Chuen Jaang Precision Industry Co., Ltd.

precision turned parts

After undergoing successful business expansion almost every year since its establishment in 1982, the ISO 9001-certified Chuen Jaang Precision Industry Co., Ltd., one of the most comprehensive and leading suppliers of precision turned parts in Taiwan, has grown into a world-class player, and yet its expansion continues unabated in both product diversification and operation scale.

The company is truly versatile in its field in Asia, capable of producing a wide range of turned parts on top-end equipment and boasting years of experience in lathing, grinding, and milling. Chuen Jaang's competitiveness is due to the firm's Asia-leading R&D and manufacturing/processing capability, as well as its integrated strength achieved through steady vertical and horizontal integration, combining with one upstream cold-forging manufacturing and another four precision turned-parts makers, each a specialist.

"With considerable experience and know-how," claims company general manager Hsieh Ming-sheng, "Chuen Jaang can produce almost anything as long as a material is within our expertise."

World-class Manufacturing Capability

Chuen Jaang is backed by world-class capability and competitiveness: specializing in bar-feed lathing within a range between 0.3mm and 51mm diameter bars, as well as other products under 450mm with non-bar-feed production.

The company has Asia's thinnest grinding capability to within 0.03mm (half the diameter of a hair), making it a key supplier of high-precision parts for watches, waterjet equipment, micro filters for semiconductor equipment etc. And the company can mill items with maximum length of 1100mm and width of 600mm.

Chuen Jaang's outstanding processing capability, coupled with the firm's superior cost advantages achieved by high degrees of automation, has helped the firm to broaden its business scope , with customers from wide-ranging industries finally deciding on Chuen Jaang after searching for suitable suppliers.

Chuen Jaang's products are adopted in numerous applications, especially in auto and motorcycle parts, specialized tools, electronic components, aerospace parts, and high-tech industrial applications. In recent years, Chuen Jaang has successfully tapped into the supply chain of top-end semiconductor manufacturing and inspection equipment segments by supplying an increasing number of precision parts.

According to Hsieh, Chuen Jaang's superior manufacturing ability and product quality have attracted more and more local high-tech manufacturers in Taiwan, hence helping the company to increase market share and cross extremely high technical threshold. Accordingly, the company is expected to gradually replace more and more imported counterparts.

The next step, Hsieh says, is to raise the production ratio of super-precision parts for high-tech equipment, which will continue to account for increasingly higher share of corporate revenue and may soon generate excellent sales when foreign high-tech equipment suppliers discover Chuen Jaang's high-quality at reasonable prices.

Steady Investments

One of the keys to Chuen Jaang's major success is, according to Hsieh, non-stop investment in equipment renewal, R&D, and business expansion.

The ambitious general manager points out that his company has invested hundreds of million NT-dollars to buy top-end equipment from advanced nations such as Switzerland, the U.S., Japan, Germany, etc., with such sum steadily increased to renew equipment and manufacturing techniques.

But, according to Hsieh, equipment purchase is only the first step because Chuen Jaang does not want to be limited by the precision-level and standards available from equipment suppliers, and therefore tries to maximize the mechanical precision level as well as the yield and efficiency.

Hsieh cited an instance of his company once having bought eight high-end grinders from a Swiss supplier which stressed the narrowest tolerance at 0.1mm, with which Chuen Jaang managed to raise the precision level to within 0.03mm without damaging or wearing the machine.

The secret to such precision enhancement, according to Hsieh, is due to Chuen Jaang's years of know-how and expertise in setting up jigs and fixtures during the manufacturing processes rather than the inherent mechanical features. "Chuen Jaang's core competitiveness results from our dedication to constant investment in R&D and unmatched know-how, as well as strength built into every employee's R&D concept," Hsieh claims.

The general manager said that a modest sized precision turned-parts manufacturer in Taiwan, in the early years, could not easily buy high-precision machinery due to insufficient capital. But now, he continued, the decisive factor is not affordability but proper use, with such equipment playing a key part to enhance global competitiveness.

"High-quality products are a result of strong technical capability, top-end equipment, and, more importantly, better quality control achieved via employee training, corporate governance, internal management, education etc., all of which require intensive and steady investment."

Using exacting measurement and inspection equipment is another major reason for the company to achieve high precision levels. The firm has installed all kinds of top-end measuring, testing, and inspection instruments, including the most advanced three-dimension (3D) measurement machine, micro Vickers hardness testers, Rockwell hardness testers, 2.5D profile projectors, surface roughness inspection machine, instruments for metallurgical microscope and all kinds of measurements etc.

Continuous Expansion

Chuen Jaang's other effective strategy is to invest in steady operating scale by continuously spinning off new subsidiaries, in which the parent firm retains about 50% stake. So far, Chuen Jaang has spun off four subsidiaries in the turned-parts industry and one in up-stream cold-forging manufacturing. Overall, the ever-expanding Chuen Jaang Group employs over 200 staffers, with each subsidiary being a specialist in various fields but in the same business.

"Chuen Jaang's ever-expansion strategy, in fact, is a concept of continuous investments that can expand capacity, scale and expertise, and upgrade technical level, with each member in the satellite system boasting excellent production flexibility and competitiveness as a team."

Hsieh is the key supervisor who oversees each staffer daily, either helping some to become the man-in-charge for spun-off subsidiaries or promoting them within Chuen Jaang.

Wide Product Range

As a leading supplier of turned products, Chuen Jaang supplies various products for numerous applications, especially auto and motorcycle parts, precision electronic parts, hydraulic parts, parts for tooling industry, universal clamps, and many others. Much of its output is either directly or indirectly shipped to a long list of global industries and consumer product brands.

Chuen Jaang is a well-known second-tier auto parts supplier to both local and foreign automakers, offering engine shafts, precision gears, various forged parts etc. Thanks to the firm's superior ability in precision parts and years of experience in auto-parts business, the firm is also the key supplier of automotive cruise-control modules to a global, Taiwan-based automotive-electronics brand.

The firm is also one of the most important suppliers of high-end motorcycle parts to major powered two-wheeler (PTW) and all terrain vehicle (ATV) brands on the island. Currently, it supplies oil pumps, tensioners, retainers, push rods, dwell pins, cam shafts, many engine parts etc.

Chuen Jaang also specializes in precision electronic parts and supplies products to many major global brands. For example, the firm supplies most of the key parts to some point-of-sale equipment models developed by VeriFone, a global leader in secure electronic payment technologies, and these models won a global market share of 80%. Other products supplied include precision connectors and various kinds of small components.

The versatile Chuen Jaang is also a key supplier of precision hydraulic parts used in a wide range of machinery, equipment, and transportation vehicles, including the brake system for the Taiwan High Speed Rail cars.

However, according to Hsieh, precision parts for packaging and inspection equipment for high-tech industries will be the major driver of Chuen Jaang's future sales.

Vision

After growing and expanding for years, Hsieh points out that Chuen Jaang's next goal is to work with global partners to jointly produce finished products rather than only parts, a goal the company is ready to achieve by having bought a large property.