In July 1996, I joined Lucent Technologies as a consultant from Devon Consulting. My assignment was in the MicroElectronics division of the company. It turned out to be a very interesting experience.

Lucent Technologies was a new company created from the trivestiture of AT&T. Lucent had its first day as an independent company on October 1, 1996. The company was going through many changes - especially the Information Technology and Computer Operations areas. Eventually, all the turmoil took a new direction with Lucent and IBM signing the largest outsourcing deal in history.

I started consulting at Lucent in the MicroElectronics division. At the time, the ME division was the fastest growing segment of the corporation. My first assignment was to work on a new project. The project was entitled MAS which is an acronym for Manufacturing Server.
The location in which I worked was in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It has the honor of being the first place to actually produce the transistor. Allentown Works as it's called was sort of a regional headquarters for the manufacturing branch of ME. Many executives were based at the location. Other groups such as worldwide sales and finance for ME were based in Allentown.

Lucent Technologies seems to be doing very well. Because of my own beliefs on American Manufacturing, I find hard to believe in the future with Lucent as a manufacturer. I will not say any more given that this document is the public domain.