During the past few years, the use of minienvironment technologyhas rapidly emerged as an important strategy for containing cost andreducing particle contamination in semiconductor integrated circuitfabrication. However, implementation of minienvironment technology isnot uniform throughout the semiconductor industry and, in particular,several well-recognized leading firms have been slow to adopt thetechnology. This paper discusses the experiences of several lead usersof minienvironment technology based on data collected from interviewsand an industry-wide survey. Generally speaking, lead users have foundthe technology to be quite beneficial on a number of importantdimensions, including cost and contamination control. The experiencesand perceptions of lead users provide a contrast to firms that havestudied the technology closely, but do not have much actual experienceusing minienvironments. Lead users report significant cost savings andsub-Class 1 at the wafer surface, while non-users usually perceive farless benefit, particularly in terms of cost. One indication of theeffectiveness of the technology is that many lead users continue toexpand their investments in minienvironments. The author argues that,compared to industry leaders, lead users of minienvironments may providegreater insight into the usefulness of the technology because thesefirms are further along the learning curve
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