Expanding Taiwanese Industrial Robot Penetration in Europe and the US

Abstract

Most of Taiwanese robot manufacturers contract sales and after sales service to their European or American distributors, thus isolating them from the end-user market and increasing the difficulty of responding quickly and accurately to end-user requirements, and indirectly restricting opportunities to discover niche markets. Taiwan enjoys significant market share in Europe and the Americas for Cartesian Coordinate and single-axle robots, but still faces strong competition from Japanese and German products. In the low-end market, Taiwan is challenged on price by companies from mainland China. To address these issues, this research recommends robot manufacturers businesses base product development more closely on market demand and adopt a product differentiation strategy to develop products with potential for niche markets. First, businesses should survey demand in European and American end-user markets to obtain guidance for the development of robotic products that better fit the actual needs of European and American end-users and to gain insight into potential niche market for Taiwanese products. Developing products in response to market demand means more than producing single models but also the systemic integration of processing, production efficiency, product yield rates and system responsiveness. By developing a satisfactory production system, Taiwanese industrial robotics manufacturers can enhance their visibility and create new business opportunities.

Keywords

• Single-axle robots
• multi-axle robots
• differentiation strategy
• systemic integration