The business strategies research of Taiwan plumbing and faucet industry

台灣外銷產業在世界上佔著舉足輕重的角色，自六零年代開始至今囊括過無數個世界第一；從早期產品，如：鞋子、雨傘、成衣、腳踏車，到近期蓬勃發展的電子產業相關零組件及成品，如：晶圓代工、顯示器、個人電腦、手提電腦等等，台灣均曾經或是現在仍為全球最大供應國。 長久以來台灣一直以代工為強項，隨著時代進步，台灣的生產成本節節高昇，再加上中國大陸的崛起，使得台灣的競爭優勢不再是勞力密集的製造業，也因此產業升級的呼聲及討論非常熱烈。代工業者要捨棄眼前的代工業務，直接進入純品牌經營的策略仍是一個相當高風險的做法。而品牌發展與代工之討論研究，宏碁率先投入自有品牌經營之後也一直持續不斷。 很多人可能沒聽過台灣的衛浴五金及水龍頭零配件代工外銷也是世界第一，歐美主要水龍頭品牌都是進口零配件至當地後再進行組裝。而衛浴五金水龍頭零件代工也和其他台灣代工產業一樣，因為競爭日趨激烈，使得產業內的業者必須積極準備因應對策，追求永續經營。 本研究以此產業外銷前五大廠商個案公司為研究對象，以策略群組區分出專注代工及深耕品牌兩大群組，比較群組之間及群組內各公司運用策略的異同;同時也針對產業大環境的變動、供應面及需求面的改變、供應鏈角色的延伸及位移等衝擊所帶來的影響，各群組個案公司所採取的策略作法，做一研究探討，進而研討出一個方向提供給產業業者制定未來經營策略的參考，以期待此產業業者之競爭優勢得以持續。Taiwan’s export industry plays a significant role in the world market. Since the 1960’s it has held the number one position in countless manufacturing sectors. From early times in industries such as shoes, umbrellas, clothing, and bicycles to the present booming modern electronic industries like Semiconductor Foundries, monitor, personal computer (PC), and laptop manufacturing etc., Taiwan is now or was once the biggest supplier in the world. Taiwan has been favored by OEM policy. But now it is losing it competition edge due to continuously increasing production costs and the rapid development of China’s manufacturing industries. It’s no longer to Taiwan’s advantage to operate labor intensive manufacturing, therefore there has been a cry for and vigorous discussion regarding a change in Taiwan’s industries’ roles. Discontinuing the current OEM activities and quickly investing in Original Brand Manufacturing (OBM) is a high risk decision. The discussion and research into the OBM and OEM lines of development was sustained after ACER became an OBM operation. Many people probably don’t realize that Taiwan is the world leader in the OEM plumbing hardware and faucet components export industry. The major leading brands of Europe and America import their components and then assemble them locally. The OEM plumbing hardware and faucet component industry faces the same problems as other OEM industries. To withstand the competition, they are compelled to develop innovative strategies for sustainable operation. This study adopts the top 5 export manufacturers of plumbing hardware and faucet components, categorizing them by OEM and OBM strategic groups, and comparing the similarities and differences between and within these two strategic groups. It also focuses directly on the overall changes in the industries environment, the influences on the role of supply chain expansions and changes, as well as changes in supply and demand in the market place; studying the adopted strategies by different players, dissecting these cases and extrapolating a method for the industries to formulate a future operation strategy and to maintain a competitive advantage