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■ 彭玉樹
Company Background
The Giant Manufacturing Co. Ltd (Giant) was established in 1972 and started out mainly engaged in OEM operations for Japanese companies to produce bicycles. Through its joint and strategic cooperation with its suppliers, the company was able to curtail its production cycle. This has allowed Giant to become the largest producer of bicycles in the world. Presently, Giant manages its own brand name, which is attributed to about 65 percent of its revenues. The remaining 35 percent derives from OEM production, which includes two of the most familiar bicycle brand names in the US: Trek and Specialized. Giant’s brand name is globally ranked among world-renowned brands such as Derdy and Trek.
Balancing between ODM and OBM
After 10 years of OEM experience, Giant has already become the largest bicycle assembler in Taiwan and the second largest in the Asia-Pacific region.
In 1981, Giant Manufacturing Co. Ltd established the Giant brand in order to position its medium and long-term initiatives to create its own reputation among bicycle consumers. At the same time, Giant approached its largest customer, Schwinn, a well-known American bicycle company, to create a joint venture to promote Giant’s own brand: Giant. However, this joint effort arrangement was conclusively thwarted when Schwinn instead, partnered with a Hong Kong based-company. After this development, creation of one’s own company brand became Giant’s major concern. In 1986, Giant (Europe) was established. The company was confident that since it had experience being one of Schwinn’s largest manufacturing suppliers that they surely would have a certain recognizable level of brand awareness in the US. In addition, they believed the quality of their product was equivalent to that of Schwinn’s and, at the same time, the pricing more competitive. This would surely create a favorable consumer response. However, inability to decrease its inventory levels and excessive returns by customers damaged the company’s penetration into the European market. The result was also attributed to the lack of quality initiatives provided in the European market.
In an effort to improve quality, Giant established a single production line—IA (Industrial Art), which focused on precise industrial carvings to provide intricate products—to meet the quality demands of European consumers. At the same time, Giant did not give up its ODM business. In order to thwart the concerns of brand-name companies that Giant would use their technology or proprietary knowledge, Giant adopted a policy of separating the R&D from the ODM and OBM segments. This was accomplished by establishing different design teams with each having its own production line. Such a structure would allow the brand name players to compete with Giant’s brand name and at the same time provide GAINT with OEM production orders.
Industry Competition and Collaboration
In January of 2003, Giant and its rival Merida created a partnership with 11 Taiwanese bicycle part manufacturers to establish the "A-Team" system. This was in hopes of stimulating innovation, enhancing quality, and quickening response time in the bicycle supply chain. A-Team’s aspirations were to leverage the high quality of integrated manufacturing in order to counter the industry movement towards cost-down, low quality and ever-decreasing margins.
It had taken each company over ten years to gain the experience and expertise to produce high quality bicycles, which accounts for about 30 percent of the world market. With the A-Team structure, they were not only able to provide an integrated structure for manufacturing and assembling the bicycles, but were also able to develop new products and seek out the acquisition of foreign parts manufacturers. This arrangement created a chain of global specialty bicycle retailers.It has been forecasted that by 2006 this strategy will allow the A-Team to occupy 50 percent of the high-end bicycle market, which would be one of the biggest players in the bicycle industry.
Regarding the A-Team’s operations, Giant not only sought to make Taiwan into a strategic command center to create high-end bicycles, but also hoped this endeavor would enlarge their operational domain in order to enter other non-bicycle industries for growth. This would allow effective entrance into new consumer markets so to create new business opportunities.
（Assistant professor, Graduate Institute of International Business, National Dong Hwa University）
一、企業沿革 巨大機械於1972年成立，主要以OEM營運模式替日本廠商代工生產自行車。透過協力廠商彼此緊密合作、縮短作業流程，巨大產能得以大幅提昇並成為全球產量第一的廠商。目前巨大自有品牌業務約佔65％，代工佔35％（主要客戶Trek、Specialized是美國前三大品牌）。GIANT與DERDY 、TREK為全世界前三大自行車品牌。
二、ODM與OBM平衡之道
歷經創業期的十年，巨大躍升為台灣最大、亞洲第二的整車廠。
巨大在1981年成立捷安特公司後，便將發展自有品牌列為中長期目標，公司管理高層向美國知名品牌、同時也是公司最大客戶的Schwinn接洽，希望以合資方式推出GIANT的品牌。不過，這宗合資案隨著Schwinn與另一港商合作而正式宣告破局。從此，建立自我品牌成為巨大積極進行的工作。
1986年，捷安特歐洲公司成立後，推想其為Schwinn的最大代工廠商，在美國市場應有一定的知名度。巨大並認為產品品質與Schwinn相當而價格較為便宜的GIANT自行車，應該會有不錯的市場反應。然而，無法消化的庫存以及頻繁的退貨，顯示巨大嚴重地錯估形勢。在歐洲也因為品質因素未能順利開拓市場。
為了提升品質，巨大曾經成立IA（Industrial Art）生產線，以雕塑工業藝術精品的心態去製作自行車，幾經努力後終於達成歐洲消費者品質需求的水準。同時巨大並未放棄ODM業務，為使品牌顧客去除商品技術被代工廠商盜用之虞，巨大採ODM與OBM研製分離政策，不但設計專責小組成員不同，且分線生產，讓品牌顧客雖在市場上須與GIANT品牌競爭，仍願下單給巨大代工生產。
三、產業競合
2003年1月，巨大與競爭對手美利達，共同號召11家台灣頂尖自行車零組件製造廠商，組成A-Team，期望建立創新、高品質、快速回應的自行車供應體系。
A-Team企圖透過優質廠商整合，改變產業逐漸趨向低價格、低品質和利潤微薄的趨勢。過去個別公司努力十餘年，才拿下全球高級車市場三成的市占率，但A-Team團隊全面展開整車與零組件廠合作，共同開發新產品。A-Team並尋求購併國外零件廠及結合全球專業零售通路（SBR）等策略，預計2006年將攻下全球五成的高級車市場，屆時台灣將躋身全球最大高級自行車製造王國。
巨大不但期許藉此建構台灣成為高級車發展平台，擺脫大陸廉價自行車廠商的競爭，更希望進而擴大經營領域與非自行車行業競爭，開發新產品以及新的消費市場，創造更寬廣的商機。
（作者是國立東華大學國際企業學系助理教授）
【2005/04/10 經濟日報】