I’ve heard factories are being asked to cut >$50M yearly while still ramping, that’s an extreme target. In the semiconductor space, savings of that magnitude usually come from headcount reductions, vendor contract restructuring, consolidation of manufacturing operations, etc.
Trying to hit that scale of savings during a ramp is especially problematic because ramping fabs need additional headcount, training, materials, and spare parts. That makes it contradictory: the fabs are being asked to grow output and shrink cost simultaneously.
Mohammad Yunus’s reputation (reducing headcount in Assembly/Test in Asia) suggests a playbook of workforce reduction as the primary lever. Bringing that mindset to U.S. fabs is dangerous and reckless from a senior leader driving knowledge drain. I’m surprised employees are not organizing to join Unions.
TI may have set itself up by over-promising Wall Street and under-investing in scalable cost infrastructure. The resulting “savings at any cost” mentality risks not only operations, but also employee trust and legal exposure.