On 27th April 2015 (Monday), a group of 38 curious and enthusiastic students of various engineering courses was sent for an industrial visit to SanDisk Storage Malaysia in Batu Kawan, Penang on a quest to gain more knowledge.

SanDisk, a leading flash memory storage manufacturer headquartered in Milpitas, California, is listed on NASDAQ, and is also a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company. Last year, SanDisk Corp put up the RM1.2bil manufacturing plant in Penang, where it started its production early this year, making it the first SanDisk Storage Sdn Bhd manufacturing plant in Malaysia.

The industrial visit, guided by Mr Esmond Yeoh, SanDisk HR representative, brings the participants to the manufacturing plant where it produces flash memory-based chip package called System-in-a-Package (SiP), which is particularly valuable in mobile phones where there is limited space due to their small size. The visit started with a briefing on the company’s background and the safety procedure during the visit to the plant. Electrostatic Sensitive Device (ESD) garments and shoes, or anti-static clothing are provided to the visitors before entering the manufacturing plant to prevent damage to the electronic components. The manufacturing plant expose students to the manufacturing procedure and machinery involved in the dust-free environment. The tour ended with a meal time at 5pm.

The outcome of the industrial visit is an invaluable experience and knowledge that makes the students think there is more to it than a tiny MicroSD card sitting in their mobile phone.

The tour was organized by Tengku Muhammad Faris b. Tengku Afzan (Aero 2nd Year) and his team as part of the student-initiated industry activity. He is also the author of this article.