Moore’s law drives all hi-tech and innovations. “Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” This was published in 1949 in Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science. Computer manufacturing began in 1943. (Fig.1) This optimistic statement appeared because semiconductor transistor had already been invented and began aggressively replacing huge vacuum electronic tubes in all devices including computers. Computers became smaller because a transistor is much smaller than a vacuum tube. Nevertheless, nobody could imagine that in about 10 years, Integrated Circuit (IC) would be invented and high volume microchip manufacturing would begin its fast development….

INTRODUCTION Sustaining excellence and continuous process improvements are two imperative constituents of manufacturing that guarantee competitive and successful technology. Sustaining excellence principles widely discussed in the literature. For instance, the main 12 principles of manufacturing excellence to achieve sustaining excellence described by Larry Fast [1]. Sustaining excellence strategy creates a special culture of manufacturing providing world-class performance. Manufacturing improvements are resulted from process changes and generally contradict to the sustaining. Using TRIZ contradiction categories we could define that ideal manufacturing should be changeable and sustainable at the same time. Process changes are always intended to increase a company’s profit and…

Our lifestyles depend on the inflation rate. Inflation is an indicator that reveals the true value of our money. When the inflation rate increases, the value of our money decreases. Why? Increased inflation results in price increases. The more prices rise, the less we can buy for the same amount of money. The inflation rate is officially calculated, controlled and published. However, there is another type of inflation – when the price stays the same, but product quality decreases. This type of ‘hidden’ inflation has a negative impact as it causes us to dig into our pockets more often to…