Abstract
Nowadays, many Taiwan companies and manufacturers have migrated to China seeking lower production costs and higher profit margins. Under the global development trend, China has become a main investment region for Taiwan companies. Thus, these companies need reciprocal logistic services for sharing inventory and supplies between factories in Taiwan and China, integrating information and eliminating the related barriers in global logistic operations. With advanced manufacturing and transportation capability, Taiwan industries can offer higher value-added logistic services to enhance their competitive advantages. This research surveyed and proposed four generalized cross-strait business and logistics models for Taiwan industries with China operations. Based on various properties of the business models, this research analyzes the demand of logistic operations and the establishment of logistic hubs across the strait. According to the analyses, four logistic models with logistic hubs based on the business models are proposed. This study also surveyed and used the automobile industry as an example to discuss its current business model, logistics models and operations (including shipment tracking, inventory management and order processing) with information applications of its entire supply chain. These processes are analyzed and modified to construct a logistics hub for enhancing the logistics efficiency. Finally, to benchmark the design of To-Be logistics model, a simple quantitative (cost and time) analysis is run and compared to the current operations. The results show that an information technology based logistic hub increases logistics efficiency and better enables the manufacturer to increase profits. This study provides the design and analysis of the cross-strait logistic hub, which can be referred by other Taiwan enterprises seeking similar business development. Furthermore, the research provides the directions and suggestions for automotive industry’s global logistic management.