News

30 June 2010

 

Edwards opens new Taiwan service centre and sales office

Vacuum and exhaust-management equipment maker Edwards Ltd of Crawley, UK has opened a new 5000m2 service centre and sales office in Jhunan Town’s Kuan Yian Industrial Park in MiaoLi County, Taiwan to support customers in the industrial, solar, semiconductor, flat-panel and rapidly growing LED sectors. All staff at its existing premises in Toufen will transfer to the new larger facility, which is closer to the firm’s major Taiwanese customers.

Edwards supplies dry and turbo pumps to the 300mm semiconductor fab, flat-panel and silicon solar industries in Taiwan, with more than 20,000 pumps installed. The firm also provides abatement products to Taiwan’s semiconductor, flat-panel and solar industries, and has installed more than 1200 gas abatement systems locally.

Edwards says that its Taiwanese business has had a successful start to 2010, with record orders already received from all market sectors, and the new facility will help to further develop the business. It will initially employ about 180 staff and provide field service, sales, customer care and remanufacturing services for Edwards’ products as well as supporting solar customers across Asia.

“Our new facility includes a state-of-the-art re-manufacturing and service operation, providing improved turnaround time to customers, and also enables us to hold support stock and spares closer to our users,” says Roger Wu, Edwards’ country manager for Taiwan.

The facility has been designed and constructed using lean manufacturing methodology. The use of Value Stream Mapping and understanding of TAKT time (the pace of production required to meet customer demand) has led to the development of high-volume multi-product flow lines which remove workflow waste and provide a platform for further growth and flexibility.

The centre already has obtained ISO14001 and two EHS certificates, and is working towards achieving ISO9001:2008 quality certification in 2011. Environmentally friendly features of the building include low-power-consumption lights that switch off automatically, and over 80% of its water is recycled.

“By 2012, at least 60% of Edwards’ business will be in Asia,” says Neil Lavender-Jones, president Asia Pacific for Edwards. “Taiwan is a key market for us, and our investment in this new service centre demonstrates our commitment to our Taiwanese customers,” he adds. “By having a dedicated service facility in Taiwan we will be able to provide a faster turnaround for our products, which is vital to our customers in these high-growth sectors.”

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