半導體通路商期末吃貨問題之探討

Abstract

半導體在過去的二十年間，對台灣的經濟成長扮演了推波助瀾的關鍵角色。在晶圓代工廠與IC設計公司的合作模式形成之後，半導體產業更呈現跳躍式的成長。近來的IT、通信產業不只搭上了半導體科技發展的順風車(成本的有效降低)，更帶動了半導體產業的創新。在產業聚落中，常常容易被忽略的半導體通路商，則扮演了連結上下游的重要角色。 由於本身必須同時面對上游(半導體供應商)與下游(IT製造商)的原因，其複雜的程度使得通路商必須擁有包含物流、金流及資訊流等完善的運籌系統。在眾多通路商必須面對的複雜運籌問題之下，我們列出四種迫切需要解決的問題。包括毛利率的下降、客戶付款天數的變長、客戶要求越來越多的服務及上游供應商要求在季末吃貨。本文主要著重在如何分析與解決通路產業特有的吃貨問題。經由這篇研究報告，我們可以發現只要不誤用或過度運用，吃貨問題可以是供應鏈中重要的一環。更進一步而言，如果代理商可以慎重的處理此問題，在市場反轉的時候，這可能會是利潤很好的一筆交易。

Semiconductor has been playing a key role of economic growth in Taiwan for last two decades. With the advent of foundry and design houses， semiconductor even grew at the speed of quantum leap. IT and communication not only take advantage of the technology of semiconductor (continuous cost-down) but also motivate the innovation of semiconductor. Among the players of aforementioned industries， an easy-neglected middleman who acts as the connection between these two parties is the semiconductor distributor. Due to the complication of distributor who has to meet the requirement of its vendors and customers， it has equipped with full-fledged logistics system including merchandise flow， fund flow， and information flow. Amongst all logistics issues distributor has to face everyday， we list four major ones distributor ought to address more deliberately. They are lower profit margin， longer payment term requiring better services， and finally vendor always asking forward buying at quarter end. This article will only elaborate how distributor deal with the forward buying issue since it is the very unique nature of distribution business. Through the research we found out that the forward buying could be part of the function within SCM as long as we do not misuse or overuse. Furthermore， if distributor can manage it deliberately it can lead to very profitable business if the market reverses.