IDC, also known as Industrial and Advanced Technology (I&AT), is a full-service design and construction management firm serving high-technology industries worldwide including microelectronics, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and food processing. IDC provides a full range of facility design, construction, operations, and facility maintenance services. Incorporated in 1985 as a subsidiary of CH2M HILL Companies, Ltd., IDC has a staff of more than 1,300 professionals located in fourteen offices throughout the US, as well as in Asia, Europe, and the Mideast. It specializes in advanced systems for high-technology facilities, such as systems for cleanrooms, ultrapure water and wastewater, production tools and automated material handling systems. IDC has designed more than five million feet of cleanroom space, including many of the world’s most advanced cleanroom facilities. It is also a leader in cost modeling for industrial facilities, to help clients optimize production performance and return on investment.
As an original startup company with a staff of 37, IDC has grown to become an internationally recognized leader in the design, construction, maintenance and operation of high-technology facilities. (View the I&AT Historical Timeline.)
(PPT) IDC is a true full-service firm with proven capability in all aspects of facility design, construction, operations, and facility maintenance. Its technological leadership and versatility are major factors in the reason that 80% of IDC’s work comes from repeat clients. This workload could include both large and small projects, ranging from minor maintenance efforts to major retrofits. IDC is able to consistently deliver cost-effective service on projects of any scale because of its flexibility of the project management approach and the exceptionally broad experience of its staff.
The Evolution of IDC’s Technology Leadership
IDC’s heritage as a technology innovator and proven problem-solver began in the early days of microelectronics manufacturing in the 1980s. During the approximate period of 1975-1985, high-technology facilities were designed using a traditional approach, an approach led by architects performing facility design who were supported by scientists who provided guidance for the design of the specialized systems needed to support the operation of such facilities. CH2M HILL was one such company offering this kind of scientific consultation.
As the complexity of microelectronics facilities increased, the constructors required more advanced design technology. During the mid-1980s, engineering began to take precedence over architecture as the dominant designing force for these facilities. That’s when IDC was created. IDC led a trend to fully integrate a complete range of engineering services (mechanical, electrical, civil, structural) with architectural and construction management expertise. This consolidation of facility design and construction services from a single source relieved owners of the burden of assembling and managing the many disparate components of a project team assigned to produce an extremely complex facility within the limitations of a cost-effective budget. As the microelectronics industry matured during the 1980s, IDC continued to add even more services to complement the facility design and construction process. It was during this time that IDC gained prominent recognition for its cleanroom design expertise. By the late 1980s, IDC had designed a number of cutting-edge Class 1 cleanrooms, defined as having no more than one microscopic particle per cubic foot of air.
In 1988 a consortium of leading US microelectronics manufacturers combined forces to counter the threat being mounted by Japanese competitors through a sharing of technologies and resources in the SEMATECH research facility in Austin, Texas. IDC provided design and construction management services for that landmark project, and has performed a series of additional projects for SEMATECH since then. It has continued to be a key contributor to the advanced microelectronics research being performed by SEMATECH.
In the early 1990s, as the industry packed more performance capability into microelectronics components, the tools that produced those components represented increasingly greater cost and complexity. Once again, IDC led the industry trend to put a greater focus on the integration of production tools and processes into facility design and construction strategies. IDC’s Equipment Installation Services team performed design and installation services for thousands of these tools and the equipment supporting the tools.
During this era, IDC’s Technology group pioneered new approaches to cost modeling for the design, construction and operation of high-technology facilities. IDC was a leading contributor to SEMATECH’s “Factory of the Future” project in 1993 which developed the industry’s most advanced cost modeling technology. An important IDC advantage was its ability to transition cost modeling from the realm of the theoretical to the realistic by building models using data documented from years of hands-on experience with similar operating facilities.
As the 1990s progressed and costs for facility construction and operation grew tremendously, industrial owners worldwide began seeking new ways to reduce costs and increase productivity. One approach has been global consolidation among industry leaders, which have formed joint ventures to share growing costs and technologies. IDC has responded to this trend by following key clients anywhere in the world they wished to go, and finding ways to effectively meet their needs for high-technology excellence in some of the most “low-technology” environments. IDC has built strong, long-lasting relationships with a number of major industry leaders by repeatedly proving to them that it can meet or exceed their expectations under the most demanding challenges related to cost, location, and technology.
Over the years, IDC has evolved from a company specializing in multiple components of industrial facility design into a resource that can be relied on for a range of advanced strategies to improve overall facility operations, and to find new ways to reduce operating costs, minimize risks and improve a facility owner’s overall return on investment. It energetically looks forward to its commitments to technology leadership, and adapting its services to meet changing client needs as the industry faces a new set of approaching challenges.
While it is still a young firm, IDC is a truly dynamic part of CH2M HILL and its growth and development through the brief years of its existence constitute a fascinating history by itself. While such a historical record is outside the scope of this History, perhaps it will be written and made available at another time. Until then, a few additional facts and bits of information are available to give the world a better perspective on its glowing past.
IDC Legal Entities and Subsidiaries
IDC has different legal designations and affiliate companies in some locations in which we do business. These include:
IDC;
IDC Architects;
IDC Construction;
CM Inc.;
Ishimoto America;
IDC Japan (our Japan affiliates);
IDC Asia PTE Ltd. (Singapore);
IDC Asia Sdn Bhd (Malaysia);
IDC Sarl (France);
IDC Ireland;
IDC UK (Scotland);
IDC Systems Inc.(software products and services);
Wright Williams & Kelly (WWK);
Paragon Structural Design Inc.;
Facilities West (sustaining industrial facility services);
Technology Facilities Systems (high-technology products).
Acquisition of Wright Williams & Kelly (WWK)
WWK is a 7-person IDC subsidiary based in Dublin, California that provides productivity measurement and enhancement software products and services. The company develops and markets proprietary software products and is a leading expert and worldwide consultant for operational modeling programs (cost of ownership, capacity analysis, factory level costs, work in progress, and cycle time) for the semiconductor and other capital intensive industries. WWK also provides strategic and market based consulting services to technology-driven and technology-dependent organizations. Founded in 1991, WWK was acquired by IDC in January 1995.
Acquisition of Paragon Structural Design, Inc.
Paragon,a 35-year-old structural design company of more than 35 employees was acquired by IDC in 1994. Paragon, based in Phoenix, Arizona, had an impressive project record including a number of substantial commercial and civic projects in Western U.S. urban centers. Its technical expertise and highly experienced staff offered a means of gaining much desired advanced structural design technology and support for IDC’s high-technology projects around the world.
Acquisition of Walker Engineering
In 1992, IDC acquired Walker Engineering, an Idaho Company with special expertise in the food industry. This permitted IDC to seek out larger and more complex projects in a field which was only beginning to embrace higher levels of technology in order to continue to prosper.