Taiwan’s industrial parks have long faced waste disposal challenges. The reshoring of many Taiwanese manufacturers in recent years amid the restructuring of global supply chains has added to these challenges. Taiwan’s already limited industrial waste-processing capabilities have been stretched to capacity, as is evident from the increasing cost of disposing of waste. In light of…
Faced with rising labor costs, Taiwanese companies are increasingly utilizing the latest sophisticated technologies to go beyond conventional automation to embrace Industry 4.0. A growing number of Taiwanese manufacturers are making the leap to smart factories, reflecting the worldwide trend towards industrial automation known as “Industry 4.0.” The Tsai administration has made the development of…
In addition to the New Southbound Policy, one of the central initiatives of the Tsai Ing-wen administration has been the “5+2 Innovative Industry” program focusing on cutting edge industrial sectors. The goal of forging links between those two policies was assigned to the Ministry of Economic Affairs as one of the five flagship projects under…
The Smart Machinery portion of the 5+2 Innovative Industries plan is an upgraded and expanded version of the Industry 4.0 initiative started under the Ma Ying-jeou administration. It has already seen some success in promoting Taiwan’s machinery sector, which achieved an output value of NT$1.1 trillion (US$36.7 billion) last year and is expected to pass…
Taiwan brings several important advantages to this relatively new field. In the traditional Linear Economy, raw materials are made into products using a “take, make, and dispose” approach – with any waste material thrown away after use. By contrast, the Circular Economy as defined by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, is restorative and regenerative by…
While much of the 5+2 Innovative Industrial plan remains controversial, two sectors have gained support from both major political parties: smart machinery and Asia·Silicon Valley. Smart machines mean manufacturing equipment that is intelligent, self-learning, and can communicate with other machines and human operators, transmitting data in real time. These advanced technologies are finding applications in…
