Chiah Chyun aiming high for global status

Among leaders of the Machine Industry in Taiwan, Chiah Chyun Machinery Co. Ltd, with 23 years and a global name and reputation under its belt, has turned out superlatively made precision lathes at its factory in the Taichung Industrial Zone. With a team of five R&D engineers and almost 100 employees on the factory floor and in administration, the company continues to make waves on the global market place under the leadership of its youthful Overseas Sales Manager Jeff Huang, an engineering graduate of the University of South Australia with an MMM degree (Masters in Industrial Engineering and Manufacturing) from the University of Adelaide, in South Australia. During a recent interview by David Monson for International Metalworking News - Middle East, Huang spoke about his corporate role and upbeat approach to moving his company and the local machinery industry in a new direction. IMNA: The company has been in the business of manufacturing first-rate machinery for 23 years. How did it all begin? Huang: My Father was born locally and is pioneering engineer - certainly in the design of CNC lathes. He started up the company with five partners, all of whom were good friends. From the very beginning he aimed high and wanted nothing less than to create a Taiwan machinery company with global status, outreach and reputation for conventional bench lathes, automatic and professional CNC lathes. We were the first Taiwan company to get ISO 9002 certification for our automatic lathes and CE quality certification in Taiwan. Every Chiah Chyun lathe undergoes a whole bunch of testing procedures and doesn't leave the factory without having zero defect and absolute precision before delivery. Naturally, we take real pride in Chiah Chyun's quality and technical capability recognised and sought after by customers both on the domestic and overseas markets. IMNA: So has Huang senior, the company founder, gone into semi retirement and left the administration of the company to yourself? Huang: You could say so. Of course I'm second generation and, I guess, you could also say I've more or less taken over the company, building on my Dad's considerable achievements but with a few different perspectives on marketing our image and machinery. Times have changed, my Father recognises that, and so do I. You've got to move with them and that's what I'm doing. IMNA: How? Huang: Quite a long story; but in a nutshell, through putting another spin on the whole concept of manufacturing and marketing "made in Taiwan" machinery like ours. Of course, I grew up in this world of machinery and I couldn't imagine doing anything else than keeping our company flag flying and pursuing our reputation for up-market, precision machinery at a fair price. During the past 12 years or so I've travelled a lot - to places like UK, Korea, China, Japan, Germany and the U.S. I've taken a closer look at manufacturing practices and techniques in these countries and come up with my own vision for the future, which is the reason why, as a Taiwanese, I'm doing so many different things. IMNA: Like what for instance? Huang: Quite simply I want to jump out of the mould. I've been in the business for ten years now and I've got my eyes trained on the future, to the next ten years down the line. If you take a look at the Industry at this moment of time in Taiwan you realise that almost all companies are making similar machines. The Germans and Japanese, renowned for their quality, have traditionally been quite a long way ahead of the rest of us. So equalling their achievement and even surpassing them has to be our goal. For far too long we've been thinking of this as a purely price market-- cutting price. But you can't just go on cutting price if you want to maintain a standard of quality. Just look at the many famous American machine brands that are made in Taiwan. Of course, we can come up with gNike Sneakers