Industrial automation industry had a prosperous year in 2010; while every manufacturer had substantial growth in performance, it is even more obvious for that manufacturer in emerging markets. As a leading brand in industrial automation industry, the performance of Delta Industrial Automation Business Unit (IABU) was remarkably outstanding with an amazing growth of over 80% and every product lines had contributed to this growth. This growth was accumulated from the unaffected performance in the financial crisis 2009. While most of the manufactures suffered from the financial crisis and strive to recover their current performance back to the prosperous in 2008, IABU grow continuously and had grown way beyond the expectation. General manager of Delta IABU, Simon Chang, is quite satisfy with the outstanding performance in 2010 and will carry this prosperity to 2011.
"We will continue to strive for the goal of 30% annual growth", said Mr. Chang. The goal for 2011 is clearly set.
Accelerate Expansion in Scale
In year 2011, IABU will emphasize on improving the cost effectiveness, product quality and marketing skill to accelerate the scale expansion. Mr. Chang stated the importance of reinforcing the marketing capability of every marketing team in each sales region. He said, “We will continue to expand our marketing organization to all over the world and strengthen their marketing capability. For the Latin America, we have established a new branch in Mexico with a sales team and planned to strengthen the Brazil sales team capability (established in last year) for entering the local market. For the Southeast Asia, Singapore branch will employ more full-time sales staff in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia sales region and become the command center for Southeast Asia market. Furthermore, the layout of the Middle East and Russia will begin this year.”
Continue to Expand the Width and Depth of Product Lines To expand the width of product lines, IABU will develop two new product lines GMC for CNC controller and DMV for digital vision adding to the existing five product lines To expand the depth of product lines, we aim to extend existing product features by optimizing system function, enlarge power range and establish a industry department to keep abreast of industrial information, enter the industry section and provide a more valuable system solution to our customers. Mr. Chang said ”We will combine the SC (solution center) and SI (System integration) departments with the purpose of integrate existing products into a set of system solution for the benefit of our customers.
Reinforce Operation Capability and Implement TBM In addition to integrating the existing products, IABU will continue on implementing Strategic Marketing Initiative (SMI) project in every product lines, which new products will be developed strategically. We must first explore and understand the market needs then design the product according to such needs. Other than that, IABU will carry on the TBM (Total Brand Management) project and continue constructing and delivering the brand image and value to the markets and our customers. Mr. Chang is firm to the positive correlation between IABU marketing capability and the great performance in 2010, he said “Many of the IABU staffs and our channel partners have begin to recognize Delta as a brand, which is a good sign to IABU brand development.”
Construct CPFR System to Capture Customer Demands and Improves Supply Chain Management
Mr. Chang believe IABU is ready to execute the next CPRF stage, ”after two years of the hard work, we are finally able to implement CPRF system (Delta Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, Replenishment Platform) into our global branches and distributors. This system will help us to precisely master the market trend, develop the production schedule according to the predicted customer demand and develop a real-time supply system. Our CRM system (Customer Relationship management) will help us to stay close to customer demands and collect customer information. With CPRF and CRM system, IABU can adjust from a passive production method (Built-to-Order) to an active production method (Build-to-Plan), which is to manufacture according to the future demand prediction and strategically distribute the stocks to each regional HUBs and deliver the products to the customers from the HUB as the order is received. It shortens the customer's waiting period while decrease the stock burden on distributors.” said Mr. Chang. Therefore, supply chain management is another factor to IABU in 2011. Mr. Chang again pointed out, “The products shipping in 2010 has expose the flaw of IABU supply chain system. We will therefore begin strategic procurement in 2011 and view main suppliers as strategic partners. Through close cooperation, it guarantee the information accuracy and couple with the change in scale we need new suppliers.” On the logistics side, Mr. Chang managed to establish a uniform coordination and management mechanism, and have a professional staff responsible for components and finished product coordination to facilitate logistics efficiency.
Accelerate Organization Development and Enhance Employee Capability
Besides constructing the external mechanisms, Mr. Chang also wants to develop a flexible organization, he said “As the product lines and category increases, operation platform (including, components, manufacturing, procurement, quality control) and marketing platform are not only the aids to consolidate ourselves and expanding market share, but also facilitate new product development and are the foundation to enter industry sector”. In addition to a well constructed platform, personnel training are extremely important. IABU is expecting to encounter a rapid growth in the next 5 years, thus Mr. Chang is planning to enhance the management team's capability. He said, ” starting this year, IABU will design a series of training program for our management team to improves the management capabilities”.
For now, IABU business operation is dominated by product; however, in the future, Mr. Chang has construct industry sector to interact and cooperate with the product lines sector. He sees the trend of the future, "IABU has reached a certain degree of width in product line, derive from a two dimensional structure to a three dimensional structure is just a matter of time. As the organization grows in complexity, how to communicate and share internal information became a critical issue. Therefore, I'm hoping to construct a platform for information collecting and communication. Every department in IABU are embedded and indispensable, so trust and knowledge sharing are very important. 」
At the end of the interview, Mr. Chang encouraged all IABU members “If we execute our projects and plans on the right track and maintain the growth rate, we have the potential to attain the next milestone earlier than the schedule. It was a fatigue year for everyone especially for those in the manufacturing sector, nonstop production to catch up with the schedule. The recession and glorious in the recent two years have enabled us to examine ourselves and there are still a lot of improvements. But if we can grow in the difficult time and interact to the changes, I will surely be better than expected”.
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Delta Electronics
Delta Electronics' Industrial Automation products
General Manager of Delta's IABU: Simon Chang