從交易成本之觀點探討專業晶圓代工廠關係行銷策略

Abstract

在全球資訊產業蓬勃發展，整合元件大廠產能不斷釋出與委外代工趨勢下，前景看好的專業晶圓代工產業同時也吸引更多廠商進入；隨著產業競爭的白熱化，製造成本的降低不再是決定代工廠競爭力的主要因素，代工廠唯有與客戶建立長期合作關係，才能建立穩定的獲利來源。而買賣雙方在進行交易時，會納入除了價格之外的許多無形交易成本決定交易合作對象。因此本研究首先分析委託晶圓代工的顧客與受委託的專業晶圓代工廠商兩造間之交易成本類型，並從交易成本的角度探討專業晶圓代工產業的兩家領導廠商如何採取差異化關係行銷策略以維持與客戶之間的長期合作關係、建立有效的進入障礙和競爭優勢。 在代工廠與顧客兩造之交易成本類型分析結果顯示：代工廠的顧客皆重視代工廠是否有充足的產能以及穩定的產品品質良率。IDM相對於Fables而言對於代工廠是否會抄襲其產品製程之設計有較多的顧慮，並因避免自建晶圓廠所需投入的龐大資本及風險而選擇將部份製造活動外包給專業晶圓代工廠；而Fabless由於產業競爭激烈，因此較IDM更重視晶圓代工廠生產週期以及交期等影響產品上市時機的非價格因素。此外，由於IC產品交易過程複雜，代工廠是否擁有足夠的產能、是否能提供完整的生產服務以及交易雙方長期合作之經驗與默契，提高顧客的轉換成本。 比較個案廠商關係行銷策略異同之結果顯示，台積電與聯電分別根據其定位而採取差異化之關係行銷策略主要為： (1) 台積電採取獨資建廠與自主研發的穩定策略，用累積的經營實力吸引並建立客戶之信賴以維持雙方長期之合作關係。 (2) 聯電採取與客戶合資建廠及技術結盟等槓桿策略，成功開發客源並使客戶因資產專屬性所產生之轉換成本建立雙方之長期合作關係。

Along with fierce competition, efficiency is on longer the sufficient condition of pure IC foundries’ competitiveness. IC foundry could not make a stable profit but establish long-term relationship with clients. During transactions, buyer and seller usually consider lots of intangible cost in addition to price, and choose to deal with ones which make the transaction with lowest total cost. This study first categorized various transaction cost what between IC foundry and its clients, including IDM companies and Fabless companies. Considering the two leading Taiwan IC foundry companies’ different customer relationship marketing strategies to attract potential customers, to lock-in present clients and to establish effective entry-barrier and to sustain competitive advantage, and then further explored with a case study approach. Fabless and IDM companies consider the same factors differently. In addition to considering capacity and yield of the foundry services, IDMs pay more attention to their IPRS especially process technologies than Fabless firms do. For avoiding the risk of building IC manufacturing factory, IDMs prefer to outsourcing the manufacturing activities. Because of severe competition of the industry, Fabless firms are more concerned with the factors which affect their products’ time-to-market and time-to-volume more than IDMs, namely manufacturing cycle-time and delivery time. As the whole process of IC product manufacturing is so complicated that customers would not change their cooperated foundry firms easily. Cusomters’ switching is also affected by capacity availability, turn-key services and their previous cooperative experiences between the foundry companies. TSMC and UMC have adopted differentiation strategies according to individual competitive advantages (1)TSMC adopted a focus strategy on continuously improving its manufacturing strength and customer services. (2)UMC adopted collaborative strategies such as forming joint ventures and technological cooperation with clients to leverage customer resources successfully to establish long-term relationship with clients.