Chang Yi Shin Redefines Standard for Automatic Faucets

Despite boasting less than 10 years of experience in making automatic faucets, or ones turned on by IR (infrared) sensor activated by body heat, Chang Yi Shin Industries Co., Ltd. has become likely the best supplier of such product worldwide. In fact, the company's innovative IR faucet redefines the standard for a truly energy-saving, user-friendly way to turn water on or off automatically.

Having started in the 1960 by making parts and components for agricultural machines and pressing parts in Taiwan's central county of Changhua, a major manufacturing base of faucets on the island, Chang Yi Shin later diversified into producing copper faucets, a segment in which it still retains prevailing reputation in Taiwan.

As in many other manufacturing sectors in Taiwan, the encroachment from China some 10 years ago diverted Chang Yi Shin onto a crossroad-forcing company president S.H. Wang to decide on a strategic shift: turn to producing automatic faucets. Such has been a corporate transition due to practical reasons for about 10 years ago the sector in Taiwan was being swamped by the dumping of cheaper China-made faucets, so it was sink or swim for Chang Yi Shin, who then, to counter such threatening trend, teamed with colleges and related institutes in Taiwan to engage in R&D of automatic faucets.

Wang acknowledged that "I had only fortitude as fuel to drive and keep us engaged, because at that time it was a steep learning curve for Taiwan faucet makers in the automatic faucet segment, especially for a relatively small company like Chang Yi Shin."

Resilience Pays Off

Being resilient may be an understatement as Chang Yi Shin did not land even a single order for such faucet for nearly a year, and yet it stuck to its business. With over a decade of consistent R&D and, perhaps more importantly, know-how accumulated via doing repairs and maintenance, the company has gathered enough expertise to full stand up on its own: Chang Yi Shin is now Taiwan's largest maker of automatic faucets on both OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and ODM (original design manufacturer) basis.

To uphold top quality, Chang Yi Shin adheres to stringent quality control measures and has invested considerably in building a clean room and integrated production lines. Such high standards have enabled the company's full line of automatic faucets to meet global safety and quality standards, including Canada's CSA, Europe's CE and FCC and America's UPC and UL. The company is notably Taiwan's only automatic faucet maker who is UL1951 approved, meaning it meets safety standards applicable to electric plumbing accessories.

Feature Product

Living up to its reputation of being the industry leader in Taiwan, the company has launched the CYS210 series Manual/Automatic Faucet, which sets a new standard in user-friendly, water-saving automatic faucet. Featuring a streamlined body, bright finish, fast response time of only 0.3 second, the CYS210, besides being also a DIY favorite with easy-installation, differs in one practical function that sets it apart from typical counterparts: Wang says that users are given an option with the CYS210-a red rectangular button atop the faucet allows choosing between manual or automatic modes. Opting for manual means the faucet works without electricity, which is ideal for seniors who may be accustomed to traditional faucets.

Chang Yi Shin received subsidies from Taiwan's MOEA to develop its CYS210 faucet as a Small Business Innovation Research project, while the product was recently honored with a Taiwan Excellence Award in 2008, showing official recognition for the company's considerable R&D effort.

ITRI Partnership

Wang revealed that his company is cooperating with the government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to develop a new automatic faucet system, which will inherit some practical functions from the CYS210 series, to adopt a mini hydroelectric generator, enabling it to operate totally independently without fixed power supply or batteries. With testing currently being carried out, the water-saving, energy-stingy faucet is scheduled to be officially launched in the second half of this year.

Standardization to Upgrade Product

Furthermore, Chang Yi Shin is also planning to develop standardized sensor modules for automatic faucet, aiming to cut production costs and sale prices. "From another viewpoint, standardized sensor modules enable users to easily do their own repairs and maintenance, which will also help automatic faucets to build greater popularity in the DIY and consumer segments," Wang explained.

While being persistent, dedicated to R&D and innovation have helped Chang Yi Shin to evolve into a successful leader in the automatic faucet sector, the company continues to pursue classic business strategies as cost cutting, market diversification to further build client base. One thing for sure, Chang Yi Shin is not one to fear earnest work to achieve even greater success.