Innovation and change – Enhancing our competitiveedge with digital thinking

In response to organizational restructuring and to help all colleagues further understand our company’s development strategy, we have interviewed the BU heads of building automation, industrial automation, energy infrastructure, electric vehicles, and other business units since the start of this year. We share with our readers these top managers’ thoughts and plans to integrate advanced technologies and provide total solutions for sustainable growth. In the Brand People section of this issue, we are honored to interview Delta’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Simon Chang. He provides his insight into how Delta optimizes its product solutions and business models in a highly competitive environment and rapidly changing market through innovative thinking and leveraging synergies.

Ride the trends and divide business categories  by market segment

“Welcoming change was the biggest expectation for our team this year. At our recently concluded Global Leadership Workshop, I used this phrase to encourage more than 50 mid- and high-level Delta executives from around the world,” said Simon. “In the face of global changes in population structure, political and economic environments, and lifestyles, finding the right business model is the only way to succeed.” Indeed, Delta continues to respond to changing trends. Last year, based on market segmentation, Delta restructured its organization with three business categories to drive and ensure continuous business growth.

COO Mr. Simon Chang encouraged workshop participants to broaden their vision, build strategies with business insights, prove their capabilities with performance, continuously break through stereotypes, and develop new prospects in this fast-changing world

“I hope our business units will develop product designs and solutions based on industry perspectives,” said Simon. Industries usually have many different products, which require more than double the investment in research and technology development. This is one of the reasons for our organizational restructuring. As market demand expands, Delta is consolidating its business units with similar R&D capacities and business focuses with centralized resources to actively gain market share and achieve maximum benefits.

Foresee trends with insight to speed up product launches with the physical and virtual integration of technologies and production

Simon also shared his views for Delta's future product and solution development. “As business models change, industries are actively seeking partnerships and connectivity, which is accelerating the cross-industry convergence of products and technologies.” In the case of transportation, the automobile industry is adopting artificial intelligence (AI) technology and launching driverless vehicles. For offices and lodging, IoT integrated with hardware sensing is generating immense business opportunities for building automation. Simon believes that “shortening the product development cycle, enhancing solution flexibility, and pursuing superior quality are the ultimate goals of our persistent endeavors.” To shorten product development cycles, all current technologies and domain knowhow should be modularized, digitalized and adopt the “Physical to Virtual to Physical” concept. Using simulation software for product and prototype design ensures design quality and a high yield rate. Mass production can then proceed, which will speed up product launch. In addition, Delta has excellent front-end sales teams in each region to develop flexible and customer-centric solutions. Dedicated to quality, Delta has accumulated more than 20 years of technological capabilities in the industrial automation field. Quality Diagnosis (QD) is continuously conducted to refine our automated production line and achieve our ultimate win-win goal of high flexibility and high quality.

Vertical integration - One-stop shopping sales platform to respond to market demand

As Delta gradually migrates from component provider to solution provider, Simon also shares with us his future plans for business and sales models. “As the technology advances and application scenarios change, our industry customers need more than just certain types of products. Through a single sales platform, we can quickly respond to various customer requirements.” He believes that at the initial stage of entering a new industry, a business group (BG) is responsible for establishing a sales platform. After the business finds the right track, the sales platform should be handed over to each region for subsequent operation. How to integrate resources and provide customers with timely, comprehensive and highly efficient services will be a critical issue and a challenge in the future.

Internal and external refinements to maximize branding efficiency

Simon also shared his views on brand management. “As we start with quality product solutions and develop an eco-system partner network, the Delta brand will receive a synergistic effect. Our customers also face changes in the industry eco-system and overall market environment, and they bring more cross-domain requirements. Thus, we need to provide a more diverse portfolio of products and solutions.” Customers choose Delta as their partner for our strong competitiveness. Delta continuously endeavors to strengthen our partnerships for co-prosperity in the eco-system. This pattern of cooperation helps us achieve double the results with half the work in product promotion as well as gaining more business opportunities. Knowing our advantages well, continuously enhancing Delta’s brand value, and improving efficiency are the goals we keep striving for.

 Dare to change, and keep energy and capabilities on reserve to embrace the ever-changing future

COO Simon Chang has nearly 37 years of service at Delta, starting his career as an engineer then business unit general manager, and now to chief operating officer. He is thoroughly familiar with Delta's business, market changes, and organizational operations, and he shares this observation, “In the modern age where information is exploding and changing every minute, you must dare to make changes. It’s the only way towards success.” Simon also indicated that the greatest benefit from the advance of technology is the easy access and acquisition of information. Now in the world of IoT, all technologies and knowhow are digitalized and stored in the cloud. With computation, analytics, plus AI, it’s easy to break barriers and complete tough and complicated tasks. This is why we emphasize and promote modularization, digitalization, intelligence and automation, as we aim to accelerate product introductions and launches and become a prominent leader in the market. 

At the end of the interview, COO Simon Chang left with words of encouragement for all colleagues. “Work smart and work fast. Leverage virtual-physical integration to enhance productivity and connect us to the market with the cyber speed of this digital age.”

COO Mr. Simon Chang and Delta managers attended the 2018 Taipei International Automation Exhibition