A Study of the Response Strategies to Industry 4.0 at Small and medium sized Enterprise in Taiwan-A Case Study of “Hand Tool Manufacturers Based” Corporation

• Main Authors: LIN, CHIA-TSER, 林佳澤
• Other Authors: LEE, KUEN-CHING
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/qx8q42

碩士 === 世新大學 === 資訊管理學研究所(含碩專班) === 106 === Technology is evolving every day and consumer awareness keeps rising. In order to satisfy consumer needs, manufacturers started to produce lots of diverse customized products in small amounts and this has become the greatest difficulty for the manufacturing industry. In 2013, production models were changed in Germany in order to satisfy the consumer behavior described above; that is why Industry 4.0 was proposed and countries around the world started proposing corresponding practices. Most of the manufacturers in Taiwan are small/medium businesses, among which the hand tool industry is the most representative. Most of the hand tool companies are labor-intensive industries and have lower entry thresholds; Industry 4.0 will definitely have the most impact on them. So how should these manufacturers respond? This research used documents to analyze the current promotions of Industry 4.0 around the world, collected Industry 4.0 related secondary data and interviews with experts in Taiwan to understand the current operating status and future outlooks, and then used the spirit of Industry 4.0 promotion to provide suggestions to SMBs in Taiwan that want to push Industry 4.0: 1. Organization leaders: The higher the level of participation by high-level managers, the better the promotion results. 2. Promotion program: Due to the wide range covered by Industry 4.0, SMBs cannot implement it all at once. Businesses should check their strategic maps and review their needs instead of blindly pursuing integration, as doing so will ignore the benefits of investments; they should have continued progressive improvements. 3. Outsourcing issue: Everybody must work together to find out the cause of loss and solve the problems together in order to help the reorganization of the overall supply system. 4. Staff: Internal communications must first be performed to strengthen staff cohesion, improve the quality of staff and also nurture ICT talents. 5. Product innovation: Increase the added-value of products and enter other hand tool markets. 6. Industry alliance: Industry alliance can be used to manage brands together and expand to other regions. Hopefully, these could be used as a reference to promote Industry 4.0 in the future.