運動鞋代工製造公司之升級策略研究

Abstract

隨著網路與社群媒體的興起，全球運動鞋品牌商在營運模式上，也產生了巨大的改變，一方面廣為運用虛擬媒體工具、結合流行元素等前衛作法，企圖開拓更為廣大的消費族群，另一方面，一線品牌商更在生產上進行創新，往工業4.0智能化生產的路線上前進，也持續在自動化製程和製鞋材料等項目上，尋求突破與創新，從而引導全球生產夥伴進行投資與改變。這對於以台商為主的運動鞋中上游廠商而言，將可能同時面對製鞋材料改良、智能化生產升級、製造流程調整、生產技術變化、產品價格變動、同業競爭加劇等經營挑戰。 本論文的主要目的便希望透過有系統的分析，提出領導廠商進行產業升級策略的作法，期能在變動快速的環境中，建構新的競爭優勢，進而尋求經營困境的突破。本研究在進行相關理論與文獻探討後，首先針對運動鞋產業的未來發展，進行價值鏈與產業結構分析，緊接著我們借鏡全球兩大中游廠商，觀察其在過去幾年裡，經由和品牌商保持緊密合作，於接收下游所傳達的市場、產業訊息後，如何調整步伐，並利用競爭優勢，進行調整和升級，以迎接甚至超越因產業結構變化所帶來的挑戰。 經由解析與探討，我們發現，運動鞋代工業者過去賴以為生的經營方式，將面臨極大的挑戰。在下游領導廠商引領整體產業進行升級調整之際，相關業者除和產業鏈中其他業者維持彼此合作關係外，必須在各自擅長的領域與外部進行交流合作，並在製程與材料開發、應用等多方面尋求升級，才有機會勝出。透過寶成與豐泰的案例，我們進一步觀察到，它們在現有強大代工生產基礎上，分別發展與推動關於創新、多角化、垂直整合之策略，而得以在業界繼續引領風騷。據此，我們建議試圖轉變的業內廠商，參考一流廠商作法之餘，實應審時度勢、環顧全局，掌握自身優勢，依循創新原則、推動工業4.0智能生產、善用生態圈資源、發展嶄新商業模式，來面對未來的競爭。

Rising internet and social media have great impact on the way global sports shoe brand companies operate. Companies begin utilizing virtual media tools, combined with elements of pop culture, to attract potential targets and expand customer base. On the other hand, in order to guide their production partners to invest and evolve, these leading companies lead the whole industry supply chain to move to intelligent production of Industry 4.0 while continuously seek breakthroughs and innovations in advanced automated production process and progressive shoemaking materials. This new industrial wave led by downstream brand companies forces the middle and upstream companies, representing by major Taiwanese companies, of the industry to face, simultaneously, issues such as changes in shoemaking material, intelligent production upgrade, manufacturing process adjustments, changes in production technology, fluctuations on product price and fierce industry competition, among others. Our goal is to explore feasible response strategy toward such industry structural changes through systematic analysis and case study on industry upgrading. After studying related theories and literatures, we first apply value chain and industry analysis with focus on the future development of sports shoe industry. Then we study how two leading midstream producers, Pochen and Feng-Tay, respond to the changes during the past years. They have had long-term close collaborations with the leading sports shoe brands. From their experiences, we learn how they can capture market information in time for adequate adjustments in business direction and upgrading paces. Through thorough analyses, we find that the ways sports shoe manufactures operate traditionally are facing many difficulties. While downstream top companies lead the whole industry to upgrade, in order to advance in competition, sports shoe manufactures still need to maintain close relationship with outside partners in production and seek to upgrade in manufacturing process as well as material development and application. Moreover, we find that, from the in-depth case studies, building on the basis of strong OEM capacities, these two companies respectively develop and implement strategies on innovation, diversification and vertical integration to overcome market challenges. Based on our analysis, we provide recommendations to companies attempting to upgrade on how to deal with threats from changes of the environment. Learning from the experiences of the two first-tier companies, companies seeking to upgrade should closely observe changes of sports shoe industry and the trend, and further follow innovation principle, implement intelligent production, utilize resources in the ecosystem and create their own innovative business model in order to take on challenges of future competition.