Trend

During the first half of 2022, the consumer electronics market has been affected by changes in home economic practices, the epidemic in China, international tensions, and high inflation. On top of this being the traditional off-season, the demand for items such as PCs, laptops, TVs, and smartphones has cooled significantly.

Supply chain management (SCM) is the management of the flow of goods and services and includes all processes that transform raw materials into final products. It involves the active streamlining of a business's supply-side activities to maximize customer value and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

With the growth of the electric vehicle market in 2021 having exceeded expectations, we will review several major events that occurred in 2021, and address key trends worth watching in 2022.

The island's hand tool sector has a centralized industry hub located in central Taiwan, where big-name companies, along with small-and-medium enterprises and subcontractors across upstream and downstream supply chains, co-exist to fulfill the world's hand tool orders. International policies, along with manufacturing advantages, has helped the Taiwan hand tool industry reach sales of NTD$140 billion in 2021. The current trajectory indicates projected continued growth for at least another decade.

In recent years, the USA bicycle industry has experienced a slow, steady growth amid a series of disruptions. Between 2014 and 2019, dollar sales grew at a compound rate of 3 percent. With each passing year, consumers spent more, propelling impressive investment in burgeoning new segments such as gravel, E-bikes, composite bikes, event bikes, and kids’ bikes. At the same time, ongoing structural shifts spurred digital distribution models also garnering a share of overall revenues.

Plastic rubber has long been one of the important raw materials used for medical equipment and pharmaceutical packaging. With the vigorous development of the industry, various high-performance plastics and technologies for medical devices have emerged. In addition to traditional medical plastics, such as PP, PVC, PE, and silicone rubber, which are commonly used in the medical device industry, some high-performance materials have been developed that are important to the medical device industry.

Smart manufacturing utilizes advanced manufacturing technology and provides solutions through AI, the Internet of Things, big data, cloud, edge computing, and other technologies to substitute the production process with an intelligent manufacturing model and customize products according to customer needs.

From cars to computers, coffee machines to children’s toys, almost everything we use on an everyday basis is produced by manufacturers. So manufacturing is often described as a key building block of society. Manufacturing has evolved over the centuries, from human-centered methods to machine-reliant assembly lines to the highly automated factories we’re beginning to see more of today. As industry continues to evolve, numerous trends are combining to transform manufacturing. These quickly developing new trends have emerged so fast that they have been referred to as “Industry 4.0.”

Through the assistance and support of the service industry, we can add value to the manufacturing industry, enhance the international competitiveness of the manufacturing industry, and create greater comparative advantages and profit space.

In the next 10 years, the global auto industry will face the most significant change in history, with electric vehicles replacing internal combustion engine vehicles.