Competing Strategy for Future Manufacturing: Case Study of Six Leading Manufacturers

• Main Authors: Yasuo Miyauchi, 宮內康雄
• Other Authors: 吳學良
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/tjmw64

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 國際企業管理組 === 105 === Information and communications technology (ICT) development has started to change the ways of manufacturing significantly. In 2013, the German government issued its final report of the Industrie 4.0 program to secure the future of the German manufacturing industry by strengthening cyber-physical systems, which represent the convergence of the physical and the virtual worlds. In view of the foregoing trend and industrial advancement, the author conducted case studies of six leading manufacturing companies in order to analyze and examine each company’s background, its process of transformation, the challenges it has encountered, and strategic actions for the future. Based on various sources of evidence, the thesis comes up the first finding that General Electric and Siemens had almost completed their digital transformations by late 2016, with software development and software talent acquisitions as the key drivers. They produced open cloud-based analytical tools, which are intended to secure their leading positions in the new digital era of the Internet of Things (IoT). The next finding is that the six case companies are moving in the same direction. The automotive industry is developing driverless vehicles, which equip advanced IoT and AI technologies, with production systems that utilize Industrie 4.0 concepts and is becoming the forerunner of cyber-physical systems. Finally, future manufacturing is characterized by the three communalities: its products or solutions will be software-driven and internet-connected, and all its products and production processes are embedded in the ecosystem. Investment and acquisition of software talents are the key strategic actions for enabling digital transformation and building a competitive organization for future manufacturing.