Taiwan exhibitors to prepare for EMO 2017

EMO Hannover, a world largest premier trade fair for the metalworking sector, will be held from the 18^th -23^rd, September. The 2017 show has again break its record – it attracted 1950 companies from 42 countries calculating up to March – and the exhibit space is as vast as 160000 square meter this year. In 2013, it attracted 143000 professional visitors from 110 countries, the organizers look forward to welcome a growing number of international visitors in 2017.

Being the last stop in Asia for promoting EMO, the organizers: Deutsch Messe and VDW (German machine tools association) held a preshow press conference at Taipei on 6^th of April at Le Meridien . The representatives were Dr. Wilfried Schäfer (Managing director of VDW) and Oliver Frese (CEO of Deutsch Messe Group) respectively. The Taiwan speakers were Chairman Chu from Fair Friend Group, and the general secretary of TAMI (Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry) Wang.

At EMO 2017, Taiwan will be under the spotlight because it will send 179 companies (the second largest number of exhibitors among all countries), which will encompass 12768 m² ground for the booths. Furthermore, Fair Friend Group will occupy the entire 14 Hall to showcase all the equipment under the Group – with 5618 m² of exhibit space, the company has become the single company with largest space in EMO’s history. This astonishing step FFG takes at the biggest metal working fair in the world indicates the critical role of Taiwan manufacturers, the Chairman Chu also hopes that its successful experience in the industry could give Taiwan companies enough confidence when operating internationally.

The General Secretary of TAMI Wang outlined in his speech on the recent development of Taiwan’s machineries, especially in the field of intelligent manufacturing. He praised the exceptional result from companies who exhibited at TIMTOS 2017 – local companies in Taiwan completely presented their strong involvement in Industrie 4.0, IIOT, and other automated solutions. On the topic of intelligent manufacturing, Wang is in the belief that TIMTOS 2017 has outperformed many other international expos. Thus, Wang look forward to seeing this energy flow into EMO in September, and show the world its outstanding development in future manufacturing.

Dr. Wilfried Schäfer mentioned in the press conference of the important partnership of Germany and Taiwan on trade. Taiwan’s machine tool export to Germany is 4% of Taiwan’s total export, giving it the 5^th place of export destination. The main equipment shipped to Germany are metal cutting machine tools and integrated machining centers. At the same time, Dr. Wilfried Schäfer said EMO 2017 will emphasize on flexible manufacturing and techniques that will suit the future production. EMO will be consisted with different display areas and conferences. The Industrie 4.0 theme shall be a wonderful opportunity that resonates Taiwan company’s recent focus on intelligent manufacturing. In the conferences, topics such as integrating production processes, industrial digitalization and others will be intensively discussed during the fair. Other display areas such as aerospace metal cutting production chain targets visitors who are looking for total solutions (ranging from simulation technology, production surveillance, and controllers) in a particular industry, or cross-disciplinary applications. Apart from focuses surrounding actual machining technology, VDW is carrying out an industrial security conference at EMO to highlight the urgency of machinery manufacturers in embedding safe mechanisms for ensuring operators’ safety. The conference will look into different standards and professional knowledges that will help secure work place safety.

Oliver Frese thanked the exhibitors from Taiwan, he stressed that EMO 2017 would definitely be another fruitful fair, and he encouraged more industry professions to head to EMO in September.

After the conference, Ringier interviewed Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, following is an excerpt of the interview.

Ringier: In the metal working field, Germany and Taiwan has a high resemblance regarding the business model of SME, and family ownership. What is Germany’s successful experience in integrating resources, and providing these SMEs routs for sustainable development that helped them become global top machine builders?

Dr. Wilfried Schäfer: In Europe, a lot of machine builders are consisted of SMEs. Apart from cultivating strong capacity of R&D and management, there are a few keys of prosperous development of German companies. First, the assistance from the government – German government (along with research institutions) provides assistance regarding technological foundation, leads and encourages companies to build their own innovation strategy. Secondly, maintaining a tight industrial link. German has very vibrant and active unions, these unions work as ‘study group organizations’. For example, members from organization for grinders/controller/robotics gather every 6 months to discuss the general challenges, technological progress of the particular field, the inclination of industrial trend and so on. This process of knowledge exchange is the key for improvement. It helps the manufacturers stay in line and updated with the latest technology or market demands. Finally, the success of German family business/ SMEs is built on their determination to internationalize their sales. Disregard of the company size, all German manufacturers recognize the importance to export to different areas in order to diversify their markets, which helps them go through volatile economic shifts. They do so by attending major global trade shows, domestic shows. These are the experiences Taiwan can refer to.

Ringier: how do you think Taiwan can cooperate with Germany in the field of manufacturing?

Dr. Wilfried Schäfer: First of all Taiwan produces high value-added standardized machines as well as particular-purpose machines, these are not as popular among European manufacturers. Thus, these machines will have great potential in supplying the Europe and German market. Furthermore, Taiwan’s ICT industry is well developed and sophisticated, if merging ICT and mechanical expertise the country can then build equipment that suits future production. We can anticipate the cooperation between Taiwan and Germany in this field.

Ringier: What is the buyers structure at EMO?

Dr. Wilfried Schäfer: The largest category of buyers look for automotive related equipment (over 30%), the next biggest number of buyers search for general machineries (30-25%), and the next categories are aerospace, medical, and electronics or tablet devices. Asia manufacturers usually have stronger competitive edge in manufacturing electronic/ tablets/ smart phone devices, so the visitors can pay more attention in these fields.

Left to right: TMBA General Secretary Huang,  TAMI General Secretary Wang、FFG CEO Mr. Chu, VDW Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Deutsche Messe AG Mr. Oliver Frese