Lots of great, talented people in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was involved in fab process transfers and product requalification in the early 1990s, I visited fabs that were on their last breath as we sucked their processes into our facility. Lots of unhappy faces at those soon-to-be-mothballed fabs.
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