Industry Activities 

by Dean Tseng, Fastener World

With more than 30 years of history, Wei Kuen is a specialized maker of furniture hardware including nail glides, adjustment screws, and adjustment footpads. The company mainly exports products through traders, and its export accounts for 90% of total revenues. It has clients from the U.S., Australia, Europe, Latin America, etc. On the other hand, its domestic sales account for 10% of total revenues. In the past 5 years the economic environment was rather unfavorable, but the company still maintained 10% annual corporate growth. President Mr. Hong-Mau Lin explained to Fastener World Magazine, “This is because we continuously expand our product line and improve product competitiveness through leading manufacturing technology to boost our revenues.” What sets Wei Kuen aside from other peers is that it is fully dedicated to the R&D and investment in manufacturing process!

Automated Manufacturing and Customizing Dies Bring High Quality and Price Advantage

Lin stressed that the company’s strategy is to exert the advantages it already has and automate every production process. Wei Kuen entered the field of furniture hardware forming much earlier than its peers, so it can produce high quality and stable hardware and has an edge for technical upgrade. Lin came up with the notion of “specialized equipment” to automate the production line. Literally that means Wei Kuen can have its current equipment installed with other auxiliary device or equipment. For instance, the company can add a feeder and material storage equipment to its injection machine. In this way, Wei Kuen can fully automate the production line, significantly reduce workforce and lower prices. “Furniture hardware has lower production cost, so generally only few makers would invest capital to implement automation. China’s furniture hardware makers, for example, remain at the phase of manual production or semi-automated production, so their products are still unstable. On the contrary, our ability to automate production can offer speedy, high quality and price-competitive service, so we have been approached by American and European customers who shifted their orders from China to our hands.” Lin said additional installation of auxiliary device and equipment alone requires NTD 1.2 million to NTD 2 million investment cost. Sometimes that cost will double at most. Automated technology is the one advantage of Wei Kuen that peers will find hard to mimic!

Besides using the current automated equipment, in recent years Wei Kuen added smart inspection to its production line to improve the yield rate. The inspection can do an optical check for material feeding and exclude defective products in the production phase. The company uses automated visual inspection instruments to check the final products and carefully carry out final quality check for clients.

Furthermore, Wei Kuen can even customize dies for clients and place them into the automated production line. Lin mentioned Wei Kuen has the edge over other China-based furniture hardware makers of multiple product categories because it focuses on a single product category with quality guarantee. Currently it is gradually expanding categories by customizing dies to provide clients with a complete range of furniture hardware.

Last but not least, Wei Kuen is actively tapping into Southeast Asia besides its development in the U.S., Europe and Australia. Since Southeast Asia is the top destination for woodworking and furniture export, export to Southeast Asia will open up new opportunities for the company. Lin said, “We can offer not only good price and quality that can contend with China, but also better and complete service and communication. This will be a win-win for us and customers!”

Contact: Doris Lin      E-mail: info@wei-kuen.com