Success Story

SHIN ETSU HANDOTAI EUROPE Ltd

Shin-Etsu Handotai (SEH) Europe is principally involved in the production and sale of semiconductor silicon, in the form of polished silicon wafers. The company has an international reputation for quality, and supplies such well known names as NEC and Motorola.

SEH's operation in Scotland's 'Silicon Glen' is located at Eliburn in Livingston. This state-of-the-art facility has used bar code scanning technology throughout the production process since 1993.

SEH had been using Welch Allyn 5500 laser scanners since 1994 to track cassettes - which contain 25 silicon wafers - before they decided to upgrade to the new Welch Allyn Cordless units.

Principal Engineer Alan Page comments: "After we doubled the size of our factory in 1997/98, we found that our engineers needed to be able to move around more freely. Initially, we tried using longer cable lengths - but this proved to be rather awkward. We were very pleased to discover that Welch Allyn had just launched the Cordless scanner.

"In addition, we discovered that there were very few cordless scanners available with reasonable specifications. For example - the ability to download captured information in real time to a host computer."

SEH has made use of the 'hidden prefix code' facility within the Welch Allyn Cordless scanners. This gives the user the ability to enter prefix codes that can give additional information concerning batches, etc. In SEH's case, this facility has made it much easier to control their manufacturing processes - which must be strictly adhered to.

Alan Page continues: "The operators like the Cordless scanners a great deal. They have certainly proved to be simple to operate. Having no cables makes life considerably easier, simply because the operators don't get tangled up with each other!

"In a very delicate manufacturing process such as ours, it is very important to minimize movement. The Welch Allyn Cordless scanners can be easily placed in virtually any position. Because there is less movement involved, this means that even fewer problems occur with the silicon wafers, which is a great benefit to us".

Additional benefits of the Cordless system include the fact that up to nine scanners can be used simultaneously with one base station. This gives the system considerable flexibility and cost advantages. The units are lightweight and comfortable to use. In addition, they are extremely rugged, have the best 'drop tests' in the industry and come with a three year warranty.

The batteries are 'hot swappable', so when the scanner battery level is low, it can be removed and replaced quickly with a charged battery. The Cordless system easily connects and interfaces to all major PCs and terminals. Up to nine application work groups can be supported and the system comes with an easy-to-use programming utility.

SEH Europe is currently undergoing a $230m investment program. Alan Page concludes: "We have been so pleased with the Welch Allyn Cordless scanners that we will be investing in more units in a few months' time."

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