By Owen Ferguson

Tatung's Canadian subsidiary has its new assembly line up and running.

The assembly line, which Richmond Hill, Ont.-based Tatung Co. of Canada Inc. launched in August 1999, uses specialized Shop Floor software to manage product and component flow-through and make that information available to people who need it. The system involves bar coding every component and scanning the bar codes of each component used at each stage of the assembly, testing and product return process. Thus, any components that fail, and the efficiency of all the steps in the process, are easily tracked. The line is also capable of 600 units per day output.

The software makes this real-time tracking information available not only to managers on site, but to any other party that may find it useful, via the Internet. That could include sales centres, Tatung's head office in Taiwan and even the offices of any major OEM that uses Tatung's services — which is exactly the market that the company is aiming for.

"This technology allows Tatung to focus on a high-end customer," says Edward Kuo, the company's president, adding that they are currently seeking more major OEM work specifically for the Richmond Hill facility.

Vicki Lai, Tatung's marketing manager, concurs. "This production line's purpose is to get in a new OEM market, or maybe a government bid or education bid," she says. "Our direction in the year 2000 will be to get a major OEM."

The line's automation in this regard also makes it much easier to manage and control the use of failing parts. If a lot of units are being returned, or a lot are failing in the testing phase, the responsible component is quickly identified, and can be removed from all other models currently in production with a minimum of hassle. The manufacturer of the offending part can also quickly be notified, especially if they are directly linked into the Shop Floor system themselves.

Lai claims that it makes sense for OEMs, especially ones based far from the Toronto market, to consider using the new facility. "PCs are heavy items, so it's better that we ship the components here and assemble them here, rather than shipping them in from far away, which costs a lot," she says.

Even if new OEM players cannot be convinced to use the Tatung facilities, Kuo has some other ideas about how to keep the subsidiary afloat in the Canadian market. One of these is channel sales.

Since last year, Tatung-branded computer monitors have started to move into the Canadian channel, through Etobicoke, Ont.-based Merisel Canada Inc. The company also plans to expand its channel sales in the future, focusing on more Tatung-branded peripherals, like modems and multimedia speakers.

"Currently the channel business is very tough, very competitive, and we are very new," says Kuo, "but since we are comfortable dealing with tier-1 players, we are confident we can do it."

Tatung produces other branded merchandise as well. Established in 1918, they are, as Kuo puts it, "A Taiwanese-style Panasonic. We manufacture everything — home appliances, elevators, industrial transformers."

The company is also in the monitor business. Producing everything from nine-inch monochrome monitors to 34-inch TVs, Tatung claims to be the largest 15-inch monitor company in the world. It also claims to be the first company to manufacture LCD computer displays.

The company also has a lot of friends in the industry, assembling branded products for IBM, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, NEC and Sun Microsystems.

Internationally, the 82-year-old company has US$950 million in capital and generates over US$5 billion in revenue, with over 30,000 shareholders worldwide.