GEORGE TOWN, Sept 26 — One of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, GlobalFoundries, opened the first of its kind RM4.7 million (US$1 million) factory control tower (FCT) in Penang today.

GlobalFoundries chief manufacturing officer Ang Kay Chai said it will be a global hub that will remotely run the firm's manufacturing sites in Singapore, the United States and Europe.

"We want to use global resources here and in Bangalore to do [remotely-run factory operations] and support our factories all over the world 24/7,” he said in a press conference after the official opening of the hub in Bayan Baru here.

The opening of the hub today will also see up to RM32.8 million (US$7 million) of investments for training of the engineers and technicians in the facility for the next three years, he added.

Currently, the hub has about 300 engineers and technicians but if the hub proves a success, Ang said the facility will hire an additional 500 to 600 engineers and technicians.

"We are taking up one floor now for the hub but if this proves a successful model, we aim to expand up to six floors,” he said.

Ang said the company discovered this way of operating the factories virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic and now, it is the pioneer in setting up remote hubs.

He said the firm chose Penang to set up the FCT due to the availability of talents with semiconductor background here.

The FCT in Penang will use Industry 4.0 solutions and it will also enable the team here to monitor key production processes, performance metrics and tool uptime across all GlobalFoundries’ global manufacturing sites, it said.

Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, in his opening speech, said GlobalFoundries will train the employees in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to further automate processes in semiconductor manufacturing.

"We look forward to that knowledge-sharing and skillset transfer for the 300 engineers and technicians here,” he said.

Chow said the semiconductor industry is poised to grow to a US$1 trillion industry by 2030.

GlobalFoundries has 15 locations globally with manufacturing fabrication plants in the United States, Germany and Singapore.

It has about 13,000 employees worldwide and serves more than 250 customers worldwide.