跨國公司供應鏈調整模式及其對運輸服務型態之影響--以資訊電子業跨國公司為例

Abstract

隨著經濟自由化、顧客消費習慣改變、以及產品生命週期愈漸縮短等因素，許多製造業廠商在降低成本、提昇服務水準的考慮下，紛紛調整其原有的供應鏈作業，以期維持企業的競爭力，並獲得經營的最大利潤。本研究之目的即希望藉由對廠商供應鏈調整模式的分析，探討供應鏈的變化趨勢及其對不同型態貨物運輸服務可能造成的衝擊。 首先，本研究選擇台灣地區的資訊電子（跨國）公司進行問卷調查及面訪，深入瞭解跨國公司供應鏈的變化情形、國際分工的原因、及其製造與物流作業調整的作法。根據問卷調查及實際訪談所得資料的分析發現（1）我國資訊電子公司專業化垂直分工及國際分工的情形相當明顯；（2）資訊電子公司供應鏈的調整作法，隨著產品生命週期的不同階段而有所不同；（3）對於貨物運輸服務的需求而言，跨國公司在供應鏈的調整過程中，對速度的要求愈來愈高，換言之，對於空運服務的需求有增加的趨勢，而對海運服務的需求則趨於減少；（4）當跨國公司決定前往海外投資後，設廠地點國際運輸服務的可獲得性，是一項重要的選址考慮因素。 由於跨國公司供應鏈的變化係一漸進式的調整過程，因此，本研究針對跨國公司不同的營運情境，分別構建了多個供應鏈調整模型，供跨國公司進行供應鏈調整時參考。同時，藉由簡例測試驗證了本研究所構建之模型的確具備了正確性與可行性。供應鏈調整模型不但可供跨國公司進行不同規模的供應鏈調整作業，也可分析在不同情境下，跨國公司對於不同型態運輸服務的選擇決策。 本研究發現跨國公司供應鏈的長期調整策略可在空間上採「分散」方式進行調整，而短期策略可在時間上採「推遲」方式進行調整。空間上的調整將影響貨運需求的起點，而時間上的調整則會影響跨國公司對運輸服務的選擇。市場需求波動所引起的問題無關供應鏈作業與活動的調整，建議以引進ＩＴ技術，增加供應鏈資訊透明度的方式加以克服。有關跨國公司國際分工對運輸產業的影響，本研究亦有討論。此外，本研究並就供應鏈調整對製造業跨國公司、運輸與物流業者、以及政府部門產生之連帶影響，提出因應策略與建議。

Owing to the globalization of industry, the explosion in customer services and product life-cycle compression, most manufacturers have been adjusting the processes and activities of their supply chains to remain competitive and optimize total profit. The aim of this study was to explore the issues surrounding the changes in manufacturing supply chains and the consequential impact on the service pattern of freight transportation. A questionnaire to survey multinational corporations (MNCs) in Taiwanese information technology (IT) industry was designed and conducted to recognize in detail the changes in supply chains of manufacturers, the trends and causes of the international division of labour, and the susceptible adjustment of manufacturing and logistics strategies. Surveys and interviews led to the conclusions that (1) vertical integration and international division of labour are very conspicuous among Taiwanese IT firms, (2) there are different strategies of supply chain adjustment at various stages of the product life-cycle, (3) with the transformation of the supply chain, manufacturers require swifter transportation services, that is, the demand for air transportation may increase and the demand for sea transportation may decrease, and (4) once the firms decide on foreign investment, the availability of international freight transportation services becomes one of the major evaluation criterion for factory offshore relocation. Since the changing of MNCs’ supply chain is a step-by-step developing process, this study has proposed some supply chain adjustment models based on various business operation scenarios of MNCs. Those models can be adopted by MNCs to deal with activities and processes arrangement. A small global supply chain consisting of three vendors, five manufacturing factories, three warehouse centers and three marketplaces was chosen to verify the accuracy and usability of the model. The proposed models could not only adjust the supply chain activities and processes of MNCs, but also analyze the MNCs’ choices of transportation service pattern in various scenarios. In general, this study discovered that the concept of both centralization/diversification in “space” and postponement/speculation in “time” do exist in the supply chain adjustments of the MNCs. MNCs could use the space “diversification” strategy as their long-term supply chain adjustment method and use the time “postponement” strategy as their short-term supply chain adjustment method. Applying advanced IT technologies to heighten the information transparency of supply chain operation process will improve the demand fluctuation problem. Furthermore, the impacts on freight transportation service pattern caused by MNCs international collaboration as well as the recommendations for the transportation carriers and government are also discoursed in this study.