Historic Milestone


History

First Sumiden Circuits, Inc. (FSCI) is a joint venture among Sumitomo Electric Industries, Inc. (SEI, with 51%), First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPHC, with 40%), and Sumitomo Corporation (SC, with 9%). Incorporated in March 1996, FSCI was registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) as a pioneer economic zone enterprise in April 1996. Located at the Light Indus¬try and Science Park (LISP) in Cabuyao, Laguna. Operation started in September 1996.

This joint venture to manufacture FPCs in the Philippines is a manifestation of the confidence of the Japanese business community, particularly the Sumitomo Group, through SEI and SC, in the ability of the Filipino to manufacture world class and globally competitive products. The FSCI plant is the first and only integrated manufacturing plant outside Japan with capability for both upper (front end) process and lower (back end) process. FSCI’s purpose is to become a global center of competence for FPC manufacturing. The Lopez Group (FPHC), on the other hand, injected its culture of manufacturing and business excellence into the company.

When the joint venture had already fully blossomed and each group had attained the original objectives of the partnership, SEI, FPHC and SC mutually decided to terminate the joint venture. Effective December 16, 2011 the joint venture was dissolved and effective January 13, 2012, FSCI became 100% owned by SEI.

Products and Processes

FSCI manufactures flexible printed circuits (FPCs) which are small, lightweight wiring components with electronic circuits printed on a flexible film. In every electronic item that we use every day (e.g. cellphone, pc, videocam, digicam, printer, i-pod) FPC is one of the tiny components that make it work. In addition and in order to meet customer needs for parts mounting, FSCI has established flip-chip and surface mounting on FPC. Consistent with its PEZA registration, FSCI sells 100% of its FPCs to the export market. These are either shipped via air to its overseas customers, or by truck to its local customers as constructive exports. FSCI uses freight forwarders to handle its export shipments, but delivers directly to its local customers.

The company started with the backend part or Lower Process of FPC manufacturing in September 1996 and then added the frontend part or Upper Process which includes the circuit-making processes in June 1997. As a full-process plant manufacturing FPCs, FSCI's major technologies and equipment are in its mask pattern design, roll-to-roll exposure, developing, etching, hot press lamination, plating and non-contact electrical check, and component-attach assembly processes.

In April 2005, FSCI added FlipChip and Surface Mount on FPC assembly capability to go up in the supply chain of electronics manufacturing. During all of this growth, FSCI has also developed its own design and limited jig-making capabilities.

FSCI's manufacturing plant has a total floor area of 11,466 square meters. Its facilities are fully air-conditioned with cleanrooms, regulated power, compressed dry air, de-ionized water, cooling water, fume scrubbers, and a waste water treatment plant.

Chronological Order:
1996 First Sumiden Circuits, Inc. (FSCI), a P225 million joint venture of Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd, Sumitomo Corporation and the Lopez Group’s First Philippine Holdings, broke grounds as the pioneer manufacturer of flexible printed circuits. Determined to capture the growing market of flexible printed circuits in the Philippines, FSCI, even at its inception stage, was armed with its mission to capture the flexible printed circuits market by providing the highest quality, lowest cost and fastest delivery time in order to increase value for our stakeholders.
FSCI started its lower process operation in August 1996.
The first customer audit was conducted in August by Fujitsu Philippines. The qualification lot was shipped to Fujitsu on the same month. On September 19, 1996, FSCI loaded its maiden shipment to Fujitsu Philippines.
1997 July 31, 1997, FSCI successfully inaugurated its FPC manufacturing plant with then President Fidel V. Ramos as the guest of honor. It was also in this year that the preparation for ISO 9002 certification was undertaken.
1998 1998 witnessed the turnover of leadership to a new President. Mr. Hajime Shiraishi, FSCI’s president from April 1996 to April 1998, endorsed the leadership to Mr. Teruyasu Iwakura.
The year witnessed the first full year of operations for both Lower Process and Upper Process.
The ISO 9002 certification was achieved in March. The ISO 9002 accreditation further stamped FSCI’s adherence to its quality policies and recognized FSCI as practicing the same level of quality with its peers from all parts of the world. FSCI was also the first among the many subsidiaries of First Philippine Holdings to hold the distinction.
1999 The ISO 14001 certification was achieved in November 1999. ISO 14001 is the highest international standard for Environmental Management and Safety. FSCI was the first among the Lopez Group of Companies to have been awarded this accreditation.
2000 Mr. Akira Nishimura replaced Mr. Iwakura to be FSCI’s 3rd President in January. Mr. Nishimura continued to adopt the policy of expanding the company’s share in the market and reducing cost through improved productivity and quality. His leadership focused on improving horizontal and vertical communications and encouraging everyone to be accountable for one’s decisions and actions.
2001 Year 2001 began with another turnover of leadership. After 1 year and three months in FSCI, Mr. Nishimura turned over the responsibilities to Mr. Danilo Lachica.
Despite dramatic reduction in sales caused by customers' inventory correction, global economic recession and the 9/11 incident, FSCI remained profitable in the competitive market for FPCs through aggressive cost reduction measures while improving product quality and delivery.
2002 FSCI continues to strive for excellence as targets for better performance were set with the introduction of the SAYES Program. This program was implemented to increase Savings, boost Attendance, improve Yield and Efficiency, and Speed up response times in solving customer issues.
Strategic plans were developed to increase sales, enhance technology & process capabilities, improve operations efficiency and strengthen financial results.
2003 FSCI implemented the Balanced Scorecard as a leadership platform.
The Six Sigma Core Team received 2003 Lopez Achievement Award for Operations Management.
Finalist in Gawad Kapatid-Kapatiran sa Industriya Award of the Employer’s Confederation of the Phils (ECOP) for best practices in industrial peace, productivity and quality.
Integrated Management System certified in 2003.
2004 Aligned BSC with Performance Management System.
FSCI received 2004 Philippine Quality Award for Proficiency in Quality Management (Level II).
Installed Employee Consultative Council, conducted first company-wide election of employee representatives.
2005 Received Award of Excellence from Safety Organization of the Philippines, Inc. (SOPI) for 7 Million Safe Manhours.
QIT received Silver Award in the Quality Circle Practitioners’ Association’s (QCPA) 25th Annual Quality Circles Regional Convention.
Six Sigma Team received Best Paper Award in SEIPI-ASEMEP’s 15th Annual Technical Symposium.
2006 FSCI received 2006 Philippine Quality Award for Mastery in Quality Management (Level III).
Six Sigma Team received 2nd place in the Six Sigma Excellence Awards in the 7th Six Sigma Summit in London.
2007 Received Honorary Mention in the 2007 Asian Six Sigma Summit Six Sigma Excellence Awards.
2008 Received the Oscar M. Lopez Award for Performance Excellence or Oscar Award during the Lopez Group’s Business Excellence Awards Ceremony on July 25, 2008.
Quality Improvement Team (QIT) won Silver Award in the Productivity Improvement Circles National Convention.
QIT won Gold Award in the 28th Quality Circles Practitioners Association Regional Convention.
Received Safety Milestone (SMILE) Award from DOLE-BWC for achieving 17,781,644 safe manhrs without Lost Time Accident from January 06, 2006 to June 01, 2008.
Awarded as Institutional Winner on the 6th Gawad Kaligtasan at Kalusugan for exemplary Occupational Safety and Health contribution.
Received Award of Excellence from Safety Organization of the Philippines for achieving 19,058,512 safe manhrs without Lost Time Accident from January 2008 to August 2008.
2009 FSCI was recognized for attaining 22.22 M safety manhrs without Lost Time Accident from January 06, 2006 to August 30, 2009 during the Lopez Group’s Business Excellence Award.
Received Award of Excellence from Safety Organization of the Philippines for achieving 20,966,008 safe manhrs without Lost Time Accident from January 2006 to June 2009.
Received Safety Milestone (SMILE) Award from DOLE-BWC for achieving 23,079,000 safe manhrs without Lost Time Accident from January 06, 2006 to September 2009.
FSCI’s Wrinkle Shrinker Quality Improvement Team (QIT) won the Excellence Award during the 2009 Sumitomo Group’s Quality Circle Competition in the Electronics Business Unit.
2010 Shared Balanced Scorecard Best Practices in Semiconductor Electronics of the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI) Convention in June.
Finalist in Lopez Achievement Award for the following entries: FSCI: Resilient in the Midst of Global Crisis (Business Mgt Category), FSCI Marked Four Year without Disabling Incident (Corporate Image Building), waiting for final judgment in August.
2011 FSCI became fully owned by Sumitomo Electric Industries.
2012 Double sided FPC began to operate.
FSCI QIT joined the QCPA 2012 Regional Convention. The Reducer's Team of CL Reg Process received Gold award and the first ever People's Choice Award. Also, the Parts Saver's Team form Parts Process bagged the Gold Award.
FSCI QIT also joined the 8th AQ&PC Benchmarking Convention. The PPH Brisker team was given an EXCELLENCE Award and Vox Populi Award.
2013 QIT Flexure Team, PPH Brisker and Auto-bots Team, joined the 23rd Quality Circles Regional Convention and won the GOLD Award under TEAM CATEGORY and Production Category and Kaizen Category respectively
2014 ISO/TS 16949 certification was achieved in April 2015 with the SGS Philippines as the certifying body.It defines the quality management system requirements for the design and development, production and, when relevant, installation and service of automotive-related products.
2015 FSCI started to work on the new product at the new plant 3.
FSCI QIT received Gold Award on the Productivity Improvement Circles National Convention for the Production and Team Category and best in Oral Defense Award for Production Category. In addition, they received Gold Award for the Productivity Jingle Original Category.